The Cardinals entered the last month of the season tied for second with the Cubs, 5.5 games behind the New York Giants.

• The Cards pounded the Cubs at Wrigley Field for the second straight day, 7-1 behind Wild Bill Hallahan.
• After the final game at Chicago was rained out, the Cards traveled to Pittsburgh for a Labor Day doubleheader.
• The Pirates ended the Cards' four-game winning streak in the first game, knocking Paul Dean out of the box with an eight-run 3rd inning on their way to a 12-2 victory.
• The nightcap had an exciting ending. Trailing 3-2, the Redbirds scored three in the top of the inning to take the lead. Manager Frankie Frisch brought in Dizzy Dean to save the game but instead he gave up three hits and a walk without retiring a batter. Hallahan relieved and gave up a long fly that tied the score and a single that brought home the winning run.
• The two defeats dropped the Cardinals seven games behind the Giants. A reporter asked Frisch, "Give up, Frankie?" The skipper replied, "Never, not until we're counted out officially. No team of mine will give up. We're in this race until we're out of it, and, believe me, we'll fight to the last ditch."
• Nevertheless, St. Louis writers began analyzing why the Cardinals had failed to live up to the preseason hype. Reasons cited were Joe Medwick's late-season slump, lack of a solid CF, P Tex Carleton's inconsistency, and so on.
  Later that day, Dizzy pulled another of his stunts. Frisch ordered him to take the train to New York ahead of the rest of the team for the series in Brooklyn two days later. Meanwhile, the club would play an exhibition game against the Cards farm club in Greensburg PA. But Dizzy refused to go.

Dizzy pitched the first game against Brooklyn and got back into Frisch's good graces.

• The older Dean twirled a three-hitter to subdue the Dodgers 2-1. The Cards won again the next day, 7-5. Then the third game of the series was postponed by rain.
• However, the Redbirds gained no ground. Across the river at the Polo Grounds, the Giants beat the Cubs both days by identical 5-1 scores.
  Dan Daniel wrote in the New World-Telegram: "It is quite generally accepted that it would take a baseball holocaust to prevent a World Series between the Giants and the Tigers."

The Cards now traveled to Philadelphia for a rare six-game series.

• The Redbirds needed to take advantage of the seventh-place Phillies to close the gap with the Giants.
• The Frischmen won four of the six, including both ends of the first Sunday doubleheader in Philadelphia history.
• Paul and Dizzy both won their starts, allowing only one run each. Dizzy saved another victory.
  The two wins fulfilled Diz's spring training prediction that "me 'n Paul" would win 40 games since Diz now had 25 and Paul, 15.
• Dean the Elder also blew another save. 43-year-old Dazzy Vance shut out the Phils for seven innings. When he gave up the tying run in the 8th, Frisch brought in Diz, who gave up a bloop single that scored two more.
• End result: The Cards gained a game and a half on the Giants.

That set up a do-or-die four-game series at the Polo Grounds.

• Paul Dean got the visitors off to a great start by pitching his best game of the season - a 12-inning shutout. Freddie Fitzsimmons matched him goose egg for goose egg until three singles with an intentional walk mixed in plated two runs in the 12th. LF Medwick drove in the first with a long fly and SS Leo Durocher knocked home the insurance run with a single.
• The Giants canceled that loss by winning the next day before a Ladies Day crowd of 15,000. Hal Schumacher outpitched Bill Walker 4-1.
  Before the game, Diz invaded the Giants dugout with a black cat. He pointed the cat's nose at 2B Hughie Critz and made all kinds of hex signs and mumbo passes in Hughie's direction. The stunt backfired. Critz went 3-for-4 in the Giants' series-evening victory.

When rain postponed the Saturday game, the Cardinals were forced to sweep the Sunday doubleheader to gain any ground on Bill Terry's club.

• Despite cloudy, threatening weather and a shower just before game time, a record crowd of 62,573, the largest turnout in National League history, overflowed the 52,000-seat Polo Grounds.
  An estimated 15,000 more people were waiting to get in when the Fire Department ordered all gates locked.
• The Giants took a 3-0 lead against Dizzy before the Cards tallied four in the top of the 7th. Lefty Tex Carleton pitched three flawless innings to preserve the 5-3 victory.

Dean the Younger came back on two days rest to duel Giants' ace Carl Hubbell in the nightcap.

• The Giants scored a run in the third, and it held up until the 7th when Rip Collins' homer into the RF stands tied the score.
• The nerve-wracking pitching duel went into extra innings. At the close of the tenth inning, umpire Bill Klem wanted to call the game a tie because of darkness. But he was persuaded to allow another inning.
• Pepper Martin opened the top of the 11th with a HR into the lower RF stand. In the gathering gloom, Paul's fast ball was too much for the Giants, who went down in order with the aid of a sparkling catch in the twilight by Medwick against the wall in LF.
• Hubbell suffered his fourth defeat in five decisions against the Cardinals for the season and Paul's sixth victory over the New Yorkers - the same number as his brother.
• It was also the Cards' 13th win in 22 games against the league leaders.
• Most important, the sweep cut New York's lead to 3.5 games.

With work still to do, the Cards needed to continue the momentum from the Giants series.

• They extended their winning streak to seven with two wins at Boston, two at Brooklyn, and one at Cincinnati.
• Two games in Beantown were rained out and were not rescheduled - to the chagrin of Frisch, who wanted to gain ground on the Giants.
• Paul Dean twirled a no-hitter in the second game of the doubleheader in Brooklyn after Dizzy fired a three-hit shutout. That led to Dizzy's famous quote: "Shoot! If'n I'da known Paul was gonna pitch a no-hitter, I'da pitched me one too."
• Starting with the second game against the Giants, the Cardinal pitchers gave up only two runs in five games.
• After losing the second of the two games to cellar-swelling Cincinnati, the Redbirds won a makeup game at Chicago to end the 23-game road trip just two games behind the Giants.
  Unperturbed, New York manager Bill Terry announced that Carl Hubbell, who had just won his 21st game, would be the starting pitcher in the first game of the World Series.

The Cardinals last six games were at home while the Giants had five more, all on the road.

• Tuesday, September 25
  The Giants lost at home to the Phillies 4-0.
  The Cardinals beat the Pirates 3-2 as Dizzy won his 28th game to pull within one game of NY.
  Both teams had 57 losses but the Giants had two more victories.
• Wednesday, September 26
  The Phils opened the door for the Cards to pull into a tie by beating the Giants again, 5-4.
  But the Pirates closed the door when Waite Hoyt, the 35-year-old former Red Sox and Yankee P, shutout the Redbirds on two hits, 3-0.
• Thursday, September 27
  With the Giants idle, the Cardinals pulled within a 1/2 game of the lead by outhitting the Reds 13-7.
• Friday, September 28
  Dizzy shutout the Redlegs 4-0 to pull the Redbirds into a tie on another off day for the Giants.
  

The Giants finished the season with two home games against the sixth-place Brooklyn Dodgers.

• Dodger manager Casey Stengel had not forgotten what Giants skipper Bill Terry said back in January. While discussing the upcoming season, Terry was asked, "Do you fear Brooklyn?" Big Bill gave a flippant answer. "Is Brooklyn still in the league?"
• Casey reserved his two best pitchers, Van Lingle Mungo and Ray Benge, for the final two games.
• Brooklyn fans came across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan by the thousands, bringing cowbells, sirens, razzberries, and whistles.

All three possibilities were in play: the Giants could win the pennant, the Cards could win, or they could tie.

• Saturday, September 29
  The headline in the Brooklyn Times-Union said this:
  BROOKLYN DODGERS 5; NEW YORK GIANTS 1
  ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 6; CINCINNATI 1
  YES, INDEED, MR. TERRY, THE DODGERS ARE STILL IN THE LEAGUE.
  Van Mungo pitched a five-hitter to outduel Roy Parmelee 5-1.
  Halfway across the continent, Paul Dean, working with only two days' rest, scattered 11 hits so effectively that the Reds manufactured only one run to the delight of a ladies' day crowd of 23,041.
  The Cards led by one game, which meant they had at least a tie for the flag.
• Sunday, September 30
  The Dodgers won again, 8-5, knocking out 12 hits against the Giants' top three hurlers, Freddie Fitzsimmons, Hal Schumacher, and Carl Hubbell.
  In St. Louis, a delirious throng of 37,402 shrieking fans rejoiced as Jerome Herman Dean won his 30th game, 9-0.
  The Deans exceeded Diz's spring training prediction of "40-45 wins" by four as Paul won 19.
  The Cards finished the National League's hottest pennant race since 1908 two games in front of New York.
  

On August 24, the Cardinals sat in 3rd place, seven games behind the Giants. Here's the records of the two teams the rest of the season.

• New York: 15-17
• St. Louis: 25-9

Final National League Standings

	Team	Record	GB
1	St. Louis	95-58	--
2	New York	93-60	2
3	Chicago	86-65	8
4	Boston	78-73	16
5	Pittsburgh	74-76	19.5
6	Brooklyn	71-81	23.5
7	Philadelphia	56-93	37
8	Cincinnati	52-99	42

Next: World Series

Bill Hallahan

Paul and Dizzy Dean

Frank Frisch

Joe Medwick

Tex Carleton

Dazzy Vance

Freddie Fitzsimmons

Hal Schumacher

Bill Walker

Bill Terry

Rip Collins

Pepper Martin

Waite Hoyt

Roy Parmelee