This date in baseball
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 home runs in the inning were a first in the American League.
1969 The New York Mets clinched the National League East 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 Baltimore Orioles beat the Tigers 5-4 at Memorial Stadium.
1977 Jack Brohamer of the Chicago White Sox had four extra base hits and hit for the cycle in an 8-3 win over the Seattle Mariners at the Kingdome. 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 from a no-hitter, gave up a bad-hop single to Julio Franco. Stieb settled for a 1-0, one-hit victory over Cleveland.
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.
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.
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 1993.
2016 Jose Bautista hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees 3-0 to send New York to its third consecutive shutout loss — the first time that has happened to New York since 1975.
2022 The Braves’ Kyle Wright, who had only won two regular season games in four seasons, became the first 20-game winner in the majors this year with a 6-3 win over Philadelphia.