This Date in Baseball

Posted

May 24

1918 — Cleveland’s Stan Coveleski pitched 19 innings in the Indians’ 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees. Former pitcher Joe Wood hit a home run for the win.

1935 — In the first major league night game in Cincinnati, the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 before 25,000.

1936 — Tony Lazzeri, batting eighth for the New York Yankees, drove in 11 runs with a triple and three home runs — two of them grand slams — in a 25-2 rout of the Philadelphia A’s.

1940 — The New York Giants beat the Boston Bees 8-1 before 22,260 in the first night game at the Polo Grounds.

1940 — The Cleveland Indians edged the Browns 3-2 in the first night game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The crowd of 24827 was the largest in attendance since 1922.

1947 — Brooklyn’s Carl Furillo batted for Gene Hermanski — in the first inning — and hit a three-run homer. Why the move? Phillies manager Ben Chapman started righty Al Jurisch just to pitch to Brooklyn’s first two hitters: Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. Reese struck out and Robinson walked. Lefty Oscar Judd, warming up from the start, came in to pitch to the next three lefty hitters: Pete Reiser, Dixie Walker, and Hermanski. Reiser walked and Walker popped out. Furillo came in for Hermanski and connected to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead. The Dodgers lost to Philadelphia 4-3 in 10 innings.

1964 — Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins hit the longest home run in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, a 471-foot shot to left-center off right-hander Milt Pappas.

1984 — Jack Morris led the Tigers to their 17th straight road win, setting an AL record. Morris allowed four hits and Detroit beat the California Angels 5-1.

1990 — Chicago’s Andre Dawson was walked intentionally five times by the Cincinnati Reds to break the record shared by Roger Maris and Garry Templeton.

1994 — The St. Louis Cardinals set a major league record by stranding 16 runners without scoring, losing to David West and three Philadelphia Phillies relievers 4-0.

1995 — Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley became the sixth pitcher with 300 saves in a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

1998 — Freshman Matt Diaz hit four homers, tying a school and regional record, and drove in seven runs as Florida State routed Oklahoma 23-2 to advance to the NCAA Atlantic II Regional final.

2000 — For the third time in major league history a team blew a seven-run lead twice in a week. The Houston Astros lost a 7-0 lead at home against Philadelphia after blowing a 9-2 lead in the ninth inning at Milwaukee two days earlier.

2001 — Jon Lieber of the Chicago Cubs threw a 79-pitch, one-hit shutout in a 3-0 blanking of the Reds. It was the first shutout of the Reds in an NL-record 208 games.

2006 — Adam Wainwright homered in his first major league at-bat and pitched three innings of relief to earn the win in St. Louis’ 10-4 victory over San Francisco. Wainwright, who had no batting practice since spring training, hit the first pitch he saw out to left in the fifth for a solo homer.

2007 — John Smoltz of Atlanta pitched seven shutout innings and became baseball’s first pitcher with 200 wins and 150 saves with a 2-1 win over the New York Mets.

2007 — Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-6 with a homer in his 1,000th major league game. Suzuki compiled 1,414 hits in those games — the second most by a player in his first 1,000 games since 1900. Hall of Famer Al Simmons (1924-44) had 1,443 hits in that span.

2009 — Milwaukee’s Mike Cameron homered in the Brewers’ 6-3 loss at Minnesota, becoming the 20th player in major league history to have 250 home runs and 250 steals. He has 291 career steals.

2011 — Chicago’s Carlos Quentin hit three home runs to lead the White Sox to an 8-6 win over Texas. The game was delayed nearly 3 hours by heavy rain and hail. Quentin’s third homer — a solo shot off Dave Bush in the ninth — made it 8-6.

2013 — Anibal Sanchez took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Minnesota’s Joe Mauer broke it up with a one-out single, and that was the only hit the Detroit right-hander allowed in the Tigers’ 6-0 victory over the Twins.

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May 25

1906 — Jesse Tannehill’s 3-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox snapped a 20-game losing streak — 19 at home — for the Boston Red Sox.

1935 — Babe Ruth, winding up his career with the Boston Braves, hit three homers and a single at Pittsburgh, but the Pirates won 11-7. Ruth connected once off Red Lucas and twice off Guy Bush.

1941 — Boston’s Ted Williams raised his batting average over .400 for the first time during the season. Williams finished the season batting. 406.

1951 — Willie Mays, a highly touted rookie for the Giants, went 0-for-5 in his debut against the Philadelphia Phillies.

1982 — Ferguson Jenkins became the seventh pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in the Chicago Cubs’ 2-1 loss at San Diego. Jenkins reached the milestone by striking out Garry Templeton in the third inning.

2001 — Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs allowed one hit and struck out 14 in a 1-0 win over the Brewers. Wood took a no-hit bid into the seventh before giving up a leadoff single to Mark Loretta.

2001 — Hideo Nomo of the Boston Red Sox tossed a one-hitter and struck out 14 in a 4-0 win over Toronto. Nomo faced one batter over the minimum of 27, giving up a leadoff double in the fourth to Shannon Stewart.

2002 — Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers homered twice in a 10-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, setting a major league record with seven homers in his last three games.

2009 — Cleveland rallied from a 10-0 deficit in the fourth as Victor Martinez’s two-out, two-run single in the ninth capped a seven-run inning and lifted the Indians to an 11-10 victory over Tampa Bay. The Indians became the first team in the majors to win after trailing by 10 runs since the Texas Rangers rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 16-15 on May 8, 2004.

2011 — Andruw Jones hit a pair of two-run homers, Mark Teixeira also hit a two-run shot and Mariano Rivera made a milestone appearance in New York’s 7-3 victory over Toronto. Rivera pitched the ninth inning in a non-save situation, the 1,000th game he’s played for the Yankees. The 11-time All-Star closer became the first player in major league history to reach the plateau for one team and the 15th to make it overall. Jones homered in the second inning and Teixeira in the third off Jo-Jo Reyes, who matched a major league record by making his 28th consecutive start without a win.

2011 — Infielder Wilson Valdez wound up as the winning pitcher when the Philadelphia Phillies needed 19 innings to outlast the Cincinnati Reds 5-4. Valdez threw a hitless 19th inning in his first professional pitching appearance. He became the first position player to become a winning pitcher since Colorado catcher Brent Mayne on Aug. 22, 2000.

2012 — Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam and tied his career high with eight RBIs, Josh Hamilton hit his 19th home run of the season and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 14-3. Cruz’s grand slam came in the seventh inning and gave Texas a 14-1 lead. He also had a three-run double in the first and an RBI single in the sixth.

2013 — Angel Pagan became the first San Francisco player to end a game with an inside-the-park homer, connecting with a runner aboard in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Giants a 6-5 victory over Colorado. The last major leaguer to hit an inside-the-park home run that ended a game was Rey Sanchez for Tampa Bay on June 11, 2004 — also in a 10-inning victory over Colorado.

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May 26

1916 — Benny Kauff of the Giants was picked off first base three times by Boston’s Lefty Tyler. The miscues didn’t hurt as New York won its 14th consecutive road victory beating the Braves, 12-1.

1925 — In Detroit’s 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, Ty Cobb became the first to collect 1,000 career extra-base hits. He finished his career with 1,139.

1929 — Pinch-hitters Pat Crawford of the Giants and Les Bell of the Boston Braves hit grand slams in New York’s 15-9 victory.

1930 — Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians, who fanned only three times in 353 at-bats during the season, was struck out twice in the same game by Pat Caraway of the White Sox.

1937 — Billy Sullivan and Bruce Campbell appeared for the Cleveland Indians as pinch hitters. Each hit a home run, making this the first time two American League pinch hitters hit home runs in the same game. The Indians beat the Athletics, 8-6.

1956 — Cincinnati Reds pitchers John Klippstein, Hershell Freeman and Joe Black combined for 9 2-3 hitless innings, but lost 2-1 in 11 innings to the Philadelphia Phillies.

1959 — Harvey Haddix of Pittsburgh pitched 12 perfect innings before losing to Milwaukee 1-0 in the 13th on an error, a sacrifice and Joe Adcock’s double.

1962 — Sandy Koufax struck out 16 Phillies to lead the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory.

1995 — Southern California and Fresno State combined for an NCAA postseason baseball record of 39 runs in the Trojans’ 22-17 win in the West Regional. USC scored three runs in the top of the ninth to break the record of 37 set by the Trojans and Houston in 1990.

1996 — The Chicago White Sox became the 16th team in AL history to hit four homers in one inning in their 12-1 win over Milwaukee. Frank Thomas, Harold Baines and Robin Ventura hit consecutive homers and Chad Kreuter added another in Chicago’s seven-run eighth.

1997 — Chicago’s Sammy Sosa and the Pirates’ Tony Womack hit inside-the-park homers in the sixth inning of the Cubs’ 2-1 win. It was the first time two inside-the-park homers had been hit in the same inning in 20 years.

2004 — Daryle Ward hit for the cycle and tied his career best with six RBIs in Pittsburgh’s 11-8 win over St. Louis.

2008 — Chase Utley tied the National League lead with his 16th homer and drove in six runs as Philadelphia routed Colorado 20-5. The Phillies batted around three times and had season-highs in hits (19) and runs.

2011 — The hot-hitting Boston Red Sox routed the Detroit Tigers 14-1 in an eight-inning, rain-shortened game. The Red Sox, who beat Cleveland 14-2 the previous day, scored at least 14 runs in back-to-back games for the first time since 1998.

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