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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.


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.

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

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.

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.

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.


May 10

1909 — Pitching for Winchester in the Blue Grass League, Fred Toney worked 17 no-hit innings before winning 1-0 over Lexington.

1934 — Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees played five innings before removing himself from the game because of illness. By that time, he had two homers, two doubles and seven RBIs against the Chicago White Sox.

1944 — Cleveland’s Mel Harder became the 50th player to win 200 games as the Indians beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4.

1946 — The Boston Red Sox take their 15th straight game, a 5-4 win over New York in front of a Friday Ladies’ Day crowd at Yankee Stadium of 64,183. Earl Johnson got the win with four innings of scoreless relief. Joe DiMaggio’s grand slam accounted for the Yankees’ scoring.

1962 — Minnesota’s Lenny Green and Vic Power hit back-to-back home runs off Cleveland’s Jim Perry to start the game. Cleveland came back to win 9-4.

1967 — Braves outfielder Hank Aaron hit an inside-the-park home run. It was the only one of his 755 homers which did not clear the fence.

1970 — Hoyt Wilhelm pitched his 1,000th major league game, but the Atlanta Braves lost 6-5 to the St. Louis Cardinals.

1981 — Charlie Lea became the first French-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter as the Montreal Expos beat the San Francisco Giants 4-0 in the second game of a doubleheader.

1999 — Nomar Garciaparra hit two grand slams and a two-run homer to become the first AL player with 10 RBIs since 1975, leading the Boston Red Sox past the Seattle Mariners 12-4.

2008 — Greg Maddux of the San Diego Padres became the ninth pitcher in big league history to win 350 games, allowing an unearned over six innings in a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

2012 — The Orioles became the first AL team to open a game with three straight home runs, and Baltimore added two more long balls against Colby Lewis en route to a 6-5 victory over the Texas Rangers in a doubleheader opener. Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy and Nick Markakis began the bottom of the first inning with homers to give Baltimore a lead it would not relinquish. The previous team to homer in its first three at-bats was the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 9, 2007. Hardy was also the middle man in that assault. Milwaukee was the third major league team to accomplish the feat, all from the NL.

2013 — Two one-hitters with no other baserunners were pitched. Shelby Miller and Jon Lester each accomplished the feat. St. Louis Cardinals rookie Miller and Boston Red Sox left-hander Lester allowed just one hit and faced only 28 batters — no walks, hit batsmen or errors — in complete-game shutouts.


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