Series 8: Obamas take two of three from Teddys

Obamas 12-7, Teddys 9-10

Pitcher use: Nichols and Waddell need three games, Ryan and Matthewson need two games, Johnson and Alexander need one game. Walsh and McGinnity pitched one inning in finale, Joss two.

Game One: Obamas 3, Teddys 2
WP: W. Johnson (3-1)
LP: Alexander (1-4)

Game Two: Teddys 7, Obamas 5
WP: Matthewson (1-3)
LP: Gomez (0-2)
Save: Bender (3)
HR: Foxx 2 (6)

Game Three: Obamas 6, Teddys 4
WP: Nichols (3-1)
LP: Waddell (1-2)
Save: Walsh (3)
HR: Mantle (6), Lombardi (5)

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The opening game of this series was marked by the unusual and the dramatic.

Down 2-1 in the fourth inning, the Teddys got Honus Wagner aboard on an error by Charlie Gehringer. Tris Speaker drew a walk. But Nap Lajoie killed the rally by hitting into a triple play, the first triplet-killing of the season.

With the score 3-2 in the ninth, Wagner led off with a triple against Walter Johnson. He tried to score on Speaker's short fly to center, only to be cut down by Mickey Mantle. Lajoie then clouted a triple of his own, but the Big Train fanned Sam Crawford to end the game.

Johnson allowed seven hits and one walk while fanning five for the complete game win, while Pete Alexander struggled in the first two innings, allowing two runs and stranding another five runners in those frames, but settled for a strong eight innings -- eight hits, two earned runs, one walk and four strikeouts.

The Teddys tried to run away with game two, literally. They stole three bases in the first inning against the battery of Nolan Ryan and Mickey Cochrane and added two more in the second. More important, they scored five runs.

But Ryan settled in for five shutout innings after that. Cochrane threw out Eddie Collins on a sixth steal attempt, and Ryan picked off Home Run Baker.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Foxx cranked a two-run homer in the sixth off Christy Matthewson and added a three-run bomb in the seventh to tie the score. But that was a good as it got for the Obamas, as Lefty Gomez allowed single runs in the eighth and ninth.

Game three went to the Obamas on the strength of a five-run third highlighted by Ernie Lombardi's grand slam off Rube Waddell. Kid Nichols shut out the Teddys through six innings but needed help from Ed Walsh, who finally ended things by getting Wagner to ground into his third 6-4-3 DP of the game.

Cobb was 5-for-11 in the series with two doubles, two steals, three runs and two RBIs. Lajoie was 4-for-12 with a pair of triples.