This date in baseball
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 home run came in the sixth inning after Ted Williams hit a home run. Joe Cronin followed with a home run and, later in the inning, Jim Tabor also hit a home run. The four home runs in the inning were a first in the American League.
1969 The New York Mets clinched the National League East Division 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 Orioles beat the Tigers 5-4 at Memorial Stadium.
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 away 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 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
2004 The Atlanta Braves clinched their 13th consecutive division title, winning the National League East with an 8-7 victory over the Florida Marlins. The Braves’ record streak of division championships began with the 1991 National League West title and excludes the 1994 strike-shortened season.
2006 Trevor Hoffman became baseball’s all-time saves leader, earning No. 479 to pass Lee Smith and help National League West-leading San Diego beat Pittsburgh 2-1. It was his National League-leading 43rd save in 48 chances. Smith piled up 478 saves in 1980-1997.
2006 David Ortiz hit his 53rd home run and 32nd on the road in Boston’s 13-4 loss to Toronto. Ortiz tied Babe Ruth for the most home runs on the road in American League history.
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.
2009 Los Angeles beat Washington 7-6 to hand the Nationals their 100th loss of the season. The Nationals, who were 59-102 in 2008, were the first National League franchise to lose 100 games in consecutive seasons since the San Diego Padres, who dropped 102 in both 1973 and 1974.
2013 Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha lost his no-hit bid on Ryan Zimmerman’s infield single with two outs in the ninth inning, and St. Louis beat the Washington Nationals 2-0. Making his ninth career start, Wacha became the third pitcher this season to have a no-hit bid broken up with one out to go. Wacha was pulled after Zimmerman’s hit and Trevor Rosenthal got Jayson Werth to ground out for the win.