This Weekend in Baseball History
May 7th, 2013: Matt Harvey retires the first 20 batters he faces, and throws nine innings of one-hit shutout ball, striking out 12 -- but leaves with a no-decision. The Mets don't score until the 10th, when Mike Baxter singles in Ike Davis, so reliever Bobby Parnell earns the "W" in a 1-0 victory over the White Sox at Citi Field.
May 7th, 2006: The Yankees defeat the Rangers 8-5 at Arlington -- the 1000th win for Joe Torre as the club's manager. He joins Joe McCarthy (1,460), Casey Stengel (1,149) and Miller Huggins (1,067) as the only Yankee skippers to reach that milestone.
May 7th, 1972: Steve Carlton's 3rd inning strikeout of Ron Bryant is the 1000th of Lefty's career. The Phillies go on to an 8-3 win over the Giants at Veterans Stadium as Carlton raises his record to 5-1. (He's won 5 of the Phils 13 victories so far.)
May 7th, 1970: Wes Parker hits for the cycle in the Dodgers-Mets game at Shea Stadium. Parker's 10th inning triple breaks a tie, as he drives in Ted Sizemore and Willie Davis in what winds up a 7-4 LA victory. Parker is the first player ever to hit for the cycle at the Queens ballpark.
May 7th, 1966: After the Yankees win just four of their first 20 games, GM Ralph Houk fires Johnny Keane and installs himself as Yankees manager. New York will win 13 of the next 17 under Houk, but still finishes last in the American League.
May 7th, 1965: Bob Gibson tosses a one-hit shutout, as the Cardinals blank the Phillies 2-0 at Connie Mack Stadium. Johnny Callison singles in the 4th for the lone Philadelphia hit. Lou Brock's 7th inning RBI single (one of his four hits in the game) off Chris Short snaps a scoreless tie; Curt Flood later drives in Brock for the only other run.
May 7th, 1960: Norm Sherry's 11th inning home run makes his brother Larry the winning pitcher as the Dodgers walk off the Phillies 3-2.
May 7th, 1956: Bill White homers in his first major league at bat -- he's the 26th players ever to accomplish that -- but his New York Giants still fall 6-3 to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Ken Boyer drives in a pair, including a sacrifice fly that caps a five-run 6th inning where St. Louis takes the lead for keeps.
May 7th, 1917: Red Sox lefty Babe Ruth outpitches fellow future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson of the Senators. Ruth throws a two-hit shutout and drives in the game's only run on a sacrifice fly.... as Boston defeats Washington 1-0 at Griffith Stadium.
May 8th, 2001: Randy Johnson strikes out a record-tying 20 batters (out of 29 men faced), but settles for a no-decision in the Diamondbacks 4-3, 11-inning win over the Reds at Bank One Ballpark.
May 8th, 2000: Jason and Jeremy Giambi each hit a home run in the A's 9-8 loss to the Angels in Anaheim. It's the first of four times the brothers will homer in the same game for Oakland.
May 8th, 1974: George Brett smacks the first home run of his career -- off fellow future Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins of the Rangers.
May 8th, 1968: Catfish Hunter of the A's fires a perfect game against the Twins -- and has the game winning RBI: a 7th inning bunt single that drives in Rick Monday in a game Oakland goes on to win 4-0. Just under 6500 were on hand at the Coliseum.
May 8th, 1966: The Giants beat the Cardinals 10-5 in the final game at the first Busch Stadium (a/k/a Sportsman's Park). Willie Mays hit the park's final home run; Jim Ray Hart gets the last hit; Alex Johnson is the final batter, grounding into a game-ending double play.
May 8th, 1961: New York's upcoming National League expansion team announces they will be called the Mets.
May 9th, 2019: Albert Pujols homers off the Tigers' Ryan Carpenter at Comerica Park, to join Hank Aaron and Alex Rodriguez as the only players with 2000 official RBI.
But this comes with an asterisk: Runs Batted In didn't become an official statistic until 1920, so the 224 runs Babe Ruth drove in during the first six years of his career don't "count." That leaves the Bambino with 1992 officially, 2214 otherwise, still second all-time to Aaron.
May 9th, 2010: Dallas Braden authors the 19th perfect game in baseball history, a 4-0 A's victory over the Rays in Oakland.
May 9th, 2002: Mariano Rivera becomes the Yankees all time leader in saves, nailing down his 225th in a 3-1 win over the Devil Rays at Tropicana Field. That surpasses Dave Righetti's previous mark.
May 9th, 1993: Mariano Duncan's grand slam in the bottom of the 8th inning powers the Phillies to their third straight come-from-behind victory over the Cardinals. The 6-5 final caps a series sweep at Veterans Stadium.
May 9th, 1987: Eddie Murray of the Orioles becomes the player ever to homer from both sides of the plate in consecutive games as Baltimore routs the White Sox 15-6 at Comiskey Park. The future Hall of Famer connects off lefty Joel McKeon in the 4th inning and righthander Bob James in the 6th.
May 9th, 1967: Roger Maris belts his first home run in a Cardinal uniform -- a 6th inning solo shot off Woody Fryman in a 6-3 Forbes Field victory. Several reports say the ball -- hit by the star known for wearing number-9 -- was caught by a fan in seat 9 of section 9 on the 9th day of the month.
May 9th, 1962: The Mets obtain their first ex-Yankee, trading catcher Hobie Landreth to the Orioles for Marv Throneberry. The one-time slugging prospect -- who played in 141 games for Casey Stengel during the 1950s-- was born to be a Met: his initials are M-E-T for Marvin Eugene Throneberry.
May 9th, 1961: Carl Yastrzemski hits the first home run of his career -- a 5th inning shot off the Angels' Jerry Casale at Wrigley Field in L.A. -- a game the Angels win 8-7 on a Steve Bilko walk off single in the 9th.
May 9th, 1950: Ralph Kiner homers twice, including his second grand slam in four games, as the Pirates double up on the Dodgers 10-5 at Forbes Field.
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