This Date in Baseball - Aaron Judge ties American League record with his 61st HR of the season

Posted

Sept. 28

1919 — In the shortest nine-inning game in major league history, 51 minutes, the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1.

1920 — A grand jury indicted eight members of the Chicago White Sox on charges of fixing the 1919 World Series in the “Black Sox Scandal.”

1938 — Gabby Hartnett hit his famous “Homer in the Gloamin’” in the ninth inning against Mace Brown to give the Chicago Cubs a 6-5 victory, their ninth straight, at Wrigley Field. It was a key triumph en route to the Cubs’ NL pennant.

1941 — Ted Williams went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia A’s to finish the season with a .406 average. No player has batted .400 since.

1951 — Allie Reynolds pitched his second no-hitter of the season as the New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox, 8-0, in the opener of a doubleheader. The Yankees clinched the AL pennant with an 11-3 victory in the nightcap.

1960 — Ted Williams homered in his final major league plate appearance, against Baltimore’s Jack Fisher. Williams did not take a curtain call, but he trotted out to left field in the ninth and was replaced immediately by Carroll Hardy and retired to a standing ovation. It was Williams’ 521st career home run. The Red Sox rallied for two runs in the ninth for a 5-4 victory.

1974 — Nolan Ryan pitched his third of seven career no-hitters, striking out 15 batters and beating the Minnesota Twins, 4-0, at Anaheim Stadium.

1975 — Vida Blue, Glenn Abbott, Paul Lindblad and Rollie Fingers of the Oakland A’s combined to no-hit the California Angels, 5-0, on the final day of the season.

1995 — Greg Harris of the Montreal Expos became the first pitcher in major league history to pitch with both hands. Harris faced four batters, two from his usual right side and two from the left, in the ninth inning of a 9-7 loss to Cincinnati.

1997 — San Diego’s Tony Gwynn tied Honus Wagner’s record by winning his eighth NL batting title. Gwynn finished at .372, becoming the first player to win four consecutive NL batting titles since Rogers Hornsby won six straight from 1920-25.

2001 — Alex Rodriguez of Texas hit his 50th homer in an 11-2 victory over Anaheim and became the 20th player to hit 50 homers in a season.

2006 — James Loney tied a franchise record with nine RBIs, including a grand slam and a two-run homer, to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 19-11 victory at Colorado.

2012 — Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds threw the season’s seventh no-hitter, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0. The seven no-hitters matched the modern record (since 1900) for one season, tying 1990 and 1991. Pittsburgh (76-81) assured itself of a 20th consecutive non-winning season with the loss, extending its major North American professional sports record.

2016 — John Jaso hit for the cycle and drove in five runs in Pittsburgh’s 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

2017 — Giancarlo Stanton homered twice to become the first player to hit 59 in a season since 2001, and the Miami Marlins opened the last series of Jeffrey Loria’s tenure as owner by beating the Braves 7-1.

2022 — Aaron Judge ties one of the most hallowed records in baseball - the 61 home runs hit by Roger Maris in 1961, which still stands as the American League record six decades later. He takes Tim Mayza deep with a man on base in the 6th inning of a game at Rogers Centre, breaking a 3 - 3 tie to lead the Yankees to an 8 - 3 win. While three players have exceeded that total in the National League, all were active in the steroids era and their accomplishment has been tainted as a result - which is not the case for Judge.

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