THIS DATE IN BASEBALL

MAY 31

1914 — Joseph Benz of the White Sox pitched a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians for a 6-1 victory.

1927 — Detroit first baseman Johnny Neun made an unassisted triple play against Cleveland. He caught Homer Summa’s liner, tagged Charlie Jamieson between first and second and then touched second base before Glenn Myatt could return. The Tigers beat the Indians 1-0.

1937 — Carl Hubbell’s 24-game winning streak ended with a 10-3 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hubbell’s last defeat came on July 13, 1936, 1-0 to the Chicago Cubs. 1944 — Al Unser’s only home run of the year, a pinch-hit grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, helped the Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 6-2. 1964 — The New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants played the longest doubleheader in major league history — 9 hours, 52 minutes — with the help of a 23inning game in the nightcap that was won by the visiting Giants 8-6 on run-scoring hits by Del Crandall and Felipe Alou against Galen Cisco. The second game took 7:23 to play.

1970 — Chicago’s Luis Aparicio and Walt Williams each collect five hits in a 22-13 rout of the Boston Red Sox. Williams also scored five times. The two teams collected 40 hits, one short of the AL record set in 1950.

1980 — Ken Landreaux went 0-for-4 in Minnesota’s 11-1 loss to Baltimore, ending his hitting streak at 31 consecutive games. It was the longest streak in the American League since Dom Dimaggio’s 34-game streak in 1949.

1997 — Ila Borders became the first woman to pitch in a regular-season professional game, in the sixth inning of the St. Paul Saints’ Northern League game against Sioux Falls. She gave up three earned runs without getting an out.

1999 — Umpire Frank Pulli used TV replay to take away a home run from Florida’s Cliff Floyd in the fifth inning of the Marlins’ 5-2 loss to St. Louis.

2001 — At Safeco Field, Seattle Mariners ace Aaron Sele trims the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1. Sele is now 8-0 and the Mariners are 40-12. The Orioles’ only run is Cal Ripken, Jr.’s 420th career home run.

2006 — Roger Clemens agrees to terms on a one-year deal with the Houston Astros to come back for a 23rd season, or at least the remaining four months of the current season. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner ends his seven-month retirement by accepting a deal that will pay him approximately $12.8 million - the pro-rated value of his $22,000,022 seasonal contract - to pitch for the Astros for the balance of the current