This date in baseball
1941 New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez walked 11 St. Louis batters in a 9-0 victory to set a major league record for walks in a shutout.
1945 Mel Ott of the New York Giants became the first in National League player to hit 500 home runs in a 9-2 victory over the Boston Braves. Ott connected off John Hutching to open the home half of the third inning. Ott joined two American League players in the 500 club, Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx.
1962 Bill Monbouquette of the Boston Red Sox pitched a no-hitter to beat the White Sox 1-0 at Chicago.
1970 Willie Stargell of Pittsburgh hit three doubles and two home runs to power the Pirates to a 20-10 rout of the Braves in Atlanta.
1972 Nate Colbert of the San Diego Padres drove in 13 runs in a doubleheader with five home runs and two singles. San Diego beat the Atlanta Braves in both games, by scores of 9-0 and 11-7. 1977 Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants hit two home runs, including his 18th career grand slam, a total that still leads the National League.
1978 Pete Rose went 0 for 4 against Atlanta pitchers Larry McWilliams and Gene Garber to end his 44-game hitting streak as the Braves defeated the Cincinnati Reds 16-4.
1986 Bert Blyleven threw a two-hitter and struck out 15 to become the 10th major league pitcher with 3,000 career strikeouts and Kirby Puckett hit for the cycle to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 10-1 victory over the Oakland A’s. Puckett tripled in the first inning, doubled in the fifth, singled in the sixth and homered in the eighth. Puckett finished 4 for 5 with 3 runs and 2 RBI. It was the first cycle to happen at the Metrodome. 1994 Baltimore’s Cal Ripken became the second major leaguer to play 2,000 consecutive games, and the Orioles beat Minnesota 1-0.
1998 Switch-hitter Tony Clark set an American League record by hitting home runs from both sides of the plate for the third time this year as the Detroit Tigers defeated Tampa Bay 8-0.
2005 Rafael Palmeiro was suspended 10 days following a positive test for steroids, less than five months after the Baltimore Orioles’ first baseman told Congress: “I have never used steroids. Period.”
2006 Carlos Guillen hit for the cycle in Detroit’s 10-4 victory over Tampa Bay. 2017 Evan Longoria became the second Tampa Bay player to hit for the cycle and drove in three runs to lead the Rays past Houston 6-4. He was a double shy when he batted in the ninth inning. He hit a liner to left field and initially was ruled out, but the call was overturned.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS Aledmys Diaz, 29; Madison Bumgarner, 30; Roenis Elias, 31; Adam Jones, 34; Brandon Kintzler, 35.