ON THIS DAY

September 9

1998 — The New York Yankees officially clinched the AL East title, the earliest in AL history, beating the Boston Red Sox 7-5. The Yankees improved to 102-41 — 20{ games ahead of second-place Boston.

2001 — Barry Bonds hit three home runs to give him 63 for the season. The third homer was a three-run shot in the 11th inning lifting San Francisco over the Colorado Rockies 9-4.

2003 — Tomas Perez and Jason Michaels hit grand slams as Philadelphia routed Atlanta 18-5.

2004 — Joe Randa had six hits and tied a major league record with six runs, and Alex Berroa hit a three-run homer and drove in a career-high five runs in Kansas City’s 26-5 victory over Detroit in the first game of a doubleheader. Randa became the first AL player to have six hits and six runs in the same nine-inning game.

2007 — Milwaukee became the third team in major league history to open a game with three straight home runs when Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun connected off Cincinnati’s Phil Dumatrait in a 10-5 victory. Weeks and Braun each hit two home runs and J.J. Hardy homered and hit two doubles — all in the first four innings.

2007 — Detroit’s Curtis Granderson joined Willie Mays and Frank “Wildfire” Schulte as the only players in major league history with 20 stolen bases, 20 homers, 20 triples and 20 doubles in a season when he stole a base in the first inning of Detroit’s 14-7 loss to Seattle.

2017 — Jose Abreu became the first White Sox player to hit for the cycle in 17 years, among six Chicago players to go deep in a 13-1 rout of the San Francisco Giants.