This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead

Sept. 16

1914 — Roger Peckinpaugh, at 23, was hired to finish the season as manager of the New York Yankees.

1924 — Jim Bottomley went 6-for-6 and batted in a record 12 runs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 17-3. His hits included two home runs.

1926 — The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 23-3 at the Baker Bowl. The Cardinals scored 12 runs in the third inning to set a franchise record.

1939 — The New York Yankees clinched their fourth successive pennant with a win over Detroit. It was the 11th pennant overall.

1957 — The Los Angeles City Council approved a 300-acre site in Chavez Ravine for a ballpark for the Dodgers. The club’s obligation was to finance a public recreation area.

1960 — Warren Spahn, 39, pitched a no-hitter and set an all-time Braves record with 15 strikeouts. Milwaukee beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-0.

1965 — Dave Morehead of the Boston Red Sox pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park. Morehead walked one batter and struck out.

1975 — The Pittsburgh Pirates routed the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field 22-0. It was the most one-sided shutout since 1900. Rennie Stennett had seven hits, including two two-hit innings. Pittsburgh’s Rennie Stennett tied a major league mark established in 1892 going 7-for-7 in a nine-inning game. The Pirates’ second baseman got two hits in one inning twice (in the first and fifth innings.

1988 — Cincinnati’s Tom Browning pitched a perfect game as the Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0. Browning struck out eight and allowed eight balls to be hit out of the infield.

1993 — Dave Winfield of the Minnesota Twins became the 19th player in major league history to get 3,000 hits. Winfield singled off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in a 5-1 win at home.

1996 — Minnesota’s Paul Molitor got his 3,000th career hit, becoming the 21st major leaguer to reach the mark, in a 6-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals.

1997 — Philadelphia’s Curt Schilling struck out nine in the Phillies win over the New York Mets to become the 13th pitcher since 1900 with 300 strikeouts in a season.

2000 — Chicago’s Sammy Sosa became the third player to hit 50 home runs in three different seasons, joining Babe Ruth and Mark McGwire. Sosa homered in the Cubs’ 7-6 loss to St. Louis, joining McGwire as the only players to hit 50 in three straight years.

2006 — Washington’s Alfonso Soriano became the fourth player in major league history to record 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season in an 8-4 win over Milwaukee. Soriano when he swiped second base, his 40th stolen base, to go along with 45 home runs.

2006 — Chone Figgins hit for the cycle in the Los Angeles Angels’ 12-6 loss to the Texas Rangers.

2007 — Jim Thome became the 23rd player — and third this season — to reach 500 home runs. The slugger hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth inning off reliever Dustin Moseley to give the Chicago White Sox a 9-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

2014 — Jake Arrieta took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning before giving up Brandon Phillips’ one-out double, the only blemish for the Chicago Cubs pitcher in a 7-0 win over Cincinnati. Arrieta struck out 13 and walked one in his first career complete game.

_____

Sept. 17

1912 — Brooklyn’s Casey Stengel makes his major league debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates, finishing with four singles, two RBIs and two steals in a 7-3 win.

1920 — Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers hit for the cycle in a 14-13 12-inning win over the Boston Red Sox at Navin Field. Veach had six hits, achieving the cycle with a double in the ninth.

1930 — Cleveland’s Earl Averill drove in eight runs with three consecutive home runs to lead the Indians to a 13-7 victory over the Washington Senators in a doubleheader opener. Averill added another homer in the nightcap, setting an American League record with 11 RBIs in a doubleheader.

1941 — Stan Musial makes his major league debut.

1947 — Jackie Robinson named Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News.

1968 — Gaylord Perry of the San Francisco Giants pitched a no-hitter, a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and Bob Gibson. Ron Hunt homered for the only run.

1984 — Reggie Jackson became the 13th player to hit 500 home runs. The milestone shot came off Kansas City pitcher Bud Black. His homer came exactly 17 years after his first career hit.

1984 — Rookie pitcher Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets struck out 16 Phillies in a 2-1 loss at Philadelphia. Five days earlier, Gooden fanned 16 Pittsburgh Pirates tying a major league record for 32 strikeouts in two consecutive games.

1988 — Jeff Reardon became the first pitcher to save 40 games in both leagues as the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1. Reardon, who saved 42 games for the Montreal Expos in 1985, pitched the ninth inning for his 40th save in 47 opportunities.

1996 — Hideo Nomo pitched a no-hitter against the Colorado Rockies, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 9-0 victory. Nomo walked four batters and stuck out eight.

2004 — San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hit the 700th home run of his career, joining Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755) as the only players to reach the milestone. Bonds connected in the third inning at home, a 392-foot solo shot to left-center. San Francisco beat San Diego 4-1.

2004 — Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki broke Lloyd Waner’s season record for singles with his 199th in a 6-3 win over Oakland. Suzuki’s two hits gave him 235 for the season, 22 shy of the major league record set by George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns in 1920.

2008 — Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki matched Willie Keeler’s major league record of eight straight 200-hit seasons, beating out an infield single in the eighth inning for his third hit against Kansas City.

2018 — Christian Yelich became the first major leaguer to hit for the cycle twice in one season against the same team, driving in four runs to lead the Milwaukee Brewers over the Cincinnati Reds 8-0.

2024 — With a stolen base in the 1st inning, Bobby Witt Jr. becomes the first shortstop to have more than one 30-30 season, as he now has 30 steals and 32 homers; he also just the 8th player to accomplish the feat in consecutive seasons.

_____

Sept. 18

1903 — Philadelphia’s Chick Fraser pitched a 10-0 no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader. The Cubs won the opener 6-5. Fraser struck out five and walked four. Peaches Graham, normally a catcher, was the loser in his only major league decision.

1908 — Bob Rhoads of the Indians pitched a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox for a 2-1 victory in Cleveland.

1930 — New York pitcher Red Ruffing hit two home runs as the Yankees edged the St. Louis Browns 7-6 in 10 innings.

1954 — The Cleveland Indians clinched the American League pennant with a 3-2 triumph over the Detroit Tigers.

1963 — The New York Mets lost their last game at the Polo Grounds — 5-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies before a crowd of 1,752.

1968 — Ray Washburn threw a 2-0 no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park, one day after the Giants’ Gaylord Perry tossed a no-hitter against Washburn’s St. Louis Cardinals.

1980 — Minnesota’s Gary Ward hit for the cycle in a 9-8 loss at Milwaukee. It was Ward’s 14th career game and the home run was his first in the major leagues. The Brewers won the game in the bottom of the ninth on Gorman Thomas’ two-out two-run homer.

1984 — The Detroit Tigers clinched the American League East Division with a 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, making the Tigers the fourth team in major league history to lead from start to finish. The other three teams were the 1923 New York Giants, 1927 New York Yankees and the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.

1984 — Montreal’s Tim Raines became the first player in major league history with four consecutive seasons of 70 or more stolen bases by swiping four in the Expos’ 7-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

1985 — Boston catcher Rich Gedman hit for the cycle and drove in seven runs as the Red Sox rout the Toronto Blue Jays, 13-1.

1987 — Detroit’s Darrell Evans became the first 40-year-old player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in a season as the Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6.

1996 — Roger Clemens equaled his own major league record, fanning 20 batters and pitching a four-hitter to lead Boston over the Detroit Tigers 4-0.

2003 — Atlanta clinched its 12th straight division title when second-place Florida was mathematically eliminated from the NL East race after a 5-4 loss to Philadelphia. The record title streak started in 1991, when the Braves won the NL West. They moved to the East Division in 1994 and trailed Montreal by six games when the strike stopped the season in August.

2006 — The Los Angeles Dodgers hit four consecutive homers in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and Nomar Garciaparra’s two-run homer in the 10th lifted Los Angeles to an 11-10 victory over the San Diego Padres.

2011 — Erick Aybar went 4 for 4, with four extra-base hits and tied a franchise record by scoring five runs, leading the Los Angeles Angels to an 11-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

2012 — Dusty Baker managed his 3,000th game, guiding the Cincinnati Reds against one of his former teams, the Chicago Cubs.

2020 — Garrett Crochet becomes the first player in over a decade to go straight to the majors when the #11 pick from the 2020 amateur draft makes his maiden appearance pitching in relief for the White Sox against the Reds. After working out at the Sox’s alternate training site in Schaumburg, IL since being signed, he impresses by striking two of three batter he faces and regularly hitting 100 mph on the radar gun with his fastball.

_____