Sept. 24
1940 - Jimmie Foxx of the Red Sox hit his 500th career home run off Philadelphia’s George Caster in the first game of a doubleheader at Shibe Park. Foxx’s homer came in the sixth inning after Ted Williams homered. Joe Cronin followed with a homer and, later in the inning, Jim Tabor also homered. The four homers in the inning were a first in the AL.
1969 - The New York Mets clinched the NL East Division title, with Gary Gentry pitching a four-hitter in a 6-0 victory over St. Louis.
1974 - Detroit’s Al Kaline doubled down the right-field line off Dave McNally of Baltimore for his 3,000th career hit. The Orioles beat the Tigers 5-4 at Memorial Stadium.
1984 - Rick Sutcliffe threw a two-hitter and led the Chicago Cubs to their first league title since 1945 with a 4-1 victory over Pittsburgh.
1988 - Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays, one strike away from a no-hitter, gave up a bad-hop single to Julio Franco. Stieb settled for a 1-0 one-hit victory over Cleveland.
1992 - Dave Winfield of the Toronto Blue Jays, at 40, became the oldest player to drive in 100 runs. Winfield drove in four runs with a homer and a two-run double in an 8-2 win over Baltimore.
1993 - The Colorado Rockies set an NL record for victories by an expansion team with their 65th win of the season. Colorado beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-2, surpassing the 64 wins by the Houston Colt .45s in 1962.
1998 - Boston’s Tom Gordon set a major league record for most consecutive saves with his 42nd to preserve the Red Sox’ 9-6 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
2004 - The Atlanta Braves clinched their 13th consecutive division title, winning the NL East with an 8-7 victory over the Florida Marlins. The Braves’ record streak of division championships began with the 1991 NL West title and excludes the 1994 strike-shortened season.
2006 - Trevor Hoffman became baseball’s career saves leader, earning No. 479 to pass Lee Smith and help NL West-leading San Diego beat Pittsburgh 2-1. It was his NL-leading 43rd save in 48 chances. Smith piled up 478 saves from 1980-1997.
2006 - David Ortiz hit his 53rd homer and 32nd on the road in Boston’s 13-4 loss to Toronto. The blast tied Babe Ruth for most home runs on the road in AL history.
2008 - Francisco Rodriguez worked the ninth inning of the Los Angeles Angels’ 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners to end the season with a major league record 62 saves.
2009 - Los Angeles beat Washington 7-6 to hand the Nationals their 100th loss of the season. The Nationals, who were 59-102 last season, are the first NL franchise to lose 100 games in consecutive seasons since the San Diego Padres, who dropped 102 in both 1973 and 1974.
2013 - Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha lost his no-hit bid on Ryan Zimmerman’s infield single with two outs in the ninth inning, and St. Louis beat the Washington Nationals 2-0. Making his ninth career start, Wacha became the third pitcher this season to have a no-hit bid broken up with one out to go. Wacha was pulled after Zimmerman’s hit and Trevor Rosenthal got Jayson Werth to ground out for the win.
2014 - The New York Yankees were eliminated from postseason contention after losing to the AL East champion Orioles 9-5. The Yankees missed the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since 1992 and ’93.
2015 - Pedro Alvarez hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the eighth inning, and Pittsburgh earned their 10,000th win since joining the National League. Starling Marte collected four singles in the 4-0 win over Colorado. He finished 13 for 20 in the four-game sweep.
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Sept. 25
1941 - Pete Reiser’s homer and Whitlow Wyatt’s five-hitter helped Brooklyn beat the Boston Braves 6-0 and clinch the Dodgers’ first pennant in 21 years.
1955 - Detroit’s Al Kaline, at the age of 20, became the youngest player to win a batting title, finishing his second season with a .340 average. Ty Cobb was one day older when he won the crown, batting .350 in 1907, also playing for Detroit.
1956 - Sal Maglie of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies.
1960 - The New York Yankees clinched manager Casey Stengel’s 10th and last American League pennant with a 4-3 victory over Boston.
1965 - Satchel Paige, at 60, became the oldest player in the majors, taking the mound for Kansas City and pitching three scoreless innings over the Boston Red Sox. He gave up one hit, to Carl Yastrzemski.
1965 - Willie Mays, who hit 51 home runs in 1955, joined Ralph Kiner as only the National Leaguers to have more than one 50-home run season.
1974 - Dr. Frank Jobe transplanted a tendon from Tommy John’s right wrist to the Dodger pitcher’s left elbow. The revolutionary ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction allowed John to win an additional 164 games, more than half of his career total of 288 victories.
1980 - Oakland’s Brian Kingman lost his 20th game when the A’s were defeated by the Chicago White Sox 6-4. Kingman was the first pitcher to lose 20 games with a winning team since Dolf Luque went 13-23 for the 1922 Cincinnati Reds.
1984 - Rusty Staub of the Mets became the second player to hit homers as a teenager and past his 40th birthday. Staub’s game-winning home run off Larry Anderson to give the Mets a 6-4 victory over Philadelphia at Shea Stadium. Ty Cobb was the other major leaguer to accomplish the feat.
1987 - San Diego’s Benito Santiago set a modern major league record for rookies by hitting safely in his 27th consecutive game in a 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1998 - The New York Yankees set the AL record for wins with their 112th, beating Tampa Bay 6-1 to break the victory mark held by the 1954 Cleveland Indians.
2001 - Richie Sexson and Jeromy Burnitz became the first teammates to hit three home runs apiece in a game as Milwaukee defeated Arizona 9-4.
2003 - Toronto’s Carlos Delgado became the sixth player to homer in four straight at-bats in one game as the Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 10-8 at SkyDome. Delgado tied the game at 8-8 in the eighth with his fourth homer, a solo shot off Lance Carter.
2007 - Prince Fielder, at 23 years, 139 days old, became the youngest major league player to hit 50 home runs in a season, connecting twice in Milwaukee’s 9-1 rout of St. Louis.
2013 - The New York Yankees failed to make the playoffs for only the second time in 19 years, getting mathematically eliminated during their 8-3 loss to Tampa Bay.
2016 - Jose Fernandez, 24, ace right-hander for the Miami Marlins, was killed in a boating accident.
2017 - Aaron Judge broke Mark McGwire’s major league record for home runs by a rookie, hitting a pair for the second straight day to raise his total to 50 and lead the New York Yankees over the Kansas City Royals 11-3.
2018 - Max Scherzer became the 17th pitcher since 1900 to strike out 300 batters in a season, reaching that milestone by fanning 10 in seven innings during Washington’s 9-4 win over Miami.
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Sept. 26
1908 - Ed Reulbach of the Chicago Cubs became the only pitcher to throw two shutouts in a doubleheader, beating the Dodgers 5-0 and 3-0.
1926 - The St. Louis Browns beat the New York Yankees 6-1 and 6-2 in two hours and seven minutes. The first game took 55 minutes.
1952 - The New York Yankees clinched their fourth straight AL pennant with a 5-1, 11-inning win over the Philadelphia A’s.
1961 - Roger Maris tied Babe Ruth’s 34-year-old record with his 60th homer, off Baltimore’s Jack Fisher.
1981 - Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros became the first player to pitch five no-hitters, hurling a 5-0 victory over Los Angeles at the Astrodome.
1983 - Bob Forsch of the St. Louis Cardinals pitched the second no-hitter of his career by defeating Montreal 3-0.
1993 - Randy Johnson of the Seattle Mariners became the eighth pitcher to strike out 300 batters in a season with 13 strikeouts in 10 innings of a 3-2, 12-inning loss to Oakland.
1998 - Curt Schilling became the fifth pitcher to strike out 300 batters in consecutive seasons when he fanned Kevin Orie in the seventh inning of Philadelphia’s 4-3 loss to Florida in the first game of a doubleheader.
2000 - The Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets 7-1 to clinch the NL East and win their record ninth straight division title.
2007 - The New York Yankees clinched their 13th straight postseason appearance, beating Tampa Bay 12-4.
2007 - Michael Young reached 200 hits for the fifth consecutive season with a pair of RBI singles among his three hits and Texas pounded the Los Angeles Angels 16-2. Young joined Wade Boggs and Ichiro Suzuki as the only players since 1940 with five consecutive 200-hit seasons.
2008 - The Tampa Bay Rays won their first AL East championship when the Boston Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees. They became the first team other than Boston and New York to win the division since Baltimore did it in 1997.
2008 - Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki matched Lou Gehrig’s record with his eighth season of at least 200 hits and 100 runs. Suzuki scored his 100th run of the season in the third inning against Oakland. Gehrig reached the marks in 1927-28, 1930-32, 1934 and 1936-37.
2018 - Jacob deGrom was dominant, throwing eight stellar innings and leaving with a major league-best 1.70 ERA as the New York Mets blanked the Atlanta Braves 3-0. DeGrom (10-9) made his final regular-season start, striking out 10 and allowing just two singles against the NL East champions.
2018 - Colorado Rockies right-hander German Marquez started with eight straight strikeouts to match a modern-era big league record, and the Colorado Rockies routed the Philadelphia Phillies 14-0. By striking out his first eight batters, he tied a post-1900 mark set by Houston’s Jim Deshaies on Sept. 23, 1986, and equaled by the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom on Sept. 15, 2014.
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