St. Louis got a little better start and for a while was inclined to dispute sixth place with Detroit, but on May 1 the Browns found only New York between them and the basement. In the middle of May the Yankees passed St. Louis and ran seventh in the race until July. 4. But accident and injury, and the loss of Cree, shot the Yankees to pieces. For nearly six weeks, however, it was a battle royal between New York and St. Louis to escape the last hole, but in the middle of August the Yankees again established their superiority, retaining seventh place until after the middle of September. In the homestretch the new blood given Stovall enabled him to pull his men out of the last notch just before the schedule ran out. This feat was soon forgotten in the defeat of the Browns by the Cardinals in their post-prandial series for the championship of the Mound City. * * * * * The year was not prolific of freak or record-breaking performances in the American League. Walter Johnson of Washington, and Joe Wood of Boston were credited with sixteen straight victories, which raised the American League record in that respect from fourteen straight, formerly held by Jack Chesbro of the Yankees. Mullin of Detroit and Hamilton of St. Louis added their names to the list of hurlers who have held opponents without a safe hit in nine innings. Mullin performed his hitless feat against St. Louis and Hamilton retaliated by holding Detroit without a safety. The number of games in which pitchers escaped with less than four hits against them was smaller than usual, however. There were only seventy-eight shut-out games recorded last season by comparison with the American League's record of 145. The longest game of the younger league's season lasted nineteen innings, Washington defeating Philadelphia in that combat 5 to 4, and it was played late in September when the two teams were scrapping for second place. The American League record for overtime is twenty-four innings, held by Philadelphia and Boston. There were a lot of slugging games in 1912, but not as many as during the season of 1911. Philadelphia piled up the highest total, 25, in eight innings, but it was made against the semi-professional team which wore Detroit uniforms on the day the Tigers struck. The highest genuine total of hits was twenty-three, made by the Athletics against New York pitchers. The Athletics also run up the highest score of the league's season when they compounded twenty-four runs against Detroit In May. The semi-monthly standing of the race by percentages follows: