This Date in Baseball

June 3

1918 - Dutch Leonard of the Boston Red Sox pitched his second no-hitter, blanking the Detroit Tigers 5-0.

1932 - Lou Gehrig became the first American League player to hit four home runs in a game, helping the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia A’s 20-13. The event was overshadowed by the resignation of John McGraw as manager of the New York Giants.

1954 - Henry Thompson of the New York Giants hit three home runs and drove in eight runs in a 13-8 win against the St. Louis Cardinals. Willie Mays drove in the other five runs with two homers.

1971 - Ken Holtzman of the Chicago Cubs pitched his second no-hitter, beating the Cincinnati Reds 1-0.

1978 - Dave Johnson became the first major leaguer to hit two pinch-hit grand slams in a season. His grand slam in the ninth inning gave the Philadelphia Phillies a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1989 - Los Angeles and Houston played 22 innings at the Astrodome in the longest night game in National League history - 7 hours, 14 minutes. The Astros won the game on Rafael Ramirez’s RBI single off Jeff Hamilton, normally the Dodgers’ third baseman. When the game ended, Fernando Valenzuela was playing first and Eddie Murray was at third.

1989 - Nolan Ryan pitched his 11th career one-hitter and struck out 11 as Texas beat Seattle 6-1. It was Ryan’s 16th low-hit game (no-hitter or one-hitter), breaking Bob Feller’s record of 15.

1995 - Pedro Martinez of Montreal pitched nine perfect innings against San Diego before giving up a leadoff double to Bip Roberts in the 10th inning of the Expos 1-0 win.

2003 - Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning of Chicago’s 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after umpires found cork in his shattered bat.

2006 - Damion Easley hit three homers and had seven RBIs in Arizona’s 13-9 victory over Atlanta.

2008 - Randy Johnson took sole possession of second place on baseball’s career strikeout list after getting the Milwaukee Brewers’ Mike Cameron to go down swinging in the first inning. It was Johnson’s 4,673rd career strikeout, breaking a tie with Roger Clemens and leaving the Arizona Diamondbacks’ veteran ace behind only Nolan Ryan, who had 5,714 strikeouts in his career.

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June 4

1940 - The Pirates beat the Boston Bees 14-2 in the first night game at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field.

1940 - The St. Louis Cardinals play their first night game at Sportsman’s Park, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers 10-1.

1951 - Pittsburgh’s Gus Bell hit for the cycle to lead the Pirates to a 12-4 victory over the Phillies at Philadelphia.

1964 - Sandy Koufax pitched his third no-hitter, striking out 12, as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Phillies 3-0 in Philadelphia.

1968 - Don Drysdale of the Dodgers blanked the Pirates 5-0 for his sixth straight shutout en route to a record 58 2-3 scoreless innings.

1974 - The game between the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium was forfeited to Texas. Umpire Nestor Chylak had problems with the fans throughout the evening - primarily because it was 10-cent beer night. They got out of control when the Tribe tied the score 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth.

1990 - Ramon Martinez struck out 18 batters and pitched a three-hitter as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 6-0.

1996 - Pamela Davis pitched one inning of scoreless relief and got the win in a minor league exhibition game. She is believed to be the first woman to pitch for a major league farm club under the current structure of the minor league system. Davis, a 21-year-old right-hander, pitched for the Jacksonville Suns, a Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, against the Australian Olympic team.

2000 - Tampa Bay’s Esteban Yan became the 77th major league player to homer in his first at-bat. Yan was the fourth American League pitcher to do so and the first since California’s Don Rose in 1972, the year before the DH rule took the bat out of AL pitchers’ hands.

2005 - Rafael Palmeiro and Melvin Mora each hit grand slams to help Baltimore rally for a 14-7 win over Detroit.

2007 - Mark Ellis hit for the cycle and Eric Chavez hit a two-out homer in the 11th inning to lift Oakland to a 5-4 win over Boston.

2009 - Randy Johnson became the 24th major league pitcher to win 300 games by leading San Francisco to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader. The Big Unit tossed two-hit ball over six innings and became the sixth left-hander to win 300, and the first pitcher to do it on his first try since Tom Seaver in 1985.

2012 - Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia became the ninth manager in AL history to manage 2,000 games with one club. The Mariners beat the Angels 8-6.

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June 5

1911 - Boston’s Smoky Joe Wood struck out three Chicago White Sox pinch hitters in the ninth to preserve a 5-4 win.

1915 - Philadelphia’s Grover Cleveland Alexander lost his no-hitter when Artie Butler punched a single with two outs in the ninth. Alexander struck out Bob Bescher for the final out to beat St. Louis 3-0. Alexander went on to pitch three more one-hitters during the season.

1929 - The Cincinnati Reds scored nine runs in the sixth inning, en route to a 21-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.

1935 - Chicago White Sox rookie pitcher John Whitehead loses to St. Louis 2-0. It was his first loss after winning his first eight starts, an AL record for the start of a career.

1943 - New York’s Carl Hubbell snaps the Giants losing streak of seven games by pitching a one-hitter against the Pittsburgh for a 5-1 win. The only hit for Pittsburgh was a solo homer by first baseman Elbie Fletcher.

1949 - Commissioner Happy Chandler lifted the ban on all players who jumped to Mexico, starting in 1946.

1955 - New York’s Mickey Mantle hit a home run off Chicago’s Billy Pierce that traveled an estimated 550 feet. The ball cleared the left-field upper deck at Comiskey Park.

1959 - Pittsburgh’s Dick Stuart hit the longest home run at Forbes Field. Stuart hit a shot over the center-field wall off Chicago pitcher Glenn Hobbie.

1966 - Leo Cardenas of the Reds hit four home runs in a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs. Cardenas hit two home runs in each game as Cincinnati won the opener 8-3 but dropped the second game 9-5.

1974 - Cleveland had nine baserunners against Texas and all nine score in a 9-3 victory. It was the last time this happened in the 20th century.

1976 - Despite getting three home runs by Bill Robinson, Pittsburgh lost to San Diego, 11-9 in 15 innings.

1986 - San Diego’s Steve Garvey was ejected for the first time in his career when he argued a play at home plate. Garvey, the on-deck hitter, protested the last out of a triple play by the Atlanta Braves. Television replays showed that Bip Roberts was indeed safe. The Padres lost 4-2.

1997 - Alex Rodriguez of the Mariners became the first Seattle player to hit for the cycle in a nine-inning game. He completed the cycle with a double in the ninth of a 14-6 win at Detroit.

2001 - Colorado pitcher Mike Hampton had two homers, three RBIs and recorded his eighth win as Colorado defeated Houston 9-4.

2006 - Cincinnati’s Ken Griffey, Jr., homered twice at the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis, to tie Fred McGriff’s major league record of connecting in 43 different stadiums. Griffey second homer was a three-run game winner in the ninth off Jason Isringhausen for an 8-7 win over the Cardinals.

2008 - Atlanta’s Chipper Jones became the third switch-hitter in major league history to hit 400 career home runs. Jones’ homer off Ricky Nolasco was one of his four hits in the 7-5 comeback win over Florida. Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray were the first two reach the milestone.

2008 - Mark Worrell became the eighth player in St. Louis Cardinals history to hit a home run in his first big league at-bat. Worrell, who also pitched two scoreless innings, hit a three-run shot on a 3-2 pitch from Washington’s Tim Redding in the sixth inning of a 10-9 loss.

2013 - The Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners played the first game in major league history when each team scored five or more runs in the game when it was scoreless through the ninth. Alejandro De Aza and Alex Rios each had an RBI single in the 16th inning, and Chicago posted a 7-5 victory. Chicago scored five times in the top of the 14th, only to have Seattle complete an improbable rally on Kyle Seager’s tying grand slam off Addison Reed with two out. Seager was the first player to hit a tying grand slam in extra innings and no team had ever scored five or more runs in the 14th inning or later to tie a game.

2015 - Oakland’s Pat Venditte became the first pitcher in 20 years to throw with both arms in the same game, but the Boston Red Sox beat the Athletics 4-2 on a night a fan sustained life-threatening injuries when she was struck by a broken bat.

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