This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead

Aug. 8

1903 — A week after pitching his first doubleheader triumph, Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity of the New York Giants scored a double victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers 6-1 and 4-3. In the second game, he stole home.

1915 — Philadelphia’s Gavvy Cravath hit four doubles and drove in eight runs in a 14-7 victory over the Reds at Cincinnati.

1920 — Howard Ehmke of the Detroit Tigers pitched the fastest 1-0 game in American League history — 1 hour, 13 minutes, for a victory against the New York Yankees.

1931 — Bob Burke of the Washington Senators pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox.

1954 — The Brooklyn Dodgers pounded the Cincinnati Reds 20-7 at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers scored 13 runs in the eighth inning after two were out.

1973 — Designated hitter Orlando Cepeda hit four doubles as the Boston Red Sox posted a 9-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

1985 — Baseball, after a two-day walkout, resumed playing with 18 games scheduled, including five doubleheaders.

1988 — The first night game scheduled in the 74-year history of Chicago’s Wrigley Field’s was postponed with the Cubs leading the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 after heavy rains started in the bottom of the fourth inning. Philadelphia’s Phil Bradley led off the game with a home run, but all numbers were wiped out when the rain came.

1992 — Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley had his consecutive save record snapped at 40. His consecutive save records — 36 straight to start a season, and 40 straight over two seasons — ended trying to protect a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning against the Kansas City Royals. Eckersley gave up a two-out, two-run single to Gregg Jefferies to give the Royals a 3-2 lead. But the Athletics came back to win the game in the ninth, 5-3.

1997 — Randy Johnson struck out 19, matching the major league record for left-handers he had tied earlier this season, as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Chicago White Sox 5-0.

1998 — Paul Molitor stole his 500th base in Minnesota’s 6-3 loss to Baltimore become the fifth player with 3,000 hits and 500 steals. Molitor joined Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Lou Brock.

2000 — Darren Dreifort of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit two homers and was the winning pitcher in a 7-5 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

2001 — Damion Easley went 6-for-6 with a home run and three RBIs as Detroit pounded Texas 19-6.

2014 — Bartolo Colon records the 200th win of his career in the Mets’ 5 - 4 win over the Phillies.

2016 — Brandon Crawford became the first major league player in 41 years to get seven hits in a game, putting the San Francisco Giants ahead to stay with an RBI single in the 14th inning of an 8-7 victory over the Miami Marlins. Crawford tripled, doubled and had five singles in eight at-bats.

2018 — Milwaukee’s Jesus Aguilar, Travis Shaw and Eric Thames hit consecutive first-inning homers to spoil the debut of San Diego’s Brett Kennedy in the Brewers 8-4 win over the Padres.

2018 — Jacob deGrom struck out 10 over six innings, received rare significant run support and earned his first win in nearly two months as the New York Mets blanked the Cincinnati Reds 8-0. Brandon Nimmo tied a team record with three doubles and drove in three runs as the Mets won for the 22nd time in their last 66 games. DeGrom (6-7) ended a seven-start winless streak, allowing four hits in a 100-pitch outing and lowering his major league-leading ERA to 1.77.

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Aug. 9

1916 — The Philadelphia A’s ended their 20-game losing streak as Joe Bush beat the Detroit Tigers 7-1.

1939 — Red Rolfe of the New York Yankees started a streak of 18 consecutive games in which he scored at least one run. During those games, he scored a total of 30 runs.

1960 — Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hit home run No. 511 to tie Mel Ott for fourth place on the all-time list.

1975 — Davey Lopes of the Los Angeles Dodgers stole his 32nd consecutive base without being caught in a 2-0 victory over the New York Mets, breaking Max Carey’s 1922 record. Lopes tacked on six more steals before being caught on Aug. 24.

1976 — John Candelaria became the first Pirate pitcher in 69 years to throw a no-hitter in Pittsburgh by blanking the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0. Candelaria’s no-hitter came at Three Rivers Stadium. No Pirate ever threw a no-hitter at Forbes Field.

1981 — Baseball returned following the strike with the All-Star game in Cleveland before a crowd of 72,086. Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos hit two home runs to give the NL a 5-4 triumph over the AL. Vida Blue became the first pitcher to win an All-Star game in both leagues. His AL victory came in 1971 at Detroit.

1988 — The Chicago Cubs won the first official night game at Wrigley Field by beating the New York Mets 6-4.

1998 — Dennis Martinez became the winningest Latin pitcher in baseball history, breaking Juan Marichal’s record of 243 victories. Martinez pitched a perfect eighth inning and got the victory when Chipper Jones hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the ninth inning and the Atlanta Braves held on for the win.

2001 — Mike Hampton tied the NL record for pitchers with his seventh homer as the Rockies beat the Cubs 14-5. Hampton’s seventh homer matched the NL mark shared by Don Drysdale (1958, 1965) and Don Newcombe (1955). The major league record is nine by Cleveland’s Wes Ferrell in 1931.

2002 — Barry Bonds hit his 600th homer, becoming the fourth major leaguer to reach the mark. With a 421-foot, solo shot off Pittsburgh’s Kip Wells, the San Francisco Giants slugger joined Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays in the exclusive club.

2007 — Failed pitcher Rick Ankiel hit a three-run home run to cap his debut as a major league outfielder in St. Louis’ 5-0 victory over San Diego.

2018 — Mookie Betts homered for Boston in the ninth inning to complete his first career cycle, and Toronto held on to beat the Red Sox 8-5.

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Aug. 10

1901 — Frank Isbell of the Chicago White Sox set an AL record by stranding 11 teammates on the basepaths.

1944 — Charles “Red” Barrett of the Boston Braves threw only 58 pitches to beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 in a nine-inning game.

1957 — Mickey Mantle became the first player to clear the center-field hedge at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium when his 460-foot homer hit the base of the scoreboard. The Yankees beat the Orioles, 6-3.

1969 — Cesar Tovar of Minnesota broke up the second no-hit bid against the Twins by a Baltimore pitcher. Tovar singled with no out in the ninth off Mike Cuellar. Earlier in the year, Tovar singled with one out in the ninth to spoil Dave McNally’s bid.

1971 — Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins hit his 500th home run in the first inning off Baltimore’s Mike Cuellar to become the 10th player to hit 500 or more in a career. Killebrew also hit No. 501 off Cuellar but the Orioles won 4-3.

1981 — Major league baseball resumed play after a two-month strike. In the St. Louis Cards-Phillies game at Philadelphia, attended by 60,561 fans, Pete Rose broke Stan Musial’s NL hit record when he singled for his 3,631st hit. It came off Mark Littell in the eighth inning.

1987 — Philadelphia’s Kevin Gross was ejected in the fifth inning after umpires discovered a strip of sandpaper glued to the heel of his glove to scuff balls. The Phillies had a 4-2 lead over the Chicago Cubs. Gross would be suspended for 10 games the next day.

1995 — Ball Night at Dodger Stadium turned into the first forfeit in the majors in 16 years. Los Angeles forfeited a game to the St. Louis Cardinals after fans threw souvenir baseballs onto the field three times. The game was called with one out in the bottom of the ninth.

2003 — Atlanta Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal turned the 12th unassisted triple play in major league history against the St. Louis Cardinals. With runners on first and second in the fifth inning, Furcal made a leaping grab of pitcher Woody Williams’ liner. The runners were going, and Furcal stepped on second base to double up Mike Matheny before tagging out Orlando Palmeiro.

2004 — Barry Bonds became the first player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in 13 consecutive seasons, hitting a solo shot off John Grabow in the seventh inning of San Francisco’s 8-7 loss to Pittsburgh. Bonds has now hit 30 homers in 14 seasons, one shy of Hank Aaron’s record.

2006 — Boston’s Curt Schilling tied the AL record by allowing 10 extra-base hits in a 5-4 loss to Kansas City. Schilling gave up nine doubles and a home run, matching the mark set by Washington’s Dale Gear in 1901 and equaled by Cleveland’s Luis Tiant in 1969.

2009 — Troy Tulowitzki had five hits, hit for the cycle and had a career-high seven RBIs to help Colorado beat the Chicago Cubs 11-5.

2018 — Kole Calhoun and Justin Upton hit two-run homers, Albert Pujols reached another milestone and Los Angeles rallied past Oakland for 4-3 win. With a single in the sixth inning, Pujols recorded his 1,000th career hit with the Angels. He became the ninth player all-time with at least 1,000 hits in each league after getting 2,073 with St. Louis.

2018 — The Orioles’ awful season continues as they blow an early 8 - 3 lead against Boston to lose, 19 - 12. This puts them 46 1/2 games back of the division-leading Red Sox, with 46 games remaining, meaning they are mathematically eliminated. It matches the earliest date this has happened in baseball history, set by the 1932 Red Sox and copied by the 1962 Mets, two notoriously awful teams, and the 46 games left to play at the time of elimination is a new record in the divisional era.

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