Edward Achorn

(A daily diary of the greatest season a major-league pitcher ever had.)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Boston Beaneaters ace Charlie Buffinton needs a break after pitching 11 innings on Saturday. For the rematch Monday afternoon at the Messer Street Grounds, the Red Stockings bring out their former ace Jim Whitney, still struggling with a sore arm. “With Whitney in the ‘box,’” the Boston Globe notes, “a stubborn fight was looked for, as he appeared to be in good trim.”

Tired or not, Charlie Radbourn insists on starting again for the Providence Grays, warming up slowly and bracing himself for more pain. The day brings out 2,895 fanatics.

Boston draws first blood in the bottom of the first, when Radbourn uncharacteristically has a hard time finding the plate. He walks Ezra Sutton, who steals second base. Radbourn’s wild pitch sends him to third, and a second errant pitch sends him home, prompting the visiting fanatics from Boston and Fall River to howl with delight.

“But while they were in ecstasy in this inning, they were simply wild in the second,” when the Grays fail to score after putting men on second and third with no one out.

In the third inning, the Grays have better luck. Providence’s Paul Hines and Jack Farrell lead off with singles, and then pull off a daring double steal. Bearing down, Whitney coaxes Joe Start to pop out to third, and strikes out Radbourn, but Cliff Carroll slaps a sharp grounder up the middle to drive in both runners and give Providence a 2-1 lead.

In a game featuring such superb pitching and fielding, the Boston Globe observes ruefully, “the scoring of one run meant fully as much mischief as a half dozen would in a game between any other two clubs in the League.”

The Grays add more mischief in the sixth, when Carroll slapped a single, and reached third on Irwin’s double. With one out, Barney Gilligan can produce only a slow grounder to Whitney, who tosses him out at first base, but Carroll “girded up his loins, dashed for the plate, and scored the third earned tally amid great enthusiasm over his fleetness of foot,” the Providence Journal reports.

Providence has a 3-1 lead going into the ninth. Radbourn has settled down and is reasserting his famous control, displaying what the Journal called “his thorough mastery of the sphere and intimate knowledge of the weaknesses of the opposing batsmen.” Radbourn retires the side to win, 3-1, dropping the Beaneaters to three games back in the pennant race.

In two games of this critical series, against the Grays’ toughest opponent, he has pitched 20 innings without allowing an earned run.

The Providence Journal is ecstatic, claiming that Radbourn’s performance is “unparalleled in the history of the national game.”

But he is only getting warmed up.

RADBOURN’S RECORD: 31-9.

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