or something. At any rate, he let down in the quality of his work. The Atlantics, taking advantage of the fact and playing the game for all there was in it, began to bat fiercely. Smith opened with a clean base hit, and on a wild pitch made third. Start then hit a long fly to the outfield which McVey could not get because of the intervening crowd. Smith tallied and Start reached third. Ferguson made a clean hit, on which Start scored and the game was a tie, with Ferguson on first and nobody out.
The excitement at this situation was intense. For a while, so wild was the crowd over this unexpected turn in the fortunes of the game, that it was impossible to proceed. The turmoil and confusion were so great that nothing could be done. Things certainly did look good to Brooklyn, and they seemed brighter still when, immediately after resuming the game, Zettlein hit a swift grounder to Gould, which the first baseman failed to get, thus advancing Ferguson to second. Gould, chagrined at his mishap in failing to get Zettlein's ball, attempted to stop Ferguson, threw wild, and Ferguson, seeing that the ball was not well handled, took a forlorn chance and succeeded in beating it home, scoring the winning run in this historic eleven-inning game, which ended 8 to 7, breaking the Red Stockings' theretofore uninterrupted series of victories, lasting for over an entire year.
After this signal check to their long and triumphant career, the Red Stockings did not encounter another defeat until July 7th, on which date they played their return game with the Philadelphia Athletics, at Cincinnati. On June 22d the Cincinnati team had beaten the
