Cardinals History: Death by singles

On this day in 1925, the St. Louis Cardinals faced the Cincinnati Reds. In the 1920s, the Reds were one of the better teams in the National League. They were favored to win this game with ace Pete Donahue slated to start. When the Reds took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, things looked dire for the Cardinals.

But then something funny happened. It started with a single from leadoff man Ray Blades. Then another single from Wattie Holm. Up to the plate came superstar Rogers Hornsby, off one of the best seasons of all time in 1924. Of course, he's going to get a hit — another single scoring Blades. Next up was rising star and future Hall of Famer Jim Bottomley. And, you guessed it, he hit a single as well!

The Reds' manager, Jack Hendricks, had seen enough and replaced Donahue with reliever Tom Sheehan. Sheehan immediately got the first out, and a double play would have ended the inning. But that's not what happened. Sheehan gave up four consecutive singles, running the score to 6-2.

The Cardinals, having batted around, brought their leadoff hitter Blades back up, and he grounded out. One out away from escaping the jam! Wattie Holm knocked another single off Sheehan, bringing the total number of singles to 9! The Reds, trying to salvage the game, brought in another reliever, Pedro Dibut.

Dibut had his own interesting backstory as one of the first light-skinned Cubans signed in MLB (along with Reds star Dolf Luque). Dibut went 3-0 with a 2.21 ERA in 36 innings in 1924 — he was no slouch. The Cardinals kept hitting though. Hornsby hit his second single of the inning before Bottomley hit a...double. Don't worry, the fifth-place hitter, Les Bell, would keep the trend going and hit yet another single.

That's 11 singles in a single inning — a major league record!

The Reds again went to their bullpen, replacing Dibut with Harry Biemiller. Dibut would never pitch in the majors again, unceremoniously released by the Reds on May 6th. Biemiller recorded the final out of the inning by getting Heinie Mueller to fly out. The damage had been done, though: 11 runs on 11 singles.

"Bottomley’s double, his second time up in the inning, was the only extra baser, but the eleven singles were beautiful drives, without a scratch or questionable hit among them."

Jack Ryder

The Cardinals' record of 11 singles in one inning would last until it was broken in 1989 by...the Reds! They managed to get 12 singles (also in the 1st inning) against Houston on August 3rd.

The Cardinals struggled after their record-breaking victory against the Reds. This led to the mid-season firing of their skipper, Branch Rickey. Rickey was retained to solely focus on becoming a great general manager (as opposed to both GM and manager) and was replaced in the dugout by star 2B Rogers Hornsby. While not known as a people person throughout his managing time, Hornsby did lead the Cardinals to their first title the following year in 1926.