This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead
July 15
1901 — Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants pitched his first of two career no-hitters, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0.
1921 — NY Yankees slugger Babe Ruth ties MLB record of 138 career home runs (held by Roger Connor since 1895).
1960 — Baltimore’s Brooks Robinson goes 5-for-5, hitting for the cycle and driving in three runs to lead the Orioles past the Chicago White Sox 5-2.
1969 — Cincinnati’s Lee May hit four home runs in a doubleheader split with the Atlanta Braves. May had two home runs and drove in five runs in both games. The Reds lost the opener 9-8 but won the second game 10-4.
1969 — Rod Carew stole home off Chicago’s Gerry Nyman in the Minnesota Twins’ 6-2 victory. It was Carew’s seventh steal of home for the year and tied Pete Reiser’s 1946 major league mark.
1973 — Nolan Ryan of the California Angels struck out 17 batters and threw his second no-hitter of the year, beating Detroit 6-0.
1980 — Johnny Bench broke Yogi Berra’s record for home runs by a catcher, and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos 12-7. Bench hit his 314th homer as a catcher off David Palmer. Bench had 33 home runs while playing other positions.
1997 — The San Francisco Giants scored 13 runs to set a modern NL record for runs in a seventh inning en route to a 16-2 rout of the San Diego Padres. The Giants set the NL record for the most runs in a seventh inning since 1900.
1999 — After 22½ years in the dreary Kingdome, Seattle finally played a home game outdoors, moving into a $517.6 million ballpark with a retractable roof. Jose Mesa wasted a ninth-inning lead by walking four batters and the Mariners lost 3-2 to the San Diego Padres in Safeco Field’s opener.
2003 — Anaheim’s Garret Anderson went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and a double, powering the American League past the National League 7-6 in the All-Star Game.
2005 — Baltimore’s Rafael Palmeiro became the 26th player to reach 3,000 career hits, curling an RBI double into the left-field corner off Joel Pineiro in the fifth inning of a 6-3 win over Seattle. Palmeiro joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray as the only players with 3,000 hits and 500 homers.
2007 — The Philadelphia Phillies lost their 10,000 game, 10-2 to St. Louis. The franchise, born in 1883 as the Philadelphia Quakers and later unofficially called the Blue Jays in the mid-1940s, fell to 8,810-10,000.
2008 — Justin Morneau slid home just in time on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, giving the American League a 4-3 victory in the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. The AL extended its unbeaten streak to 12.
2014 — With Derek Jeter going out a winner in his last All-Star appearance, Mike Trout drove in two runs with a triple and a double to lead the American League past the National League 5-3. Jeter started his 14th and final midsummer classic and went 2 for 2 before being removed in the top of the fourth inning.
2017 — Cody Bellinger became the first Dodgers rookie to hit for the cycle and Alex Wood became the first Dodgers pitcher in more than a century to win his first 11 decisions in a season, helping Los Angeles beat the Miami Marlins 7-1.
2021 — Tampa Bay catcher Travis d’Arnaud becomes first player in MLB history to hit 3 homers while catching and batting leadoff in the Rays’ 5-4 win over the NY Yankees.
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July 16
1897 — Chicago’s Cap Anson became the first major leaguer to reach 3,000 hits when he singled off Baltimore’s George Blackburn.
1902 — John McGraw was named manager of the New York Giants, a post he would hold for 30 years.
1909 — Ed Summers of the Detroit Tigers allowed only seven hits and pitched all 18 innings of a 0-0 tie with the Washington Senators, the longest scoreless game in AL history.
1920 — Babe Ruth broke his own season record of 29 homers with his 30th as the New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 5-2. Ruth would finish the season with 54.
1933 — Red Lucas of the Cincinnati Reds pitched a 15-inning 1-0 win over Roy Parmelee and the New York Giants in the opener of a doubleheader.
1941 — Joe DiMaggio extended his hitting streak to 56 games with a 3-for-4 day as the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 10-3.
1948 — After 8 1/2 years as Brooklyn manager, Leo Durocher stunned baseball by taking the helm of the archrival Giants in midseason.
1958 - In the nitecap of a doubleheader, Baltimore pitcher Jack Harshman hit two homers in a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.
1970 — The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pirates 3-2 before 48,846 in the first game at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium.
1985 — Sparky Anderson became the first manager to lose an All-Star Game in both leagues. The National League won 6-1 for the 21st win in the last 23 games.
1996 — Colorado’s streak of scoring seven runs in a game ended at 11. The Rockies beat the Giants 5-3 and tied the 1911 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1938 New York Yankees and 1976 Cincinnati Reds with 11 7-run games.
1997 — Kevin Brown pitched his first career one-hitter to lead Florida to 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Brown, who no-hit San Francisco on June 10th, faced two batters over the minimum and allowed a lead-off single to left by Raul Mondesi in the fifth. He struck out eight and retired his final 15 batters.
1998 — Randy Johnson pitched a one-hitter to lead Seattle to a 3-0 win over Minnesota. Johnson struck out fans 11 and gave up a single to third baseman Brent Gates.
2006 — Chipper Jones hit a two-run homer in Atlanta’s 10-5 win at San Diego to give him an extra-base hit in 14 straight games, tying a 79-year-old major league record. Jones tied the record set in 1927 by Pittsburgh’s Paul Waner.
2006 — Mariano Rivera earned his 400th save, escaping two jams and getting six outs to preserve the New York Yankees’ 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Rivera joined Lee Smith, Trevor Hoffman and John Franco in the 400-save club.
2009 — Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard became the fastest player in major league history to reach 200 career home runs, breaking the record previously held by Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner. Howard reached 200 homers in his 658th game, hitting his 23rd of the season in the sixth inning of a 4-0 win over Florida. Kiner hit No. 200 in his 706th game.
2013 — Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect eighth inning in his final All-Star appearance, Jose Bautista, J.J. Hardy and Jason Kipnis drove in runs to back a night of pulsating pitching, and the American League beat the National League 3-0.
2015 — Brock Holt became the first Boston player to hit for the cycle since 1996 and the Red Sox slugged their way out to a 9-4 victory over Atlanta.
2021 — Jake Cronenworth hit for his first career cycle, Wil Myers had a grand slam and a two-run shot and the San Diego Padres set a franchise record for runs in a 24-8 blowout of the Washington Nationals.
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July 17
1924 — Jesse Haines of the St. Louis Cardinals pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Boston Braves.
1925 — Tris Speaker is the 5th player to reach 3,000 hits.
1936 — Carl Hubbell’s 24-game winning streak over two years began as he beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-0 on five hits.
1941 — Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak of 56 games was stopped by Al Smith and Jim Bagby of the Indians before 67,000 at Cleveland. The Yankees still won, 4-3.
1956 — In the second game of a doubleheader against Kansas City, Ted Williams hit his 400th career home run. Williams connected in the sixth inning off Tom Gorman to give the Red Sox a 1-0 win over the A’s.
1966 — Chicago’s Billy Williams hit for the cycle to lead the Cubs to a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader. Williams singled in the first inning, doubled in the third, had an RBI-triple in the fifth, homered to center in the seventh and popped out to third baseman in foul territory. The Cardinals took the opener 4-3 in 11 innings.
1969 — Jim Kaat, Gold Glove winner for seven straight years, was charged with three errors, leading to three unearned runs against the Chicago White Sox. Nevertheless, he won the game at Minnesota 8-5.
1974 — Bob Gibson struck out Cesar Geronimo of the Reds in the second inning to become the second pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 strikeouts. Cincinnati beat St. Louis, 6-4.
1978 — Doc Medich of the Texas Rangers saved the life of a 61-year-old fan who had a heart attack just before a scheduled game at Baltimore. Medich, a medical student, administered heart massage until help arrived.
1987 — Don Mattingly became the first AL player to hit at least one home run in each of seven consecutive games as the New York Yankees disposed of the Texas Rangers 8-4.
1990 — Minnesota became the first team in major league history to pull off two triple plays in one game, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Boston as the Red Sox beat the Twins 1-0.
2007 — Ryan Garko hit a game-tying pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning and singled home the winning run in the 11th to give Cleveland a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.
2011 — Dustin Pedroia singled with two outs in the top of the 16th inning, snapping a scoreless tie and giving the Red Sox a 1-0 victory over the Rays. It was the longest 1-0 game in the major leagues since the Brewers at Angels on June 8, 2004 went 17 innings.
2016 — Starling Marte hit a solo home run in the 18th inning and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 2-1 in a marathon game that lasted almost six hours. Pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy homered with two outs in the ninth inning for Washington.
2022 — Second-generation players take the first two spots in the 2022 amateur draft as SS Jackson Holliday, son of Matt Holliday, goes first overall to the Orioles, while OF Druw Jones, son of Andruw Jones, is selected second by the Diamondbacks. P Kumar Rocker, who had been the #10 pick in 2021 but had failed to come to an agreement with the Mets following a disagreement over the health of his pitching arm, goes #3 to the Rangers, who sign him mere hours after his selection. Rocker is coming off a brilliant stint of pitching in the independentFrontier League.
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