July 15
1901 - Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants pitched his first of two career no-hitters, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0.
1969 - Cincinnati’s Lee May hit four home runs in a doubleheader split with the Atlanta Braves. May had two home runs and drove in five runs in both games as the Reds lost the opener 9-8 but came back to win the second game 10-4.
1969 - Rod Carew stole home off Chicago’s Gerry Nyman in the Minnesota Twins’ 6-2 victory. It was Carew’s seventh steal of home for the year and tied Pete Reiser’s 1946 major league mark.
1973 - Nolan Ryan of the California Angels struck out 17 batters and threw his second no-hitter of the year, beating Detroit 6-0.
1980 - Johnny Bench broke Yogi Berra’s record for home runs by a catcher as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos 12-7. Bench hit his 314th homer as a catcher off David Palmer. Bench had 33 home runs while playing other positions.
1990 - Chicago’s Bobby Thigpen became quickest to reach 30 saves in a season as the White Sox beat New York 8-5.
1999 - After 22½ years in the dreary Kingdome, Seattle finally played a home game outdoors, moving into a $517.6 million ballpark with a retractable roof. Jose Mesa wasted a ninth-inning lead by walking four batters and the Mariners lost 3-2 to the San Diego Padres in Safeco Field’s opener.
2003 - Anaheim’s Garret Anderson went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and a double, and the American League beat the National League in the All-Star Game 7-6. Hank Blalock of Texas hit a go-ahead, two-run homer as a pinch-hitter in the eighth off Los Angeles’ Eric Gagne.
2005 - Baltimore’s Rafael Palmeiro became the 26th player to reach 3,000 career hits, curling an RBI double into the left-field corner off Joel Pineiro in the fifth inning of a 6-3 win over Seattle. Palmeiro joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray as the only players with 3,000 hits and 500 homers.
2006 - For the first time in nearly three decades, a full day of major league baseball games were played without a save recorded. There were six blown saves during 15 games, including two each in Pittsburgh’s 7-6 victory over Washington, and in Cincinnati’s 3-2 win against Colorado. The Nationals and Reds both won with ninth-inning rallies.
2007 - The Philadelphia Phillies lost their 10,000 game, 10-2 to St. Louis. The franchise, born in 1883 as the Philadelphia Quakers and later called the Blue Jays in the mid-1940s, fell to 8,810-10,000.
2008 - Justin Morneau slid home just in time on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, giving the American League a 4-3 victory in the All-Star Game at Yankee stadium. The AL extended its unbeaten streak to 12. The AL improved to 6-0 since the All-Star Game began determining home-field advantage in the World Series. Boston’s J.D. Drew, who hit a tying two-run homer in the seventh inning, took MVP honors.
2011 - Atlanta earned the 10,000th win in franchise history with an 11-1 rout of Washington. Tim Hudson gave up one run and seven hits in seven innings and had two hits for the Braves which played in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta.
2014 - Helping send Derek Jeter out a winner in his last All-Star game appearance, Mike Trout drove in two runs with a triple and a double to lead the American League past the National League 5-3. Jeter started his 14th and final midsummer classic and went 2 for 2 before being removed in the top of the fourth inning.
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