travel restrictions in place during World War II. In late August, Gromek won his 16th game in a 5–4 victory against the Detroit Tigers, but injured his knee when scoring the winning run, causing him to miss two weeks. For the year, Gromek went 19–9, with a career best 2.55 ERA; he ranked fourth in wins and seventh in ERA in the American League that season. After getting married in the offseason, Gromek entered the 1946 season as one of the four primary starting pitchers alongside Allie Reynolds, as well as Bob Feller and Red Embree who had returned from the war. Gromek started the season by pitching in the home opener against Detroit. In a 7–0 loss, the Tigers allowed two hits, one of which was a single by Gromek, who allowed five runs in six innings. After losing his first three games of the season, he won his next three in May, which included two complete game shutouts against the Athletics and Browns. He followed that up with a four-game losing streak, which went through the end of June. After his June 28th win, however, Gromek fell in a slump, and Indians management reduced his role to that of a part-time starter who would only see action in a few innings at a time. Gromek lost seven straight games between June 28 and September 10 before breaking the streak in his second-to-last appearance of the season, a 4–2 victory against the Yankees. Gromek finished the season with a 5–15 record and a 4.33 ERA in 29 games. The Indians hired Bill McKechnie as a pitching coach after the 1946 season. One of his first jobs was to work with Gromek during the offseason and improve his pitching due to his struggles the prior year, in particular against left-handed batters. The Indians talked with the Yankees during the offseason about making a trade for second baseman Joe Gordon. The teams settled on Gromek as the main piece originally, but Joe DiMaggio suggested the team trade for Reynolds instead. Gromek remained on the Indians for the 1947 season as a result, but was moved to the bullpen instead of remaining in the starting rotation. The highlight of his season came on July 1 in relief of Feller, who left the game due to injury. In the game against the Browns, he threw 7.2 innings and allowed two runs in a