Carrigan was one of the major reasons Boston’s pitching staff excelled

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In his White Sox debut, Terry combined with Weaver to play fifa 15 coins a strong left side of the infield, which may have been the lone bright spot. Fortunately for the fans’ morale, the Pale Hose bats came alive during the remaining three games of the series. The Tigers’ George Cunningham didn’t enjoy his major league debut, losing 7–2 to Chicago, which was sandwiched between two other Detroit losses, 8–6, and 9–4. Suddenly, the White Sox were 3–1, with the offense coming from across the board. Chicago’s early 1916 dominance of the Tigers encouraged White Sox fans to believe the jinx was over.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox were winning methodically and with pitching. Ernie Shore and George Foster followed Ruth’s success with 8–2 and 2–1 vic- tories for a three-game sweep of Philadelphia. When Boston opened up a series against the Senators on April 17, Carl Mays, who struggled with injuries in 1915, was supposed to be on the hill. Once again his health was an issue, as he was diagnosed with tonsillitis. With Mays expected to miss two week s, Ruth came back to oppose the great Walter Johnson. The early-season duel didn’t match the electrif ying contests they would have later on, as Ruth eas- ily bested Johnson, 5–1. Throughout April, the Red Sox offense struggled. Following the five-run output against Johnson, Boston failed to score more than three runs in eight of its remaining 11 games that month. The Red Sox hit just .229 in April, far below the output of the Tigers (.269) and White Sox (.247). The team clearly struggled without Speaker in the lineup, as Boston used five different combinations of 3-4-5 hitters and four different cleanup men in April. Clarence Walker, Speaker’s replacement, started just the first two games of the month due to a bad cold.

Duff y Lewis had missed Opening Day due to his spring training wrist injury but returned to see most of the activity in center field. With the Red Sox struggling to find an identity for the middle of their lineup, Carrigan dropped Hooper, a prototypical leadoff hitter, to the third spot, where he could team with new cleanup hitter Dick Hoblitzell, who was off to a hot start. Olaf Henrik sen took Hooper’s place, leading off in the new batting order. Boston went 3–4 to close the month and let its early-season lead evap- orate. However, because of their pitching , the Red Sox finished April tied with the Tigers (9–6) for first place. Ruth, who went 4–0 that month, was starting to emerge as the ace, and Leonard was even better. He pitched two shutout victories and a no-decision in which he allowed one earned run in seven innings.

Carrigan was one of the major reasons Boston’s pitching staff excelled. Arguably his biggest strength as a field general was handling hurlers. That ability may have been in part why Carrigan was given the job, since as the team’s catcher, he had already worked closely with the staff. Additionally, Bill had a good baseball mind, having learned from the six managers he played under with the Red Sox . One of the most difficult aspects of the situation Carrigan faced was managing players that the week before were his team- mates. But then-owner Jimmy McAleer clearly thought a very even-handed Carrigan would be able to handle the transition with ease. Years later, Freb Lieb said, “Rough wasn’t the type of man who would stand for cliques and factions on his club. If any players wanted to continue their feuds Bill banged together the heads of the feudists.” His nickname, “Rough,” came from the aggressive manner for which he played the game, and there were even rumors he fined pitchers a lofty $25 when they refused to dust off a batter. However, Carrigan said this roughhouse reputation was exaggerated since it was sim- ply the way the game was played at the time.