This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead

Sept. 3

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

1947 - Bill McCahan pitched a 3-0 no-hitter to give the Philadelphia Athletics a 3-0 win over Washington.

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

1957 - Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves recorded his 41st career shutout with an 8-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Spahn’s shutout set a major league record for left-handed pitchers.

1970 - Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs asked to be kept out of the lineup, snapping his National League record of 1,117 consecutive games played. His record was broken in 1983 by Steve Garvey.

1981 - The Boston Red Sox and the Seattle Mariners played the longest game in Fenway Park’s history, 19 innings, before the game was suspended with the score tied 7-7. The Mariners won 8-7 in 20 innings when the game resumed the next day.

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 two teams played 14 innings the day before and used a major league record 53 players in the game.

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

2001 - Bud Smith became the 16th rookie in modern history to throw a no-hitter and the second to do it to San Diego this season in St. Louis’ 4-0 win. Smith was making his 11th career start.

2006 - Ryan Howard homered in his first three at-bats, leading Philadelphia to an 8-7 victory over Atlanta in the first game of a doubleheader. Howard raised his major league-leading total to 52 and set a record for second-year players.

2006 - Albert Pujols homered in his first three at-bats, helping St. Louis beat Pittsburgh 6-3. Pujols, with 42 homers, reached 40 or more for the fourth straight season.

2007 - Pedro Martinez completed his comeback from major shoulder surgery and quickly went into the record books, becoming the 15th pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in his career. The New York right-hander fanned Aaron Harang for the milestone as the Mets posted a 10-4 win over Cincinnati.

2007 - Ichiro Suzuki homered in the third inning of Seattle’s 7-1 win over the New York Yankees to reach 200 hits for the seventh consecutive season, tying the Wade Boggs’ AL mark.

2008 - Baseball’s first use of instant replay backed an onfield call of a home run for Alex Rodriguez during the ninth inning of the New York Yankees game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Third-base umpire Brian Runge signaled a home run after A-Rod’s towering, two-run shot off Troy Percival caromed off the catwalk behind the foul pole in left field. Rays catcher Dioner Navarro protested the call, bringing manager Joe Maddon out of the dugout. The umpires convened before leaving the field to check the replay on a monitor not far from the field. It took 2 minutes, 15 seconds to uphold the homer that gave the Yankees an 8-3 lead.

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

2013 - Pinch-hitter Travis Snider homered in the ninth inning to lift Pittsburgh to a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers that clinched the Pirates’ first non-losing record in 21 seasons. It was victory No. 81 for Pittsburgh, ensuring it will not finish with a losing record for the first time since it went 96-66 in 1992.

2015 - Bryce Harper walked all four times he came to the plate and scored each time as Washington sent Atlanta to its ninth straight loss, 15-1. Harper joined Larry Doby (1951), Joe Morgan (1973) and Rickey Henderson (1989) as the only players to score four runs without an official at-bat.

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Sept. 4

1916 - Longtime pitching rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown closed out their careers, by special arrangement, in the same game. Mathewson won the game 10-8.

1928 - The Boston Braves started a grueling string in which they played nine straight doubleheaders, a major league record.

1941 - The New York Yankees clinched the pennant on the earliest date 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 as the Dodgers beat the Reds 8-6 in front of 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.

1985 - Gary Carter hit a pair of solo home runs 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 feat followed a three-homer performance the night before as he became the 11th player in major league history to hit five home runs in two games.

1993 - Jim Abbott threw 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 reached 100 wins on the earliest date in major league history - five days before the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 1954 Cleveland Indians - with an 11-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The ’06 Cubs set the major league record for fewest games to reach 100 victories (132).

2002 - The Oakland Athletics set an AL record by winning their 20th straight game. They somehow blew an 11-run lead before pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg homered in the bottom of the ninth inning 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 the 1947 New York Yankees.

2006 - Florida became the first team in major league history to climb above .500 after being 20 games under, rallying to beat reeling Arizona 8-5. With four consecutive victories, the Marlins (69-68) have a winning record for the first time. They were 11-31 on May 21.

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Sept. 5

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

1918 - Babe Ruth pitched a six-hitter as the Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 1-0 in the opening game of the World Series. The Series was started early due to World War I.

1954 - Roswell’s Joe Bauman of the Longhorn League hit three home runs to give him 72 for the season. Bauman never made it to the majors.

1955 - Brooklyn pitcher Don Newcombe connected 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 20th win, beat the Phillies 11-4.

1971 - J.R. 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 beat the Giants.

1982 - Roy Smalley hit a pair of three-run homers, one from 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 reach 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.

2001 - Roger Clemens became the second player in major league history to win 19 of his first 20 decisions, leading the New York Yankees over Toronto 4-3.

2002 - Alex Rodriguez became the fifth player in major league history to record successive 50-homer 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 when Detroit lost to Toronto 8-6. Maroth (6-20) allowed eight runs and nine hits in three-plus innings. Oakland’s Brian Kingman went 8-20 in 1980.

2006 - For the first time in more than three decades, there were seven shutouts in the major leagues on one day. It was the most shutouts on one day since there were a record eight on June 4, 1972, when 16 games were played. Thirteen games were played.

2009 - Pittsburgh’s Ross Ohlendorf became the 40th major league pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches in an inning, but didn’t figure in the decision as the Pirates lost 2-1 to St. Louis in 10 innings.

2012 - Oakland Athletics pitcher Brandon McCarthy was struck on the right side of his head by a hard shot from the Angels’ Erick Aybar. McCarthy suffered an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and skull fracture. He had two hours of surgery to relieve pressure on his brain later that night.

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