THIS DATE IN BASEBALL
MAY 18
1912: Detroit players went on strike to protest Ty Cobb’s suspension. To avoid a forfeit and fine, manager Hugh Jennings recruited college players and others; they lost to the Philadelphia A’s 24-2. Joe Travers gave up all 24 runs on 26 hits.
1929: The Brooklyn Dodgers outslugged the Philadelphia Phillies for a 20-16 victory in the first game of a doubleheader. Brooklyn’s Babe Herman and Johnny Frederick each had five hits. Frederick scored five times to give him a major league record eight runs in two games. The Phillies won the second game 8-6. The teams combined for a record 50 runs in a doubleheader.
1955: The Cleveland Indians dealt the Red Sox the worst shutout in Boston franchise history, 19-0, behind Herb Score’s three-hitter. Vic Wertz drove in five runs, including a grand slam, in an 11-run fifth inning.
1957: Dick Williams of the Orioles hit a ninth-inning, game-tying solo home run against Chicago’s Paul LaPalme seconds before 10:20 p.m. the curfew set so the White Sox could catch a train out of Baltimore. If Williams had done anything else, Chicago would have won. The game was later replayed from the beginning and Baltimore won.
1968: Frank Howard hit his 10th home run in a sixgame span to power the Washington Senators to an 8-4 victory over Detroit at Tiger Stadium.
1990: The Baltimore Orioles tied an AL record with eight consecutive singles in a seven-run first inning against Bobby Witt to beat the Texas Rangers 13-1. The eight straight singles equaled a record set by the Washington Senators against Cleveland in 1951 and matched by the Oakland Athletics against Chicago in 1981.
1999: Edgar Martinez hit three home runs tying a major league record with five homers in two games to give the Seattle Mariners a 10-1 win over the Minnesota Twins. He homered twice in the opener of the series.
2003: The Texas Rangers swept three games at Yankee Stadium for the first time in the franchise’s 43-year existence, winning 5-3.
2004: Randy Johnson became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, retiring all 27 hitters to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Atlanta Braves 2-0. It was the 17th perfect game in major league history and the first since the New York Yankees’ David Cone did it against Montreal on July 18, 1999.
2009: Mark Teixeira homered from both sides of the plate and New York Yankees finished a four-game sweep of Minnesota with a 7-6 victory.
2013: Gerardo Parra led off the game with a home run and Brandon McCarthy pitched a three-hitter to help Arizona beat Miami 1-0. Parra’s home run to rightcenter field came on the first pitch from Tom Koehler. It was the first time since Sept. 2, 1963 that the only run of a game was scored on the first pitch. Pete Rose homered off the Mets’ Jay Hook to start the second game of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds.