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This Day in Baseball History
July 20th

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31 Fact(s) Found
1906 At St. Louis, 27-year-old Brooklyn right-hander Mal Eason no-hits the second-division Cardinals at Robison Field, 2-0. The 'Kid' was the losing pitcher when Phillies southpaw Johnny Lush pitched a no-hitter against the Superbas in May.
1926 A's outfielder Al Simmons establishes an American League record by playing 394 consecutive games to start a career. Hideki Matsui, who will begin in 518 straight games after signing as a Japanese free agent with the Yankees, will surpass the Hall of Famer's mark in 2005.
1944 The American and National Leagues Joint Rules Committee outlaw the spitball, the shineball, and the emeryball. Seventeen pitchers are allowed to keep throwing the banned pitches until they retire, including Burleigh Grimes, who will be the last player to throw a doctored pitch legally.
1949 Yankee backstop Yogi Berra tags out Larry Doby, trying to steal home with no outs with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning in a 7-3 loss to the Yankees at Cleveland Stadium. Tribe manager Lou Boudreau will fine his center fielder for the failed attempt to steal home and for taking several other unnecessary chances recently.
1951 In a game against the Reds with All-Star hurler Ewell Blackwell on the mound, the Giants, for the first time, employ their infamous scheme for stealing catchers' signs using a telescope positioned in the center-field clubhouse. The 'Jints' beat Cincinnati, 11-6, and New York will win 22 of the remaining 27 games at the Polo Grounds, overtaking the Dodgers to win the National League pennant.
1958 Tiger right-hander Jim Bunning no-hits the Red Sox, 3-0, and will become the first modern-day pitcher to toss a hitless game in both leagues when he throws a perfect game against the Mets in 1964. Bob Murphy will be behind the microphone for each of the future Hall of Famer and U.S. Senator's gems.


Tiger right-hander Jim Bunning

1965 Yankees' pitcher Mel Stottlemyre hits an inside-the-park grand slam against the Red Sox. The fifth-inning shot to deep center field proves to be the difference in the 23-year-old right-hander's 6-3 complete-game victory at Yankee Stadium.
1969 At Connie Mack Stadium, the Astros and Phillies move silently to their respective baselines to look skyward when the PA announcer informs the crowd the Eagle has landed on the moon. After a recording of Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America" is played, along with a prayer for the safety of the astronauts over the loudspeaker, the game resumes.
1970 Twenty-six-year-old right-hander Bill Singer pitches the first Dodger no-hitter since Sandy Koufax's departure when he keeps the Philadelphia batters hitless in a 5-0 victory at Chavez Ravine. The 'Singer Throwing Machine,' who spent 52 days on the disabled list earlier in the season recuperating from hepatitis, posts a 5-0 record along with a 1.84 ERA in July and will be named NL Player of the Month.
1973 Wilbur Wood, the last pitcher to start both games of a twin bill, takes the loss in each contest when New York sweeps the White Sox at Yankee Stadium, 12-2 and 7-0. The knuckleballer gets the nod to start the nightcap after not making it out of the first inning in the opener.
1974 The Indians, trailing the A's, 9-8, get runners to second and third with nobody out. Rollie Fingers retires George Hendrick and Charlie Spikes, but with first base still open, Oakland manager Alvin Dark elects to pitch to John Ellis, who promptly lines a single to center to win the game.
1976 Hank Aaron hit his last big league homer off Angels' hurler Dick Drago en route to a 6-2 Brewers win. The round-tripper is Hammerin' Hank's 755th, establishing the all-time major league record for career home runs.
1976 Mark Fidrych throws his twelfth complete game in his 13th start of the season, a streak that includes three 11-inning contests. The 21-year-old Tiger rookie right-hander from Massachusetts gives up ten hits, defeating Minnesota at Metropolitan Stadium, 8-3.
1978 Batting eighth, Chris Speier becomes the second Expo to complete a cycle when he strokes an eighth-inning two-run double off Mickey Mahler. The shortstop's big day drives in six runs, contributing to Montreal’s 7-3 victory over the Braves at Olympic Stadium.
1984 Toronto establishes a team record for runs scored in an inning when eleven players cross the plate at the Kingdome in the ninth. The Blue Jays' barrage in the final frame leads to an eventual 12-7 victory over Seattle.

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1987 Don Mattingly ties a major league mark when he makes 22 putouts in the Yankees' 7-1 victory in the Metrodome. 'Donnie Baseball' matches the one-game record established in 1906 by Hal Chase, another Bronx Bomber first-sacker.
1993 The game against the Cardinals is delayed for an hour after a fire breaks out near the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium's skybox/press box area. Recently acquired Fred McGriff pinch-hits a homer, enabling the Braves to rally from a 5-0 deficit to win 7-5, and appears to ignite the beginning of the team's historic comeback from a 9.5 games deficit to win the National League West Division.
2004 At Wrigley Field, Albert Pujols goes 5-for-5, including three home runs and five RBIs, as the Cardinals beat their Central Division rivals Cubs, 11-8. The Redbird first baseman's first career three-homer game helps St. Louis to erase a six-run deficit.
2006 In a 26-inning New York-Penn League game, which takes 6 hours and 40 minutes to complete at KeySpan Park in Coney Island, the Oneonta Tigers outlast the hometown Brooklyn Cyclones, 6-1. Mark Wright, a reserve outfielder, is the losing pitcher in history in the third-longest professional baseball game by innings.
2006 Trying to keep their 14 consecutive postseason appearances streak intact, the Braves trade Class A catcher Max Ramirez to the Indians for Bob Wickman. Atlanta, winning 12 of 16 to get back into the wild-card race, is hoping the veteran 37-year-old closer can help solve the team's late-inning woes, which include the bullpen blowing half of this season's 40 save opportunities.
2008 The Dodgers, with a five-run ninth-inning rally at Chase Field, beat the Diamondbacks, 6-5, and move into a flat-footed tie (48-50) with Arizona for first place in the National League West. Andre Ethier has the key hit in the comeback victory, a go-ahead triple off the center-field wall, as D-Back closer Brandon Lyon, pitching in his third consecutive game, couldn't hold a three-run lead.
2008 By surpassing John Smoltz's effort for the 2003 Braves by ten games, Francisco Rodriguez becomes the quickest reliever ever to reach 40 saves. The Angels' closer strikes out the side in the ninth of a 5-3 come-from-behind victory over the Red Sox, completing a sweep of the reigning World Series champions.

2009 With an 8-5 win over Milwaukee at PNC Park, the Pirates snap their 17-game losing streak against the Brewers, the longest skid against a single opponent in 39 years. During the 1969-70 seasons, the Royals dropped 23 decisions to the Orioles to establish the major league mark.
2009 After trailing 12-2, Oakland comes back to beat the Twins, 14-13, making it the first time the A's have come back from a ten-run deficit since being down by twelve runs in 1925, when the team, then known as the Philadelphia Athletics, beat the Indians, 17-15. The 3-hour, 32-minute slugfest ends with Michael Cuddyer being called out at home plate on a very controversial call after trying to score on a wild pitch. 

2011 Hideki Matsui, leading off the sixth inning in Oakland's 7-5 victory in Detroit, hits his 500th career home run. The Japanese native went yard 332 times for the Yomiuri Giants before collecting another 168 round-trippers since 2003, playing with the Yankees, Angels, and A's.
2012 After trailing the Nationals by nine runs after five innings of play, the Braves take the lead, 10-9, when the team plates two runs in the top of the ninth. Washington will knot the score in the bottom of the frame on Danny Espinosa's home run, but Atlanta completes its amazing comeback with an unanswered run in the eleventh inning.
2013 At Miller Park, in a game against Miami, the Brewers wear throwback jerseys to honor the Milwaukee Bears, a Negro League team that played in Brew Town during the 1923 season. Brewers manager Ron Roenicke has a wardrobe malfunction when the letter u on his uniform is misplaced, spelling out Milwakuee.

2013 Although the Mariners manage just one hit and strike out 15 times, the team beats the Astros at Minute Maid Park, 4-2. Seattle scores two runs in the top of the sixth thanks to two bases on balls, two passed balls, and a sacrifice fly, and then tallies another pair in the next frame when Michael Saunders double plates Justin Smoak and Mike Zunino, who both reached base via a walk.
2015 🇨🇳 Xu Guiyan, nicknamed 'Itchy' at the MLB China Development Center in Wuxi, signs with Orioles, becoming the first Chinese player by birth and ancestry to ink a contract to play in the United States. In the spring, the Orioles scouts will evaluate the 19-year-old outfielder/first baseman Jiangsu before being assigned to a minor league affiliate.
2020 Alyssa Nakken becomes the first woman to coach on the field during a major league game, entering during the eighth inning of the Giants' 6-2 exhibition victory over the A's to coach first base. The former Sacramento State's four-time Academic All-American softball player, who joined the team as an intern in the baseball operations department, was hired as an assistant coach as part of San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler's staff in January.

2021 Melanie Newman, as part of the first all-female broadcast team, does the play-by-play when the Rays host the Orioles in a game streamed nationally on YouTube. Color analyst Sarah Langs, on-field reporter Alanna Rizzo, and pregame and post-game show anchors Heidi Watney and Lauren Gardner join the MASN and Orioles Radio Network announcer to complete the historical on-air crew.
31 Fact(s) Found