Every baseball player occasionally has a poor day. Even Babe Ruth, whose stats were supposed to be cartoonishly insane, had his days of going 0-for-4. The number of times that Hall of Famers, good regulars, bench players, and individuals who just get cups of coffee avoid terrible days is often what separates them.
After making an incredible 17-year start, Bob Feller went on to have an outstanding 18-year career on the mound, earning him a spot in the Hall of Fame.
In addition to missing three whole years of combat, Feller probably would have won a few Cy Young Awards had they been around during his peak.
The Cy Young Award was initially given out during Feller’s last season. However, the Yankees doomed him to not only a bad day but possibly the worst of his career on one particular 1938 day.
Arguably, Feller’s breakthrough season came in 1938. Though he had participated in some games in the previous two seasons, at the age of just 19, he made his debut in an All-Star Game and became the first player to reach 200 innings. If his August 26th start against the Yankees hadn’t occurred, his statistics from that season would have been even better.
Feller received some run support from the Cleveland offense even before he took the mound. In the top of the first, Cleveland established a 2-0 lead over Wes Ferrell of New York. But Joe DiMaggio’s two-RBI single in the bottom of the fifth gave the Yankees a quick response.
Still, Cleveland gave Feller a little more leeway, scoring two more runs in the second. But the Yankees responded this time, scoring three runs to take the lead. Feller didn’t do much to assist himself; during the inning, he issued three walks and one wild pitch.
After a brief period of tension, Feller’s game took a very ugly turn in the fifth inning. After the first three batters for the Yankees all got on base, Joe Glenn became the third to score two runs on a single. After Feller recorded two outs and a walk, his situation drastically deteriorated. Lou Gehrig, Tommy Henrich, and DiMaggio each had RBI singles; Gehrig’s was a game-changing two-run home run. The Yankees had opened up a 12-4 lead by the time the inning was out, having scored seven more runs.
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