Maroons Exploit Colt Collapse
Chicago Ends Nine-Game Skid Just in Time
ST. LOUIS (Sept. 1) -- The roller-coaster West Division race will enter the final month with a veritable three-team tie after the Chicago Colts lost nine straight, allowing St. Louis to pull to within a half-game of the division lead.  But the Colts ended their slump just in time, beating the Maroons 3-2 in 15 innings on Aug. 26 to prevent the Maroons from taking over first place.  Leading 2-1 and three outs from wresting the division lead from their rivals, St. Louis let the game slip away when closer Dave LaRoche served up a solo home run to Carlos May, his second of the game, to lead off the ninth.  The bullpens then exchanged goose eggs for five innings until the top of the 15th, when Toby Harrah singled off Bob Locker, Rusty Staub singled, and Harrah scored the winning run on a Carlos Taylor sac fly.  Chicago won the next day, 4-1, behind a Wilbur Wood six-hit complete game to widen the gap a bit to 2 1/2 games, but two losses against Cleveland ran the Colts record since Aug. 14 to 2-11 and let the Maroons pull back to within a game with one month to play.  Meanwhile, San Francisco, behind the starting pitching of Fergie Jenkins (2-0, 1.93 in his last 3 starts) and the relief pitching of Paul Lindblad (0.00 ERA in his last 12 games), also pulled closer and is very much a factor heading into the homestretch.

St. Louis is 14-6 in their last 20, and won 8 of 9 Aug. 16-25, when they cut Chicago's lead by eight games in nine days.  Jon Matlack, who has emerged as one of the league's top young pitchers, was 3-0, 0.72 in his last three starts, and Danny Coombs has not allowed an earned run since July 16.

Gray Sox Red Hot
MANHATTAN (Sept. 1) -- Eric Holthaus and the Manhattan front office might be in rebuilding mode, but don't tell that to the players.  The Gray Sox have rattled off nine straight wins to move into a second place tie, just close enough to the Washington Monuments to not quite write them off.  The streak came after an inconsistent patch from Aug. 8-19 when the Sox lost 7 of 11 games and fell 15 games out of first.  But a pair of wins over Los Angeles, and sweeps of Brooklyn, San Francisco, and Atlanta found the Gray Sox sharing second place with Boston and Detroit. 

Heroes of the streak include Bill Melton, who drove in four runs in a 6-4 win at Brooklyn Aug. 23; Phil Niekro, who tossed a five-hit CG over San Francisco on Aug. 25; and Cecil Upshaw, usually a closer, who anchored a 3-0 win over Atlanta with eight three-hit innings on Aug. 29.  Melton is hitting .481-2-10 in his last 8 games and Ken Tatum saved 11 games in August to become the first relief pitcher to win Pitcher of the Month this season.