This Date In Baseball

Compiled by PAUL MONTELLA
By The Associated Press

1913 — Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators finished the season with 36 victories by virtue of a 1-0 decision over the Philadelphia A’s.

1915 — The Philadelphia Phillies clinched their first NL pennant, beating the Boston Braves, 5-0, behind Grover Alexander’s one-hitter.

1954 — Willie Mays made his famous over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz’s long drive to center field and pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes homered off Bob Lemon in the 10th inning to lead the New York Giants to a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series.

1963 — Stan Musial ended his career by going 2-for-3, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 in 14 innings at Busch Stadium.

1963 — John Paciorek of the Houston Colt .45s, in his only major league appearance, went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and four runs scored against the New York Mets. A back injury ended his baseball career the next season.

1976 — John Montefusco of the San Francisco Giants pitched a 9-0 no-hitter over the Braves in Atlanta.

1983 — Mike Warren of the Oakland A’s pitched a no-hitter to beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-0.

1986 — Minnesota’s Bert Blyleven broke Robin Roberts’ 1956 record of 46 home run pitches in a season when he gave up a two-out, third-inning homer to Cleveland rookie Jay Bell. It was the first major league pitch Bell had seen. Despite giving up two more homers, Blyleven was the winner when the Twins rallied in the eighth for a 6-5 victory.

1986 — Chicago Cubs rookie Greg Maddux defeated the Phillies 8-3 in Philadelphia. The losing pitcher was his brother, Mike, also a rookie. It was the first time brothers faced each other as rookie pitchers.

1987 — Don Mattingly’s major league record sixth grand slam of the season backed the four-hit pitching of Charles Hudson to lead the New York Yankees to a 6-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

1996 — Brady Anderson of the Baltimore Orioles became the 14th player to reach the 50-homer mark in a 4-1 loss at Toronto. Anderson’s previous season high was 21.

1996 — Vinny Castilla of the Colorado Rockies hit his 40th homer in a 12-3 victory at San Francisco. He combined with teammates Andres Galarraga (47 homers) and Ellis Burks (40) to form the first 40-homer trio on one team since the 1973 Atlanta Braves: Davey Johnson (43), Darrell Evans (41), Hank Aaron (40).

1998 — Mo Vaughn homered twice and tied a record with seven RBIs as Boston ended a 13-game postseason skid, beating Cleveland 11-3 in the AL Divisional Playoff series opener.

2001 — Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki set the major league rookie record for hits in a season, but the Mariners fell to Oakland 8-4. Suzuki got his 234th hit, breaking the previous rookie mark set by Shoeless Joe Jackson with Cleveland in 1911.

2002 — San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds became the oldest player to win a National League batting title, hitting .370. Bonds had a .582 on-base percentage, easily topping the record of .553 that Ted Williams set in 1941.

2004 — Major League Baseball announced the Montreal Expos will move to Washington to begin play at RFK Stadium in the 2005 season.

2004 — Bobby Cox became the ninth manager in baseball history to win 2,000 games when Atlanta scored four runs in the seventh inning and beat the New York Mets 6-3. Of the eight managers who previously reached 2,000 wins, seven are in the Hall of Fame. The lone exception is Tony La Russa, still managing the St. Louis Cardinals. Cox’s overall record was 2,000-1,530, and he has guided Atlanta to 13 straight division titles.

2007 — John Maine flirted with the first no-hitter in New York Mets history before allowing an infield single to Paul Hoover with two outs in the eighth inning of a 13-0 rout of Florida. Willie Collazo and Carlos Muniz completed the one-hitter.

2008 — Alexei Ramirez set a rookie record with his fourth grand slam of the season, and Chicago beat Detroit 8-2 in a rainout makeup, forcing a one-game tiebreaker against Minnesota for the AL Central tie.

2011 — The Tampa Bay Rays clinched the AL wild card with a stunning rally, overcoming a late seven-run deficit and then beating the New York Yankees 8-7 on Evan Longoria’s home run in the 12th inning. The Rays’ win came four minutes after Boston blew a one-run lead in the ninth at Baltimore and lost 4-3. The Red Sox held a nine-game lead over the Rays in early September. Boston became the first team to miss the postseason after leading by as many as nine games for a playoff spot entering September.

2011 — Chris Carpenter and St. Louis completed one of the more remarkable comebacks in baseball history, clinching the NL wild card with an 8-0 win over Houston and a later loss by Atlanta. The Cardinals got their playoff spot when the Braves fell to Philadelphia 4-3 in 13 innings. St. Louis trailed Atlanta by 10 1/2 games on Aug. 25. The Cardinals won 23 of their last 31 games.

2011 — New York’s Jose Reyes bunted for a base hit in the first inning against Cincinnati and was lifted for a pinch-runner, enough to give him the NL batting title with a .337 average. Ryan Braun, who was at .334 heading into Milwaukee’s regular-season finale against Pittsburgh, went 0 for 4 and finished at .332.

2013 — The Texas Rangers forced a one-game tiebreaker for the second AL wild-card spot, winning their seventh in a row when Geovany Soto hit a tiebreaking RBI double and later homered to beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-2. The Rangers (91-71) added game No. 163 to the regular season, and face Tampa Bay after the Rays assured themselves a tie for a wild-card berth by scoring six runs in the first inning and then holding off the Toronto Blue Jays 7-6.

Today’s birthdays: Tyler Thornburg, 26; Heath Bell, 37.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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