This time in Baseball-Next Week

September 3

1917 — Philadelphia’s Grover Cleveland Alexander went the distance in both of the Phillies’ 5-0 and 9-3 wins over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1947 – Bill McCahan pitched a no-hitter to give the Philadelphia Athletics a 3-0 victory over the Washington Senators. One batter reached base for Washington, a two-base throwing error by Ferris Fain in the second inning.

1947 – The New York Yankees had 18 hits, all singles, in an 11-2 win over Boston at Fenway Park. Tommy Henrich and Joe DiMaggio each had four hits.

1957 – Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves pitched his 41st career shutout in an 8-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Spahn’s eye set a major league record for lefties.

1970 – Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs asked to be held out of the lineup, ending his National League record streak of 1,117 games played. His record was broken in 1983 by Steve Garvey.

1976 – Milwaukee’s Mike Hegan hit for the cycle and drove in six runs to lead the Brewers to an 11-2 rout of Mark Fidrych and the Detroit Tigers.

1986 – Billy Hatcher’s homer in the top of the 18th inning gave the Houston Astros an 8-7 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The teams played 14 innings the day before and used a major league record 53 players.

1990 – Bobby Thigpen set a major league record with his 47th save in a 4-2 Chicago White Sox win over Kansas City. Thigpen broke the record set by Dave Righetti of the New York Yankees in 1986.

2000 — Kenny Lofton’s first inning tied a 1939 major league record set by the Yankees’ Red Rolfe for hitting in 18 consecutive games. The Indians outfielder, in addition to hitting the game-winning homer in the 13th, also steals five bases, tying the Cleveland single-game record set by Alex Cole.

2001 — Bud Smith became the 16th rookie in modern history to throw a no-hitter and the second to do so in San Diego this season in a 4-0 victory over St. Louis. Smith had his 11th career start.

2007 – Pedro Martinez completed his comeback from major shoulder surgery and quickly entered the record books, becoming the 15th pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in his career. The New York Mets right-hander needed just two hits to reach the mark in a 10-4 win over Cincinnati.

2008 — Baseball’s first use of instant replay upheld a fielding call of a home run for Alex Rodriguez during the ninth inning of the New York Yankees’ game against the Tampa Bay Rays. It took 2 minutes, 15 seconds for the homer that gave the Yankees an 8-3 lead.

2011 — Milwaukee’s George Kottaras hits for the cycle to lead the Brewers to an 8-2 victory over the Houston Astros.

2013 — Travis Snider homered in the ninth inning to lift Pittsburgh to a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers that clinched the Pirates’ first undefeated record in 21 seasons.

2017 – Jose Ramirez tied a major league record with five extra-base hits, including a pair of home runs to lead off Detroit, and the Cleveland Indians beat the Tigers 11-1 to 11th straight win. Ramirez had three doubles to become the 13th player with five extra-base hits in a game.

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September 4th

1916 — Longtime rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown ended their careers by special arrangement in the same game. Mathewson won the game 10-8.

1923 – Sam Jones of the New York Yankees pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics without striking out a batter. Babe Ruth of New York had the only strikeout of the game.

1927 – Lloyd and Paul Waner became the first brothers to hit home runs in the same game, leading Pittsburgh to an 8-4 victory over Cincinnati. Both homers came off Dolf Luque in the fifth inning, the only time brothers in major league history have done it in one inning. Lloyd led off the inning with his second home run of the season, and one batter later, Paul hit his ninth of the year. Both were home runs, allowed until 1931; now doubles with the core rules.

1928 – The Boston Braves began a grueling streak in which they hit nine consecutive doubleheaders, a major league record.

1941 – The New York Yankees won the pennant in the earliest meeting in baseball history with a 6-3 victory over Boston.

1966 — Los Angeles became the first team in major league history to draw more than 2 million at home and on the road when the Dodgers defeated the Reds 8-6 in front of 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.

1974 – Don Wilson of the Houston Astros was replaced by a pinch hitter after pitching eight hitless innings against Cincinnati. Mike Cosgrove pitched the ninth inning and gave up a leadoff single to Tony Perez for the only hit in the Reds’ 2-1 win.

1985 – Gary Carter hit two solo homers to tie a major league record and singled in another run to lead the New York Mets to a 9-2 victory over San Diego. Carter’s performance followed a three-homer performance the night before, becoming the 11th player in major league history to hit five home runs in two games.

1993 – Jim Abbott pitches the New York Yankees’ first no-hitter in 10 years, leading them to a 4-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

1995 – Robin Ventura became the eighth player in major league history – and the first in 25 years – to hit two grand slams in one game as the Chicago White Sox beat Texas 14-3.

1998 – The New York Yankees reach 100 wins for the earliest time in major league history – five days ahead of the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 1954 Cleveland Indians – with an 11-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The 2006 Cubs set the major league record for fewest games to reach 100 wins (132).

2002 – The Oakland Athletics set an AL record by winning their 20th consecutive game. They somehow blew away an 11-run lead before pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg homered in the bottom of the ninth to beat Kansas City 12-11. Oakland broke a three-way tie for the longest winning streak in AL history with the 1906 Chicago White Sox and 1947 New York Yankees.

2017 — JD Martinez tied a major league record with four home runs and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-0 for their 11th straight win. Martinez became the 18th player in major league history to hit four homers in a game and the 16th in the modern era.

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September 5

1908 – Brooklyn’s Nap Rucker pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against Boston. Rucker struck out 14 and walked none.

1918 – Babe Ruth pitches a six-hitter for the Boston Red Sox, who beat the Chicago Cubs 1-0 in the opening game of the World Series. The series started early because of World War I.

1954 – Joe Bauman of Roswell of the Longhorn League hits three home runs to give him 72 for the season. Bauman never made it to the majors.

1955 — Brooklyn shortstop Don Newcombe connects for his seventh homer of the season, for a National League record for home runs by a pitcher. The Dodgers, behind Newcombe’s power and his 20th win, beat the Phillies 11-4.

1971 – JR Richard tied Karl Spooner’s major league record by striking out 15 San Francisco Giants in his first major league game as the Houston Astros defeated the Giants.

1982 – Roy Smalley hit a pair of three-run homers, one on each side of the plate, as the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 18-7.

1998 – Mark McGwire became the third player in baseball history to hit 60 home runs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-0. He joined Babe Ruth and Roger Maris with 60 homers in a single season.

2002 — Alex Rodriguez became the fifth player in major league history to record back-to-back 50-hit seasons, hitting two in Texas’ 11-2 rout of Baltimore. Rodriguez, who hit 52 homers last season, joined Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr.

2003 – Mike Maroth became the first major league pitcher in 23 years to lose 20 games in a season as Detroit lost to Toronto 8-6. Maroth (6-20) allowed eight runs and nine hits over three-plus innings. Oakland’s Brian Kingman went 8-20 in 1980.

2009 — Pittsburgh’s Ross Ohlendorf became the 40th major league pitcher to strike out a team-high nine pitches in an inning, but did not get the decision as the Pirates lost 2-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals. Louis in 10 innings.

2018 — Shohei Ohtani struck out twice in a huge night at the plate after receiving bad news about his pitching arm, and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers 9-3. Perhaps heading for Tommy John surgery, the two-way rookie sensation went 4-for-4 with three RBIs, four runs and a stolen base to help the Angels. Ohtani’s homers represented impressive drives in the right field seats. With his second two-hour game, the designated hitter tied Kenji Johjima’s 2006 major league record of 18 strikeouts by a Japanese rookie.

2018 — Brandon Phillips hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth inning, marking his long-awaited season debut and capping the Boston Red Sox’s biggest comeback of the year for a 9-8 victory over the Atlanta Braves . The Red Sox overcame a six-run deficit to sweep the three-game series between the division leaders.

2023 – Giancarlo Stanton hits his 400th career home run off José Cisnero in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie and lead the Yankees to a 5-1 victory over the Tigers. Needing 1,520 games to reach the mark makes him the fourth fastest in history behind Mark McGwire, Babe Ruth and Alex Rodriguez.

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