This Date in Baseball

June 17

1915 - George “Zip” Zabel of the Chicago Cubs was called into the game against the Brooklyn Dodgers with two outs in the first inning. He won 4-3 in the 19th inning in the longest relief effort in the majors.

1943 - Player-manager Joe Cronin of the Boston Red Sox hit a three-run pinch homer in both games of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia A’s. The Red Sox won the opener 5-4 and lost the second game 8-7.

1960 - Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox connected for his 500th career home run off the Cleveland Indians. Williams, the fourth to accomplish the feat, hit a two-run homer off Wynn Hawkins in a 3-1 win.

1971 - Don Kessinger of the Chicago Cubs went 6-for-6, with five singles and a double, in a 7-6, 10-inning decision over the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.

1978 - Ron Guidry of the New York Yankees struck out 18 California Angels to set an American League record for left-handers. Guidry, who struck out 15 in the first six innings, ended with a 4-0 four-hitter.

1993 - Baseball owners voted 26-2 in favor of expanding the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, doubling the teams that qualify to eight starting in 1994.

2005 - Arizona gave up 10 runs in the third inning of its 13-6 loss to Cleveland. The Diamondbacks, who allowed 10 runs in the sixth inning on June 15 in Chicago, became the first team since the 1969 Mets to allow 10 runs in an inning in consecutive games. The Mets did it on one day - during a doubleheader against Houston.

2007 - Brandon Watson extended his hitting streak to 43 games, breaking a 95-year-old International League record with a base hit in the Columbus Clippers’ 9-8 loss to the Ottawa Lynx. Jack Lelivelt set the IL record for the Rochester Hustlers in 1912.

2007 - Frank Thomas hit his record-breaking 244th homer as a designated hitter in Toronto’s 4-2 loss to Washington. The solo shot in the third inning moved Thomas past Edgar Martinez for the most homers by a DH in major league history.

2008 - Seattle’s Felix Hernandez struck out the side on nine pitches in the fourth inning of a 5-4 win over Florida, becoming the 13th pitcher in American League history to accomplish the feat.

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June 18

1947 - Cincinnati’s Ewell Blackwell tossed a 6-0 no-hitter against the Boston Braves.

1950 - In the nightcap of a doubleheader, the Cleveland Indians scored 14 runs in the first inning for an American League record as they trounced the Philadelphia A’s 21-2.

1953 - At Fenway Park, Dick Gernert’s home run highlighted the 17-run, 14-hit seventh inning as the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 23-3. Gene Stephens collected three hits and Sammy White scored three runs in the big inning. Tom Umphlett also reached base three times in the inning.

1960 - The San Francisco Giants fired Bill Rigney and selected Tom Sheehan as manager. At 66 years, 2 months and 18 days, Sheehan was the oldest man to debut as a manager of a major league team.

1967 - Houston Astro Don Wilson tossed the first of his two career no-hitters by blanking the Atlanta Braves 2-0, facing 30 batters and striking out 15.

1975 - Fred Lynn batted in 10 runs with three homers, a triple and a single in a 15-1 Boston Red Sox victory over the Detroit Tigers. Lynn’s 16 total bases tied an AL record.

1986 - California’s Don Sutton pitched a three-hitter for his 300th career victory as the Angels beat the Texas Rangers 5-1. The 41-year-old right-hander became the 19th pitcher in baseball history to win 300 games.

2002 - Luis Castillo tied Rogers Hornsby’s 80-year-old record for the longest hitting streak by a second baseman, beating out a dribbler to the pitcher in the sixth inning to make it 33 games in a row, in a 2-1 Florida win over Cleveland.

2005 - Atlanta’s Julio Franco, 46, hit two homers in a game for the first time since September 12, 1996, becoming the second-oldest player to homer in major league history. Jack Quinn was a week shy of his 47th birthday when he homered in 1930.

2007 - Chone Figgins went 6-for-6 and drove in the game-winning run in the ninth inning to lift the Los Angeles Angels over Houston 10-9.

2009 - The Washington Nationals beat the New York Yankees 3-0 after the start of the game was delayed for 5 1/2 hours by rain. Scheduled to start at 1:05 p.m., the game did not begin until 6:31 p.m. Craig Stammen pitched 6 1-3 innings to earn his first major league victory in the first game without a homer at the new Yankee Stadium.

2011 - Johnny Damon hit his 500th double as Tampa Bay beat Florida 7-4. Damon, with an opposite-field bloop double to left in the first, became the 11th player all-time to have 500 doubles, 100 triples, 200 homers, and 2,500 hits.

2011 - Connor Harrell hit the first College World Series home run in the new TD Ameritrade Park to break a sixth-inning tie and first-time qualifier Vanderbilt defeated North Carolina 7-3.

2012 - R.A. Dickey became the first major league pitcher in 24 years to throw consecutive one-hitters and Ike Davis hit a grand slam in the New York Mets’ 5-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. The previous pitcher to throw consecutive one-hitters was Dave Stieb for Toronto in September 1988.

2012 - Aaron Hill hit a solo homer in the seventh inning to become the fifth Arizona player to hit for the cycle, lifting the Diamondbacks to a 7-1 win over the Seattle Mariners.

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June 19

1941 - En route to 56, Joe DiMaggio hit in his 32nd consecutive game, going 3-for-3, including a home run, against the Chicago White Sox.

1942 - Paul Waner got hit number 3,000 - a single off Rip Sewell - but the Boston Braves lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-6.

1952 - Brooklyn Dodger Carl Erskine pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs at Ebbets Field.

1961 - Roger Maris’ ninth-inning homer off Kansas City’s Jim Archer was his 25th of the year, putting him seven games ahead of Babe Ruth’s pace in 1927.

1973 - Cincinnati’s Pete Rose and Willie Davis of the Los Angeles Dodgers both collected their 2,000th hits. It was a single for Rose against the San Francisco Giants and a home run for Davis against the Atlanta Braves.

1974 - Steve Busby of the Kansas City Royals hurled his second no-hitter in 14 months and gave up just one walk in beating the Brewers 2-0 at Milwaukee.

1977 - The Boston Red Sox hit five home runs in an 11-1 triumph over the New York Yankees. The five homers gave the Red Sox a major league record 16 in three games. Boston hit six homers on the 17th and five on the 18th, also against the Yankees. In the series the Yankees had no homers.

2001 - Ellis Burks hit three homers in a 10-9 Cleveland loss to the Twins.

2006 - San Francisco rookie Matt Cain carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning in the Giants’ 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Chone Figgins lined a single to center with two outs in the eighth to end Cain’s no-hit bid. The 21-year-old Cain allowed the one hit and an unearned run while walking four and striking out 10.

2008 - Atlanta lost its league-record 22nd straight one-run game on the road when Texas rallied for a 5-4 victory. The previous mark was 21 by Kansas City during a stretch over the 2000-01 seasons. Atlanta’s last one-run victory on the road was on Aug. 10, 2007.

2011 - John Hicks’ RBI single in the seventh inning broke a scoreless tie and Virginia went on to defeat California 4-1 at the College World Series. Hicks’ one-out base hit into center ended the longest scoreless CWS game in 24 years, and Steve Proscia followed with a sacrifice fly.

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