This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead
Sept. 19
1925 — Ted Lyons lost his bid for a no-hitter when Bobby Veach singled with two outs in the ninth inning. The Chicago White Sox routed the Washington Senators 17-0.
1926 — The St. Louis Cardinals pounded the Philadelphia Phillies 23-3 in the first game of a doubleheader and beat them again in the nightcap, 10-2.
1949 — Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates became the first NL player to hit 50 home runs in two different seasons.
1955 — Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs set a major league record with his fifth grand slam of the season in a 12-inning, 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
1968 — Denny McLain won his 31st game, the most in the AL since Lefty Grove’s 31 in 1931. The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 6-2 while Mickey Mantle hit his 535th and next-to-last career homer.
1972 — Minnesota’s Cesar Tovar completed the cycle with a game-winning two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Twins a 5-3 victory over the Texas Rangers.
1973 — Frank Robinson hit his first home run in Arlington Stadium, as a member of the California Angels. It was the 32nd major league ballpark in which he had homered.
1984 — Pete Rose reached the 100-hit plateau for the 22nd consecutive year, an all-time record. He also tied the NL record for doubles with 725 as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2.
1986 — Chicago’s Joe Crowley pitch a no-hitter to lead the White Sox to a 7-1 win over the California Angels.
1995 — San Diego’s Ken Caminiti became the first player in major league history to homer from both sides of the plate three times in a season as he went 4-for-4 with a career-high eight RBIs in a 15-4 win over Colorado.
1998 — Seattle’s Alex Rodriguez hit his 40th homer to become the third player in baseball history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.
2001 — Roger Clemens became the first pitcher in major league history to go 20-1, pitching the New York Yankees to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
2001 — Albert Pujols set a National League rookie RBI record as St. Louis beat Milwaukee 8-2. Pujols drove in three runs to give him 120 RBIs, breaking the mark of 119 set by Wally Berger in 1930 for the Boston Braves.
2008 — Baseball’s instant replay system produced its first reversal when Tampa Bay’s Carlos Pena had a two-run double changed to a three-run homer during the fourth inning against Minnesota.
2008 — Greg Maddox pitches his 5,000th inning against the San Francisco Giants.
2011 — Mariano Rivera set the major league record with his 602nd save, closing out the New York Yankees’ 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins.
2017 — A new MLB record for the most home runs in a season, 5,694, is set when Alex Gordon of the Kansas City Royals homers.
2024 — Shohei Ohtani kicks down the door of a brand new club of which he is the only member - the 50-50 club. Today, he gets his first six-hit game, and three of his hits are homers, giving him 51 on the season. He also steals two bases, also reaching (and going past) the 50 mark, all the while driving in ten runs in a 20 - 4 demolition of the Marlins by the Dodgers. Less than a month ago he became only the sixth member of the 40-40 club, but he now stands all alone in this new level of otherworldly excellence, and incidentally has set a new Dodgers single-season record for home runs (breaking Shawn Green’s mark).
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Sept. 20
1902 — Chicago’s Jim Callaghan tossed the White Sox’s first no-hitter, beating Detroit 2-0.
1907 — Pittsburgh’s Nicholas Maddox became the first Pirates pitcher to throw a no-hitter by defeating the Brooklyn Superbas, 2-1, at Exposition Park. Pirates player-manager Fred Clarke had the only two hits of the game, both off Elmer Stricklett. All three runs in the game were unearned. Brooklyn scored its run in the fourth, thanks to errors by Maddox and shortstop Honus Wagner. Maddox made a high throw over first baseman Harry Swacina’s head, allowing Emil Batch to reach base. Batch scored when Wagner threw away Al Burch’s ground ball.
1908 — Frank Smith of the Chicago White Sox threw his second career no-hitter for a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics.
1912 — The Detroit Tigers snapped Joe Wood’s 16-game win streak with a 6-4 win over the Boston Red Sox.
1924 — Grover Cleveland Alexander won his 300th game as the Chicago Cubs beat the New York Giants 7-3 in 12 innings.
1958 — Hoyt Wilhelm of the Baltimore Orioles pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the New York Yankees at Memorial Stadium, with the only run coming on a home run by Gus Triandos.
1968 — Mickey Mantle hit his last home run in the major leagues, a solo shot against Boston’s Jim Lonborg. Mantle had 536 homers.
1969 — Bob Moose of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched a 4-0 no-hitter against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium.
1988 — Wade Boggs became the first player this century to get 200 hits in six consecutive seasons as the Boston Red Sox pounded Toronto 13-2. Boggs also joined Lou Gehrig as the only players to get 200 hits and 100 walks in three consecutive years.
1992 — Philadelphia second baseman Mickey Morandini made the first unassisted triple play in the National League in 65 years, the ninth in major league history, in the Phillies’ 3-2, 13-inning loss to Pittsburgh.
1998 — Cal Ripken took himself out of the starting lineup and did not play in the Baltimore Orioles’ loss to the New York Yankees, ending his consecutive-game streak at 2,632 games. After nearly 16 years, Ripken said he decided the time was right to end the streak, which began on May 30, 1982.
2008 — Francisco Rodriguez recorded his 60th save in Los Angeles’ 7-3 victory over Texas.
2012 — The Washington Nationals brought postseason baseball back to the nation’s capital for the first time since 1933, earning a playoff spot with a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The city of Washington was last in the postseason 79 years ago, when player-manager Joe Cronin and the Senators lost to the New York Giants in five games in the World Series.
2013 — Alex Rodriguez set a major league record with his 24th career grand slam, passing Lou Gehrig with a tiebreaking shot in the seventh inning that sent New York Yankees to a 5-1 victory over San Francisco.
2017 — Chris Sale struck out 13 to become the first AL pitcher in 18 years to reach the 300 mark, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 9-0.
2018 — Justin Smoak homered with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 9-8 comeback victory over Tampa Bay. Trailing 8-2 to begin the bottom of the ninth, the Blue Jays roared back. Rowdy Tellez hit an RBI double and Danny Jansen chased Jamie Schultz with a three-run homer. Sergio Romo came on and struck out Richard Urena, but pinch hitter Kendrys Morales reached on a bloop single and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tied it with a two-run homer to left. Smoak followed with a first pitch drive to right, Toronto’s fourth homer of the game.
2021 — Jon Lester, St. Louis Cardinals, records his 200th win of his career with a 5-2 win over the Brewers.
2022 — Aaron Judge becomes just the sixth player in major league history to have a 60-homer season as he belts one in the 9th inning of a 9 - 8 Yankees win over Pittsburgh.
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Sept. 21
1934 — Daffy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals pitched a no-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers for 3-0 victory in the second game of an Ebbets Field doubleheader. Daffy’s brother Dizzy, held Brooklyn hitless until the eighth inning in the opener and won 13-0.
1947 — Boston’s Johnny Pesky had two hits in each game of a doubleheader and finished the day with 202 hits. Pesky surpassed the 200-hit mark for the third time in as many major league seasons. He is the only player to lead a league in hits in his first three seasons in the game.
1964 — Manager Gene Mauch’s first-place Phillies lost 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds on Chico Ruiz’s steal of home in the sixth inning. It was Philadelphia’s first of 10 straight losses, a streak that cost them the NL pennant.
1970 — Oakland’s Vida Blue pitched a no-hitter in his eighth major league start, beating Minnesota 6-0.
1995 — Colorado’s John Vander Wal set a major league record with his 26th pinch-hit of the season with a home run in the seventh inning against San Francisco.
2000 — Colorado’s Jeff Cirillo doubled twice in a 13-4 win over San Diego, giving him 51 doubles for the year. Cirillo and Todd Helton (57) became the seventh pair of teammates in major league history to reach 50 doubles in the same season.
2001 — Albert Pujols hit a grand slam and doubled in a run in St. Louis’ 9-5 win over Pittsburgh. The slam gave him the major league record for extra base hits by a rookie (83), one more than Johnny Frederick’s total for Brooklyn in 1929.
2001 — Ranger infielder Alex Rodriguez hits his 47th home run tying the major league record for home runs in a season by a shortstop. Cubs legend Ernie Banks established the record in 1958.
2006 — David Ortiz hit his 51st and 52nd homers, breaking the Red Sox record for most homers in a season of 50 set in 1938 by Jimmie Foxx. The homers also set the major league record by a designated hitter at 45, two more than he hit when he set the record last season.
2008 — Baseball said farewell to Yankee Stadium, the home of baseball’s most famous team. What began with a Babe Ruth home run on an April afternoon in 1923 ended with Mariano Rivera retiring Brian Roberts on a grounder to first baseman Cody Ransom, completing a 7-3 victory over Baltimore.
2013 — Matt Carpenter broke Stan Musial’s team record for doubles by a left-handed batter in a season and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-2. Carpenter’s fifth-inning double was his 54th of the season, one more than Musial’s total in 1953.
2016 — Rookie Gary Sanchez hit two more homers and drove in five runs to lead the New York Yankees to an 11-5 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays. Sanchez homered in his fourth straight game. The catcher hit a three-run shot in a four-run second off Alex Cobb and added his 19th homer in 43 games this season on a solo drive in the sixth against Justin Marks. Including two games last season, Sanchez became the first player in major league history to hit 19 homers in his first 45 games. Wally Berger, with the Boston Braves in 1930, went deep 19 times in his first 51 games.
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Sept. 22
1911 — Cy Young, 44, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0 for his 511th and final major league victory.
1936 — The Detroit Tigers swept the St. Louis Browns 12-0 and 14-0 to record the biggest double shutout in major league history.
1954 — Karl Spooner of Brooklyn became the first pitcher in the majors to strike out 15 in his first game as the Dodgers beat the New York Giants 3-0.
1966 — The Baltimore Orioles clinched their first AL pennant in 22 years with a 6-1 victory over the Kansas City A’s. Their last pennant came in 1944 when they were the St. Louis Browns.
1968 — Cesar Tovar played one inning at each position for the Minnesota Twins, becoming the second major leaguer in history to do it. Bert Campaneris of the Oakland A’s was the other.
1969 — Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants became the second player to hit 600 career home runs — joining Babe Ruth. The two-run shot off San Diego’s Mike Corkins in the seventh inning, gave the Giants a 4-2 win.
1973 — Baltimore’s Al Bumbry tied the major-league record with three triples as the Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-1 and clinched the American League East title.
1977 — Bert Blyleven tossed a 6-0 no-hitter for Texas against the Angels at Anaheim Stadium.
1986 — Fernando Valenzuela of Los Angeles became the first Mexican to win 20 games, beating the Houston Astros 9-2 while allowing two hits.
1990 — Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs stole his 300th base in an 11-5 loss to the New York Mets, to become the second player with 300 homers, 300 steals and 2,000 hits. Willie Mays was the other.
1993 — Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers faced three Seattle batters before hurting his right elbow. Ryan finished his career with 324 wins, 5,714 strikeouts and seven no-hitters.
2000 — Houston’s Jose Lima set an NL single-season record by allowing his 47th homer in the Astros’ 12-5 loss to Cincinnati. The major league record for home runs allowed in a season is 50, set by Minnesota’s Bert Blyleven in 1986.
2003 — Detroit set an AL record with its 118th loss, falling 12-6 to Kansas City. The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36-117) set the record.
2003 — Second baseman Alfonso Soriano broke a major league record by hitting his 13th leadoff homer of the year in the New York Yankees’ 10-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox.
2006 — Alfonso Soriano became baseball’s first 40-40-40 player in Washington’s 3-2 win over the New York Mets. Soriano hit his 40th double and stole his 41st base. With 45 homers, he already was only the fourth major league player with 40 homers and 40 steals in a season.
2018 — The Atlanta Braves capped a most surprising season by clinching their first NL East crown since 2013, with Mike Foltynewicz taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning in a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. A year after going 70-92, manager Brian Snitker and his Baby Braves surged back into the playoffs.
2023 — By hitting his 40th homer of the season, Ronald Acuña Jr. becomes just the fifth member of the exclusive 40-40 club consisting pf players whp have hit 40 homers and stolen 40 bases in the same season. He already has over 60 steals, the first player to ever combine the two totals, and has a chance to reach 70. The Braves defeat the Nationals, 9 - 6. For the second time in a month, Aaron Judge hits three homers in a game to lead the Yankees to a 7 - 1 lead over the Diamondbacks. Judge had never had such a game before this year, and becomes the first player in Yankees history to have two in one season.
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