May 7, 1920 proved to be a high scoring day as all sixteen major league teams saw action. The low scoring game of the day produced seven runs as the White Sox beat the Indians 6-1. At the other end of the spectrum, the Reds beat the Cardinals in St. Louis 15-11.
Joe Judge of the Senators takes home the honor of best offensive game of the day in a 6-5 victory over the Yankees. Judge went five for five with a double and two runs scored from the lead-off slot. It’s odd to see a first baseman leading off. Judge stood as a Washington fixture for 18 seasons. At seasonal age 26 in 1920, he hit his peak with a 4.0 rWAR season. He showed little decline until age through his age 36 season when he once again repeated a four rWAR year. He finished his career with the Dodgers and Red Sox, posting a .298/.378/.420 slash line, the type of hitter a team needs at the top of the order. He appeared to be fast, accumulating 433 doubles and 159 triples in his career, but just 71 home runs.
His biography notes his superb defense at first base, while Baseball Reference tends to rate his defense negatively.
Lefty Williams once again takes home best pitched game of the day, as he allows seven hits and one earned run with three strikes in a complete game win for the White Sox. Ray Fisher of the Reds finished at the bottom of the heap, with a game score of 21 in the St. Louis slugfest. What caught my eye is that Fisher received the win despite pitching just 4 2/3 innings. It turns out our modern rule that requires a starter to go five innings for a win was not in place until 1950. It would appear the commanding lead rule was applied:
Commanding Leads – Even for leads of three, four, and five, the AL handed out archaic wins by a 39–25 margin over the stingy NL.
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Williams regained the major league lead in innings pitched with his sixth complete game in as many starts.
Rogers Hornsby extended his hit streak to 14 games with a three for four day. He hit in 16 of 17 games so far in the season and owned a .485 BA.
The Yankees lost their business manager, Harry L. Sparrow, who died after a long illness at the age of 45. That would lead the Yankees to hire Ed Barrow, who built them into a dynasty.