This Date in Baseball

July 31

1930 - Lou Gehrig drove in eight runs with a grand slam and two doubles, and the New York Yankees outlasted the Boston Red Sox 14-13.

1932 - Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium opened and Lefty Grove and the Philadelphia A’s beat the Indians 1-0 before 76,979 fans.

1934 - The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Cincinnati Reds 8-6 in 18 innings at Cincinnati, with Dizzy Dean and Tony Freitas both going the distance.

1954 - Joe Adcock hit four home runs and a double to lead the Milwaukee Braves to a 15-7 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Adcock’s 18 total bases set a major league record at the time. His double off the left-center field fence just missed going out by inches.

1961 - The All-Star Game ended in a 1-1 tie at Fenway Park because of heavy rain.

1981 - The second baseball strike ended after 42 days.

1990 - Nolan Ryan, 43, won his 300th game, reaching the milestone in his second try, in the Texas Rangers’ 11-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

2002 - Mike Mussina became the second pitcher in major league history to give up six doubles in one inning, during the New York Yankees’ 17-6 loss to Texas. Hall of Famer Lefty Grove allowed that many with Boston in 1934 against Washington.

2003 - John Smoltz broke his own record as the fastest pitcher to record 40 saves by pitching a scoreless ninth in Atlanta’s 7-4 win over Houston. Last year, he got his 40th save on Aug. 8, en route to breaking the NL record with 55.

2006 - Orlando Hudson hit home runs from both sides of the plate, including his first career grand slam, as Arizona beat the Chicago Cubs 15-4.

2007 - The New York Yankees tied a franchise record by hitting eight home runs, including a pair by Hideki Matsui, in a 16-3 rout of the Chicago White Sox. New York last hit eight homers in a game in a doubleheader opener at the Philadelphia Athletics on June 28, 1939.

2010 - Carlos Gonzalez hit a game-ending home run to complete the cycle, and Colorado rallied to a 6-5 win after blowing a three-run lead in the eighth inning to the Chicago Cubs.

2011 - The Braves lost 3-1 to Florida, becoming the second major league franchise with 10,000 losses. The Phillies reached the mark in 2007.

2015 - New York’s Mark Teixeira homered from both sides of the plate for the record 14th time, hitting his 10th grand slam and a two-run homer that led the Yankees past the Chicago White Sox 13-6.

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