ON THIS DATE
April 18 1899 — John McGraw made his managerial debut at age 26 with the Orioles. He led them to a 5-3 victory over the New York Giants, a team he later managed for more than 30 years. 1916 — Philadelphia’s Grover Alexander pitched his first of 16 shutouts of the season with a win over the Boston Braves. 1923 — In the first game at Yankee Stadium, a record crowd of 72,400 watched Babe Ruth lead the Yankees to victory over the Red Sox with a home run. 1945 — In his major league debut, one-armed outfielder Pete Gray got one hit in four at-bats in the St. Louis Browns’ 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers. 1950 — In the first opening night game, the host St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 behind a complete game by Gerry Staley and home runs by Red Schoendienst and Stan Musial, 1970 — Nolan Ryan of the New York Mets allowed one hit — a leadoff single by Denny Doyle — and struck out 15 for a 7-0 win over Philadelphia. 1982 — The Atlanta Braves defeated the Astros 6-5 in Houston to set a National League record by winning their 11th straight game to start the season. 1987 — Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt hit his 500th home run with two outs in the ninth to rally the Phillies to an 8-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium. 1997 — Roger Pavlik of the Rangers became the first AL pitcher to walk the first four batters of the game in a 6-5 loss to Toronto. 2000 — Adam Kennedy tied a club record with eight RBIs and came within a double of the cycle as the Anaheim Angels defeated Toronto 16-10. A hot dog promotion at the SkyDome went awry as fans got splattered with bits of wiener when they fell apart in mid air after being shot from the ‘‘Hot Dog Blaster.’’ Although the hot dogs repeatedly disintegrated, promoters continued shooting them into the stands. 2005 — The New York Yankees scored 13 runs in the second inning of a 19-8 win over Tampa Bay. The last time New York scored 13 runs in an inning was June 21, 1945, in the fifth inning of a 14-4 victory at Boston. 2007 — Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Texas Rangers. Buehrle walked Sammy Sosa with one out in the fifth, then promptly picked him off first base. 2009 — Asdrubal Cabrera and Mark DeRosa went a combined 8-for-13, with 11 RBIs in Cleveland’s 22-4 victory against New York at Yankee Stadium. The Indians put together the first record-setting performance in the new Yankee Stadium, scoring 14 runs in the second inning — the most ever allowed by New York in an inning. Today’s birthdays: Henderson Alvarez, 28; Evan Marshall, 28; Miguel Cabrera, 35.