It wasn’t pretty, but Washington’s Earl Whitehill pitched out of trouble several times to lead the Nationals to a 6-2 victory over the 1939 Boston Red Sox to advance in the Baseball Maelstrom Best of the 30s Tournament. It started early as Boston loaded the bases with one out in the 1st. But Joe Cronin struck out for the 1st of 3 times in the game, and Lou Finney popped up to Ossie Blueage. The Red Sox would have runners on in every inning that Whitehill pitched, but they couldn’t seem to do anything with them. Meanwhile, Lefty Grove allowed just 7 hits and struck out 7 in his 7 innings of work, but bad timing doomed him and Boston’s hopes. Grove allowed 6 straight baserunners in the 3rd inning, including 3 of his 4 walks to allow Washington to open up a 3-0 lead. Boston finally got to Whitehill in the 7th with back-to-back triples from Doc Cramer and Jimmie Foxx to cut the lead to 3-2. But in the 8th, the Nationals strung together 3 straight hits with 2 outs to score 3 more runs off reliever Emerson Dickman. Alex McColl pitched a perfect 9th to give Washington the win. As the Red Sox head home, the Nationals advance to play the 1939 New York Yankees in the real 1st round of the Tournament. The game was a rematch of the Game 1 starters with the same result.