Sox Century: April 16, 1917

By tossing a no-hitter three games into the season, Eddie Cicotte made other great starts look small. Jim Scott went the distance in the opener against Detroit the day after, but he allowed two runs. Big deal.

How about Red Faber today? He, too, went the distance against the Tigers, and a shutout to boot.

Even then, he gave up a pair of singles. His no-hit bid ended with two outs in the third on a base hit to center, and Ty Cobb added the second with one out in the ninth. Up until that point, Faber had beaten Detroit’s best with a pair of strikeouts.

On Detroit’s side, Carroll “Deacon” Jones — called “Harold” in the Chicago Examiner’s account — was almost as tough to figure out, but the White Sox were able to punch him in the mouth before he settled in. From the Chicago Tribune:

[Nemo] Leibold opened on C. Jones with a walk. [Swede] Risberg was called out on strikes, so Leibold stole second and third cleanly. That pulled the infield close and [Eddie] Collins poked a single past [Bob] Jones, scoring Meno. [Joe] Jackson deposited a double just inside left foul line, scoring Collins, but Mister Joe was nipped trying to stretch his hit into a triple.

Leibold ended up stealing a third base after drawing a second walk.

The White Sox tacked on two more in the ninth off George Cunningham in a rally sparked by the Detroit reliever’s error. All the while, the Tigers only got one runner into scoring position through eight, and Cobb was the only Tiger to reach third base in the ninth. It’s a pitching performance that deserves a colorful description, even if it wasn’t a no-no, so let’s hand it over to the Examiner’s Irving Vaughn:

Faber’s contribution was easily the feature. He showed himself a champion animal tamer. So completely were the Tigers at the mercy of the Sox mound notable that only two hits were delivered during the nine rounds.

Record: 4-1 | Box score