This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead

May 7

1917 — Babe Ruth of the Red Sox allowed two hits as he outdueled Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators 1-0. Ruth knocked in the winning run with a sacrifice fly.

1922 — Jesse Barnes of the New York Giants pitched the only no-hitter of the year, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 6-0.

1925 — Pittsburgh shortstop Glenn Wright made an unassisted triple play in the ninth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals when he caught Jim Bottomley’s line drive, stepped on second to double Jimmy Cooney, and tagged Rogers Hornsby coming from first. The Cardinals, trailing 9-4, scored six runs in the eighth inning to win 10-9 at Forbes Field.

1957 — Cleveland pitcher Herb Score was hit on the right eye by a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald in the first inning. The ball broke Score’s nose and damaged his eye; he missed the rest of the season.

1959 — A crowd of 93,103 came to the Los Angeles Coliseum on “Roy Campanella Night” to show its affection for the paralyzed Dodger catcher. The Dodgers were beaten by the New York Yankees 6-2 in an exhibition game that followed the ceremonies.

1960 — Norm Sherry, a replacement catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, hit a home run in the 11th inning to give his brother, relief pitcher Larry Sherry, a 3-2 triumph over the Philadelphia Phillies in Los Angeles.

1970 — Wes Parker of Los Angeles Dodgers hit for the cycle in a 7-4, 10-inning win over the New York Mets.

1973 — The Pittsburgh Pirates became the first team to score their five runs on five solo homers in a 5-4 win over Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. Willie Stargell, Dave Cash, Richie Hebner, Manny Sanguillen and Al Oliver homered.

1986 — Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Garry Maddox announces his retirement at the age of 36. Properly nicknamed “Secretary of Defense”, the slick-fielding Maddox won eight Gold Gloves.

1997 — The Montreal Expos scored 13 runs to set an NL record for runs in a sixth inning during their 19-3 win over the San Francisco Giants.

1999 — Tampa Bay’s first baseman Fred McGriff sets a major league record by homering in his 34th major league ballpark.

1999 — Carlos Lee becomes the first player in Chicago White Sox history to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat in the Sox’s 7-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

2005 — Julio Franco of the Atlanta Braves goes 3 for 4, including his first home run of the season, in a 4-1 victory over the Houston Astros. Franco, who turns 47 on August 23rd, becomes the second-oldest player in major league history to homer at 46 years, 257 days. Jack Quinn, a pitcher who accomplished the feat when he was 100 days older, hit a home run for the Philadelphia Athletics on June 27, 1930; Franco will eventually pass him as well.

2008 — Carlos Gomez became the first Minnesota player to hit for the cycle in 22 years in a 13-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

2009 — New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera gave up home runs to consecutive batters for the first time in his major league career, with Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria connecting in the ninth inning of Tampa Bay’s 8-6 victory. Rivera had not given up back-to-back homers in 862 games coming in.

2009 — The Boston Red Sox tied a modern major-league record with 12 runs in an inning before making an out in a 13-3 win over Cleveland. The Red Sox tied the mark set by the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 24, 1953.

2009 — The Dodgers’ star outfielder, Manny Ramirez, is suspended for 50 games for testing positive for a banned substance. He is the most prominent player yet caught under Major League Baseball’s PED policy implemented in 2005.

2010 — Starlin Castro hit a three-run homer in his first major league at-bat and drove in a record six runs during the Chicago Cubs’ 14-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Castro added a bases-loaded triple, sliding headfirst into the record books with six RBIs, the most ever in a modern day debut — one more than the previous mark shared by four players.

2011 — Justin Verlander threw his second career no-hitter, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 9-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. The only runner Verlander allowed came with one out in the eighth inning when J.P. Arencibia walked on a full count.

2011 — Andre Ethier’s 30-game hitting streak ends in a 4-2 Dodgers loss to the Mets. Ethier, who goes 0 for 4, ends up one game short of the franchise record of 31 games held by Willie Davis since 1969.

2016 — Aaron Hill hit a grand slam in Milwaukee’s seven-run 10th inning for his third homer of the game, and the Brewers beat Cincinnati 13-7.

2016 — New York’s Bartolo Colon became the oldest player to hit his first major league home run, connecting less than three weeks before his 43rd birthday, to help the Mets to a 6-3 victory over the Padres.

2018 — George Springer ties an Astros team record by going 6 for 6 in a 16-2 win over the Athletics. He has a double, homer and single by the end of the 4th inning, but fails in his next three at-bats to get the triple that would have completed the cycle as he hits a single each time.

2019 — Mike Fiers pitches his second career no-hitter as the Athletics defeat the Reds, 2-0.

2022 — Less than two weeks after getting his 3,000th hit, Miguel Cabrera reaches another milestone with his 600th career double, only the 18th player to that total. Only two others - Hank Aaron and Albert Pujols - have compiled his combination of 3,000 hits, 600 doubles and 500 home runs.

_____

May 8

1906 — Philadelphia manager Connie Mack needed a substitute outfielder in the sixth inning of a game against Boston and called on pitcher Chief Bender. Bender hit two home runs, both inside the park.

1907 — Boston’s Big Jeff Pfeffer threw a no-hitter to give the Braves a 6-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in Boston.

1929 — Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants pitched a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the first by a left-hander in the majors in 13 seasons.

1935 — In the first game of a doubleheader, Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds hit four doubles in consecutive innings (sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth) off four different Phillies pitchers. Lombardi also singled to send the Reds past Philadelphia 15-4.

1946 — Boston shortstop Johnny Pesky scored six times, an American League record, in a 14-10 win over the White Sox. Pesky, who was 4-for-5 with a walk and two RBIs, matched Mel Ott’s National League mark for runs scored in a game.

1963 — A Stan Musial home run against the Dodgers gives him 1,357 extra-base hits, surpassing Babe Ruth’s major league record. He will get 20 more; his record will later be broken by Hank Aaron.

1963 — Pirates LF Willie Stargell’s first major league homer and Cubs P Bob Buhl’s first major league hit in 88 at-bats highlight a 9-5 Chicago win over Pittsburgh.

1966 — Frank Robinson became the only player to hit a home run out of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The shot over the left-field wall came off Cleveland right-hander Luis Tiant. The Orioles won 8-3.

1966 — The St. Louis Cardinals closed old Busch Stadium with a 10-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

1966 — Orioles outfielder Frank Robinson hits the only ball ever completely out of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The shot clears the left-field single-deck grandstand’s rear wall, 451-feet away, going an estimated 541 feet.

1968 — Jim “Catfish” Hunter of the Oakland A’s pitched a perfect game to beat the Minnesota Twins 4-0.

1983 — Darryl Strawberry gets his first major league hit, a single that scores Danny Heep, in a 10-5 Mets win over the Reds.

1984 — Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett had four singles in his first major league game, and the Twins beat the California Angels 5-0.

1994 — Danny Tartabull, Mike Stanley and Gerald Williams hit back-to-back-to-back home runs for the Yankees in the 6th inning of New York’s 8-4 win over Boston.

1994 — The Colorado Silver Bullets, the first women’s team to play a pro men’s team, lost 19-0 to the Northern League All-Stars. Leon Durham hit two homers and Oil Can Boyd started for the All-Stars. The Silver Bullets had two hits, struck out 16 times and made six errors.

1998 — Cardinals 1B Mark McGwire hits his 400th career home run in a 9-2 loss to the Mets. He is the 27th player to reach 400, and does so in fewer at bats than anyone in history, 4,726. Babe Ruth had taken 127 more at-bats, having held the old record.

2000 — Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hits his 12th home run of the season, against the San Francisco Giants. The homer ties “Big Mac” with Jimmie Foxx for ninth place on the all-time list with 534 career homers. McGwire needs just two taters to catch number eight on the list, Mickey Mantle, at 536.

2001 — Randy Johnson became the third pitcher to strike out 20 in nine innings, but didn’t finish the game in which the Arizona Diamondbacks beat Cincinnati 4-3 in 11 innings. Johnson, the first left-hander to strike out 20, missed a chance to join Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood as the record-holders for a nine-inning game because Arizona could not finish off the Reds in regulation.

2001 — The Devil Rays edge the Orioles, 4-3, as Tampa Bay’s Fred McGriff joins Mark McGwire, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Eddie Murray and Reggie Jackson as the only players to homer off 300 different pitchers in their career.

2009 — In his first game of the season after missing six weeks because of hip surgery, Alex Rodriguez hits the first pitch he sees from Baltimore’s Jeremy Guthrie for a three-run home run in a 4-0 Yankees win that ends a five-game losing streak. CC Sabathia pitches a four-hit shutout in his best performance since signing a huge free agent contract over the winter.

2010 — Jody Gerut hit for the cycle and drove in four runs, and the Milwaukee Brewers pounded the Arizona Diamondbacks 17-3. Gerut hit a solo home run in the second inning, singled in the third, drove in a run with a triple in the fifth and added a two-run double in the ninth.

2012 — Josh Hamilton became the 16th player to hit four home runs in a game. His four two-run drives came against three different pitchers, carrying the Texas Rangers to a 10-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

2015 — Bryce Harper hit two more home runs, giving him five in two games, and Danny Espinosa also connected twice to power the Washington Nationals to a 9-2 win over the Atlanta Braves. The 22-year-old Harper became the youngest in major league history to hit five homers in two games.

2018 — James Paxton of the Mariners becomes only the second-ever Canadian-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter, after Dick Fowler in 1945, turning the trick against the Blue Jays in a 5-0 win.

_____

May 9

1901 — Earl Moore of the Cleveland Indians pitched nine hitless innings against the Chicago White Sox before giving up two hits in the 10th to lose 4-2.

1937 — Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds went 6-for-6 in a 21-10 rout of the Phillies in Philadelphia.

1947 — In his first game outside of New York City, Jackie Robinson has two hits and scores twice in the Dodgers’ 6-5 loss to the Phillies.

1961 — Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles hit consecutive grand slams in the first and second innings of a 13-5 rout of Minnesota.

1962 — Brooks Robinson becomes the 6th major leaguer this century to hit grand slams in back-to-back games, as he hits one against Kansas City’s Ed Rakow. Baltimore wins, 6-3, at home.

1967 — Cardinals outfielder #9 Roger Maris hits his first National League home run on the ninth day of the month in seat 9 of section 9.

1973 — Johnny Bench of the Reds hit three home runs off Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton for the second time in his career. Bench drove in seven runs in Cincinnati’s 9-7 victory.

1984 — The Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers played for 8 hours, 6 minutes in the longest game. After playing 17 innings the previous day, the teams met again before a regularly scheduled game, making the total 34 innings for two days. Harold Baines homered off Chuck Porter with one out in the bottom of the 25th for a 7-6 victory. Tom Seaver won both games for the White Sox.

1987 — Baltimore’s Eddie Murray became the first major leaguer to homer from both sides of the plate in consecutive games as the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 15-6 at Comiskey Park.

1993 — Cubs 1B Mark Grace hits for the cycle in Chicago’s 5-4 loss to the Padres. He is the 14th Cub to do so.

1999 — Marshall McDougall hit six consecutive homers and knocked in 16 runs — both NCAA records — in Florida State’s 26-2 rout of Maryland. The second baseman opened with an RBI single, then hit six straight homers. After his base hit, McDougall had a solo homer in the second inning, a three-run shot in the fourth, a solo homer in the sixth, a three-run shot in the seventh, a grand slam in the eighth and a three-run shot in the ninth.

2006 — Tampa Bay prospect Delmon Young was suspended for 50 games without pay by the International League for throwing a bat that hit a replacement umpire in the chest. IL president Randy Mobley said he believed the suspension was the longest in the league’s 123-year history. The suspension is retroactive to April 27, the day after Young tossed his bat in a Triple-A game while playing for Durham.

2010 — Dallas Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in major league history, a dazzling performance for the Oakland Athletics in a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. He struck out six in the 109-pitch performance, throwing 77 strikes in his 53rd career start.

2011 — Zack Greinke wins his first game for the Milwaukee Brewers, striking out 9 batters in 6 innings in a 4-3 win over San Diego at Miller Park.

2013 — For only the third time ever, the reigning Cy Young Award winners face off. David Price and R.A. Dickey get no-decisions as the Rays top the Blue Jays, 5-4. The other match-ups had been Orel Hershiser vs. Frank Viola in 1989 and Tom Glavine vs. Roger Clemens in 1999.

2015 — Bryce Harper did it again, extending his remarkable homer streak with a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth inning that sent the Washington Nationals over the Atlanta Braves 8-6. Harper homered for the sixth time in his last three games, one off the major league record set by Shawn Green in 2002.

2019 — With a solo homer in the 3rd inning in a 13-0 win against the Tigers, Albert Pujols of the Angels becomes the fifth player in major league history to collect 2,000 RBIs.

_____