October 3, 1933
vs
World Series, Game 2
Game 2's pitching matchups revealed a fatal flaw in the White Sox' setup. Although Bob Hinman was more than enough to keep them afloat in the regular season, their #2 starter, Brian East, was barely a .500 pitcher for them this year. It's true that he cut his earned run average by nearly a run after moving from the Red Sox to the White Sox (3.26 vs 2.29) but aside from a 22-win 1932 season the man had done little to establish himself as the kind of hurler who could justify starting the second game of a World Series. His career record going into this matchup: 85 wins, 82 losses.
Ryan Rush was also somewhat controversial as a Game 2 choice due to his dwindling ability to get batters out with his pitches. He got just 20 men out on strikes all season, and while his opponents' batting average a solid .262, critics had the temerity to blame this on luck as much as anything else. It's true that if you divided his season stats in half, you end up with the numbers of a guy who could play on the All-Star Team if he played a middle infield position:
600 ABs, 157 H, 25 2B, 5 3B, 8 HR, 65 RBI, 50 BB
Still, this is not any mean hurler. Rush is a 353 game winner who had also, at the beginning of the Series, started 3 postseason games, more than anyone else on the club save the Giants' Game 1 starter John Burns.
East ran into some early trouble, walking RF Eddy McCrary with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first to score CF and NL MVP candidate Mason Taylor. McCrary was around again with the bases loaded in the 3rd, this time bringing in LF John Montague with a soft grounder to 1B Bill Wolf.
The next inning, Ryan Rush felt a tug in his abdomen and was unable to continue. This wasn't the worst news for the Giants, as this gave them the excuse to throw the game to their bullpen, which was easily the best in baseball. MR Ernie Southwick allowed the White Sox to tie the score up immediately but settled down and closed the door on the visitors before they could do anything else in the 4th.
John Montague blasted a solo homerun in the bottom of the 5th to give the Giants back the lead. Southwick and his replacement MR Takehide Saito shut the Sox down for the next couple innings but they proved that they were not done yet against Giants closer Tom Kelly. Bob Wolf hit a long fly ball and allowed CF George Echols to score the tying run, then 4 batters later C Ashley Wetherell singled in SS Mark Melton for the go-ahead score. At that, it took a fine throw by CF Mason Taylor to cut down Hunter Sunday and keep the Sox lead to just the one run.
But the damage had been done and this allowed the Sox to bring out their own wild card, bullpen ace Mark "Zoom Zoom" Jacobs. Jacobs, who had been acquired midseason from the Cubs, throws extreme heat and struck out nearly a batter an inning with the White Sox (19 in 21.1). He swept in and recorded the last six outs of the game, tying the Series at a game apiece.
