Читать книгу Summer of Shadows - Jonathan Knight - Страница 19

As Cleveland’s 1954 opener reached the middle innings, Wynn got the support he needed. The Indians shattered the scoreless game in the fourth when Wally Westlake and George Strickland, neither a proven power hitter, blasted back-to-back home runs that each traveled more than 400 feet. Chicago tied it at two in the fifth, but the Indians exploded for six runs in the next four innings to notch an 8–2 victory. For the day, Cleveland rapped out fifteen hits. If this opening-day onslaught was indicative of what the Indian offense would provide its Big Three, the season might prove to be a memorable one after all. Lopez was so impressed he labeled these Indians the best team he’d ever managed.

“Presumably they’ll lose a few before the course is run,” Gordon Cobbledick wrote, “but on the evidence presented today they’ll also win one or two.” Things looked even rosier the following afternoon when the Tribe collected fourteen hits and scored four early runs to take control of the game, then turned a key double play to snuff out a Chicago rally in the eighth to secure a 5–3 triumph for Bob Lemon.

There may have been 152 games yet to play, but the Indians would return home all alone in first place—exactly where a team from Cleveland should reside.