The majors saw action in seven of the eight scheduled games on Sept. 7, 1920, including two doubleheaders. The Yankees hosted the Athletics, the New Yorkers taking the game 2-0 for the low score of the day. At the high end of scoring, Brooklyn completed a sweep of their twin bill at Philadelphia with a 9-5 win in game two.
Roger Peckinpaugh of the Yankees provides quite a lot of the offense in the low scoring game, giving him the best offensive game of the day. He collects three hits, one of them a triple, and drives in the insurance run. According to the game story, Peckinpaugh made one of two errors in the eighth inning, but pitcher Carl Mays escaped without allowing a run.
Mays’s shutout earns him best pitched game of the day, but he has stiff competition. Mays allows four hits and one walk while striking out five. Both Leon Cadore of the Dodgers and Dutch Leonard of the Tigers pitched five-hit shutouts. Both walked three batters, however, and each fell short of Mays’s strike out total. In the end, Mays comes in with a game score of 83, Cadore 78, and Leonard 76.
Mays earns his twenty-third win of the season, second among the AL leaders to Jim Bagby‘s 27. It’s also May’s fifth shutout of the season, tied with teammate Bob Shawkey and Urban Shocker of the Browns.
Both the Indians and the Browns have the day off, so there is no change in the AL batting race between Tris Speaker and George Sisler.
The Yankees win coupled with the White Sox loss to Leonard moves the Yankees solidly into second place, New York and Chicago now even in the loss column. The Indians lead New York by 1/2 game and Chicago by 1 1/2 games.
The Dodgers sweep is not enough to push them into first place as the Reds do not play. The Giants are rained out, so Brooklyn is no 1/2 game behind Cincinnati with the Giants 2 1/2 games out.
The second game victory is costly for Brooklyn as Al Mamaux sustains an injury due to a collision with opposing pitcher Eppa Rixey as Mamaux covered first base. He leads the NL in K per 9 IP.
On the front page, northern Italy suffers a devastating earthquake.