Aug. 15
1905 — Rube Waddell of the Philadelphia Athletics pitched a five-inning no-hit game to beat the St. Louis Browns 2-0.
1916 — In a classic pitching duel, Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox beat Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators, 1-0, in 13 innings at Fenway Park.
1945 — The Chicago Cubs routed the Brooklyn Dodgers 20-6, at Ebbets Field. Paul Gillespie knocked in six runs with two home runs and a single to lead the attack.
1955 — Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves hit a home run off Mel Wright of the St. Louis Cardinals to give Spahn a homer in every NL park.
1975 — Baltimore manager Earl Weaver was ejected twice by umpire Ron Luciano. Weaver was thrown out in the first game and was ejected before the second game.
1989 — Dave Dravecky of the San Francisco Giants, in his second start after coming back from cancer surgery on his pitching arm, broke his arm but earned the win in a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Expos. In the sixth inning, after throwing a wild pitch to Tim Raines, he collapsed and clutched his left arm in agony.
1990 — Philadelphia’s Terry Mulholland pitched the record eighth no-hitter of the season as the Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants 6-0. The season’s eighth no-hitter surpassed the modern record of seven set in 1908 and 1917.
1990 — Mark McGwire hit a grand slam in the 10th inning to become the first major leaguer to hit 30 or more homers in his first four seasons and lifted the Oakland Athletics to a 6-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
2001 — Trevor Hoffman pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 300th career save, completing a two-hitter that lifted the San Diego Padres over the New York Mets 2-1.
2005 — Randy Winn hit for the cycle in his first four at-bats in San Francisco’s 7-3 win over Cincinnati.
2011 — Jim Thome belted his 600th home run an inning after he hit No. 599 to help the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 9-6. Thome became the eighth player to reach 600.
2012 — Felix Hernandez pitched the Seattle Mariners’ first perfect game and the 23rd in baseball history, overpowering the Tampa Bay Rays in a 1-0 victory. It was the third perfect game in baseball of the season — a first — joining gems by Chicago’s Philip Humber against the Mariners in April and San Francisco’s Matt Cain against Houston in June.
2014 — Mo’Ne Davis, one of two girls at the Little League World Series, threw a two-hitter to help Philadelphia beat Nashville 4-0. Davis, the first girl to appear for a U.S. team in South Williamsport since 2004, had eight strikeouts and no walks.
2015 — Jackie Bradley Jr. had two homers, three doubles and seven RBIs, powering Boston past Seattle 22-10.
2022 — The Rangers fire manager Chris Woodward. While the club is in third place in the AL West after two consecutive last-place finishes, it is still 12 games below .500 and 23 games out of first after having spent some $500 million on free agents in the off-season. He is replaced on an interim basis by coach Tony Beasley.
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Aug. 16
1920 — Shortstop Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was hit in the head with a pitch in the fifth inning by New York’s Carl Mays. Chapman suffered a fractured skull and died the next day. It is the only field fatality in major league history.
1927 — Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees became the first player to clear the roof at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ruth’s home run came off White Sox pitcher Tommy Thomas in the 8-1 win.
1947 — Ralph Kiner hit three successive home runs to become the first Pirates player to ever accomplish the feat as Pittsburgh beat the St. Louis Cardinals 12-7 at Forbes Field.
1950 — Hank Thompson hit two inside-the-park home runs in the Giants’ 16-7 rout of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds.
1967 — Jim Maloney of Cincinnati retired 19 consecutive Pirates but had to leave the game after he injured his ankle by stepping in a hole at Forbes Field. Billy McCool allowed two hits over the final 2 2-3 innings to give the Reds a 4-0 victory over Pittsburgh.
1987 — Tim Raines of the Montreal Expos went 5-for-5 with four extra-base hits and the cycle in a 10-7 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1987 — New York’s Darryl Strawberry drove in five runs with four extra-base hits to lead the Mets to a 23-10 rout of the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
1989 — Tom Drees pitched his third no-hitter of the season for AAA Vancouver, beating Las Vegas, 5-0, in the 7-inning opener of a doubleheader. He had consecutive 1-0 no-hitters, beating Calgary in nine innings (May 23) and Edmonton in seven (May 28).
1996 — With 23,699 fans at the 25,644-seat Estadio Monterrey, the San Diego Padres defeated the New York Mets 15-10 in the first major league regular-season game played outside the United States or Canada.
2009 — Derek Jeter hits an RBI double off Seattle’s Doug Fister in the 3rd for his 2,674th hit as a shortstop, surpassing Luis Aparicio’s all-time leading total for the position.
2011 — Albert Pujols of St. Louis reached 30 home runs for the 11th consecutive season in a 5-4, 11-inning loss to Pittsburgh.
2012 — Major League Baseball approves the sale of the San Diego Padres from John Moores to a group headed by local businessman Ron Fowler, which also includes former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley and pro golfer Phil Mickelson. The sale is for $800 million.
2013 — Grant Holman of Chula Vista, Calif. struck out 13 and became the first player to toss a no-hitter in the Little League World Series since the 85-pitch rule was put in place in 2007.
2018 — Jose Bautista hit a grand slam and had a career-high seven RBIs and the New York Mets set a franchise record for runs, forcing the Phillies to use two position players for the final three innings of a 24-4 victory in the first game of a doubleheader.
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Aug. 17
1904 — Jesse Tannehill of the Boston Red Sox pitched a no-hitter, beating the Chicago White Sox 6-0.
1920 — Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman died from a beaning by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees on Aug. 16. This was the only on-field fatality in major league history.
1933 — Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians hit for the cycle in a 15-4 rout of the Philadelphia Athletics.
1933 — New York’s Lou Gehrig played in his 1,308th straight game to break Everett Scott’s record of 1,307. Gehrig’s single and triple didn’t prevent the last-place St. Louis Browns from beating the Yankees 7-6 in 10 innings at Sportsman’s Park.
1944 — Johnny Lindell of the New York Yankees hit four consecutive doubles in a 10-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
1963 — Jim Hickman became the first New York Met to hit for cycle in a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Hickman got the cycle in his first four times up — in single, double, triple, homer order.
1980 — George Brett went 4-for-4, raising his batting average to .401, in an 8-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Brett drove in five runs and extended his hitting streak to 29 consecutive games.
1980 — Al Oliver of Texas hit four home runs — one in the opener and three in the nightcap — as the Rangers swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 and 12-6. Oliver also had a double and triple in the opener, giving him 21 total bases which tied the American League record for a doubleheader.
1992 — Kevin Gross pitched a no-hitter as Los Angeles beat San Francisco 2-0 at Dodgers Stadium.
1999 — Jesse Orosco set a major league record by pitching in his 1,072nd game, breaking a tie with Dennis Eckersley atop the career list. The 42-year-old Orosco took the mound with two outs in the seventh inning of Baltimore’s victory over Minnesota.
2001 — Jeff Frye became the second Toronto player to hit for the cycle as the Blue Jays beat Texas 11-3.
2002 — Alex Rodriguez became the sixth player in major league history to have five straight 40-homer seasons.
2004 — Tampa Bay’s B.J. Upton, 19, became the first teenager in more than six years to homer in a major league game, helping Tampa Bay snap a six-game losing streak with an 8-3 victory over Anaheim.
2004 — Mark Teixeira of the Texas Rangers hit for the cycle and drove in a career high seven runs in a 16-4 rout the Cleveland Indians.
2008 — Melvin Mora had two homers and two doubles among his five hits and drove in a career-high six runs to pace Baltimore’s 22-hit attack in a 16-8 win over Detroit.
2008 — Alex Rios went 5-for-6 and matched a club record with four doubles and Toronto knocked Boston ace Josh Beckett out after 2 1-3 innings in a 15-4 victory over the Red Sox.
2010 — Jim Thome ties the major league record for career walk-off home runs with his 12th, as the Twins beat the White Sox, 7 – 6.
2014 — Michael Cuddyer hit for the cycle, including a two-run double in Colorado’s five-run eighth inning, and the Rockies beat the Cincinnati Reds 10-5 to complete a doubleheader sweep.
2018 — The Chicago Cubs tied a major league record by turning seven double plays, including a game-ending effort by rookie third baseman David Bote on a grounder by David Freese to finish off a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
2020 — For the first time of their career, brothers Kyle and Corey Seager meet in a regular season game and, fittingly, both hit homers as Corey’s Dodgers defeat Kyle’s Mariners, 11 – 9.
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Aug. 18
1915 — Boston opened Braves Field with a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
1931 — New York’s Lou Gehrig played in his 1,000th consecutive game. Gehrig went hitless in the 5-4 loss to Detroit.
1948 — Brooklyn’s Rex Barney pitched a one-hitter for a 1-0 win over Robin Roberts and the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park.
1956 — The Cincinnati Reds hit eight home runs and the Milwaukee Braves added two to set a National League record for home runs by two clubs in a nine-inning night game. Bob Thurman’s three homers and double led the Reds in the 13-4 rout.
1960 — Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Braves pitched a no-hitter, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0. Burdette faced the minimum 27 batters.
1965 — Hank Aaron of Milwaukee hit Curt Simmons’ pitch on top of the pavilion roof at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis for an apparent home run. However, umpire Chris Pelekoudas called him out for being out of the batter’s box when he connected. Nevertheless, the Braves won the game 5-3.
1967 — California’s Jack Hamilton hit Tony Conigliaro on his left cheekbone with a fastball in the fourth inning of a 3-2 loss to Boston. Conigliaro was carried unconscious from the field and missed the remainder of the 1967 season and the entire 1968 season. The 22-year-old already had more than 100 home runs to his credit.
1977 — Don Sutton of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched his fifth one-hitter to tie the National League record. Sutton gave up a two-out single in the eighth inning to San Francisco’s Marc Hill. The Dodgers won 7-0.
1995 — Tom Henke became the seventh pitcher to reach 300 career saves, surviving a rally by the Atlanta Braves in the ninth inning of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 4-3 victory.
2000 — Darin Erstad of Anaheim made a spectacular, game-saving catch in the 10th inning and followed it with a homer in the 11th as the Angels defeated the New York Yankees 9-8.
2006 — Alfonso Soriano became the third player in major league history to have at least four seasons of 30 homers and 30 stolen bases, and the Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-4.
2007 — Micah Owings went 4-for-5, including a pair of mammoth homers, drove in six runs and scored four times while pitching three-hit ball through seven innings as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Atlanta Braves 12-6.
2011 — Mike Jacobs became the first player suspended by Major League Baseball for a positive HGH test under the sport’s minor league drug testing procedures. The 30-year-old minor league first baseman, who was in the big leagues from 2005-10, received a 50-game suspension for taking the banned performance-enhancing substance and was subsequently released by the Colorado Rockies.
2017 — Manny Machado capped a three-homer night with a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Baltimore Orioles rallied past the Los Angeles Angels 9-7 in a game that featured 10 home runs.
2018 — New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom pitched his first complete game of the season and lowered his major league-leading ERA to 1.71 with a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
2019 — Zack Grenke records the 200th win of his career as the Astros defeat the Athletics 4-1.
2021 — hohei Ohtani continues to do it all by himself on the field. Today, he becomes the first hitter in the majors to reach 40 homers this season, and also improves his record on the mound to 8-1 as he pitches 8 full innings for the first time of his career. The Angels defeat the Tigers, 3-1.
2021 — Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman hit for the cycle for the second time in his career as they beat the Miami Marlins 11-9.
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