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This Day in Baseball History
July 27th

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42 Fact(s) Found
1918 After Harry Heitman gives up hits to four consecutive batters in his major league debut in the Robins' 22-7 loss to the Cardinals, skipper Wilbert Robinson pulls him from the Ebbets Field contest. The 21-year-old Brooklyn rookie right-hander will never hurl again in the big leagues, ending his career with an ERA of infinity.
1919 With a hit in his 50th straight Western League contest, Wichita Jobbers' outfielder Joe Wilhoit, en route to a 69-game streak, surpasses Jack Ness for the longest consecutive-game hitting mark in professional baseball. Ness's record, established four years earlier playing first base for the Oakland Oaks, will remain the Pacific Coast League record until Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 61 straight for the San Francisco Seals in 1933.
1930 Ken Ash, throwing just one pitch in relief of Larry Benton, is credited with a full inning of work when he induces Charlie Grimm to hit into a triple play in the Reds' 6-5 victory over the Cubs at Redland Field. The 28-year-old West Virginian right-hander, replaced for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the frame, gets the victory when Cincinnati takes the lead for good in that frame.
1938 Hank Greenberg hits a pair of home runs, a feat the Tigers' first baseman will accomplish a record-setting eleven times during the season. The Detroit slugger's first and second-inning round-trippers drive in five runs, contributing to the team's 9-4 victory over the Senators at Briggs Stadium.
1943 Without informing his current skipper, Philadelphia owner William D. Cox announces at a New York press conference that Freddie Fitzsimmons will be taking over the managerial reigns of the team, never mentioning Bucky Harris, the man he is replacing. The Phillies players considered going on strike in protest but, at the urging of their former field boss, decided to drop the plan after the owner threatened legal action.
1946 In Boston's 13-6 beating of the Browns, Rudy York becomes the third major leaguer and second Red Sox player to hit two grand slams in the same game. With his Sportsman's Park performance, the Boston first baseman joins Tony Lazzeri (1936, Yankees) and Jim Tabor (1939, Red Sox) in accomplishing the feat.


Red Sox first baseman Rudy York (1947)
1947 Jake Jones hits a 60-foot triple in Boston's 4-3 victory over the Browns at Fenway Park. Umpire Cal Hubbard awards the Red Sox first baseman three bases when St. Louis hurler Fred Sanford, fearing the grounder might roll fair, throws his glove at the ball to keep it foul.
1948 Al Rosen clouts his fifth consecutive homer over two days for the Kansas City Blues, the Tigers' Triple-A team in the American Association. The 24-year-old freshman, the American League MVP in 1953, will finish the minor league season batting .327, earning the circuit's Rookie of the Year honors.
1950 Del Ennis drives in seven runs with a seventh-inning bases-loaded double and a grand slam in the next frame. The 25-year-old right fielder's late-inning power surge helps the Phillies rout the Cubs at Shibe Park, 13-3.
1959 William Shea formally announces the formation of the Continental League, with franchises in Denver, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City, and Toronto. The new major league is the brainchild of the New York attorney who proposed the idea a year after the Giants and Dodgers left the Big Apple to move to the West Coast. 
1963 John Bateman's eighth-inning homer at Colt Stadium scores the only run in the Mets' 21st consecutive defeat on the road. The 1-0 complete-game decision to Houston is Roger Craig's 16th straight loss, tying Craig Anderson's dubious club record established in the franchise's inaugural season last year.
1964 In the first clash of tenth-place teams in major league history, the Senators prevail, beating the Mets in the Hall of Fame exhibition game, 6-4. The Cooperstown combatants will collectively lose 209 games this season, but Washington will climb out of the cellar to finish ahead of Kansas City.
1964 The Hall of Fame inducts seven new members, swelling the ranks of the 25-year-old institution to 101. The recent inductees include Luke Appling, voted in by the BBWAA, and spitballers Burleigh Grimes and Urban Faber, pre-1900 era players Tim Keefe and John Montgomery, lifetime .330 hitter Heinie Manush, and skipper Miller Huggins, all selected by the 12-man Veterans' Committee in February.
1965 League officials increase the number of foreigners allowed on each Japanese professional team from 2 to 3. However, the Yomiuri Giants announce their team will not have any foreigners on their roster, a policy that lasts ten years until the signing of Davey Johnson.
1966 Six weeks after the team plays its first game in the Peach State, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overrules a lower court decision of Wisconsin v. The Milwaukee Braves by a narrow vote of 4-3, declaring that the state doesn't have the jurisdiction to keep the team from moving to Atlanta. Due to the close vote, the state of Wisconsin will appeal the majority's decision to the United States Supreme Court.
1966 Sandy Koufax strikes out 16 Phillies, and Jim Bunning whiffs 12 Dodgers in the first 11 innings of a pitching duel between future Hall of Famers at Chavez Ravine. With both starters out of the game, Los Angeles beats Philadelphia, 2-1, thanks to an unearned run scored in the bottom of the twelfth inning.
1968 En route to posting a 31-6 record, Denny McLain earns his 20th victory of the season when he blanks Baltimore at Memorial Stadium, 9-0. The Tiger right-hander is the third pitcher in history to reach the milestone this quickly, with only Rube Marquard (Giants, July 19, 1912) and Lefty Grove (A's, July 25, 1931) accomplishing the feat earlier in a season.
1972 In his managerial debut, Cubs skipper Whitey Lockman watches Fergie Jenkins throw a one-hitter to blank the Phillies at Veterans Stadium, 4-0. Willie Montanez's fourth-inning double spoils the Canadian right-hander's bid for a no-hitter.

(Ed. Note: The former Giants' first baseman/outfielder succeeded his old mentor, Leo Durocher, who the third-place team dismissed after he compiled a mediocre record of 46–44 midway through the season. - LP)

1975 The Mets release Cleon Jones after suspending him nine days ago for insubordination following an altercation with manager Yogi Berra. The outfielder from Mobile (AL) will not play again this year but will briefly join the White Sox next season, playing thirteen games with the club before ending his 13-year career with a .281 batting average.
1978 Light-hitting Indians' second baseman Duane Kuiper becomes one of only three modern major leaguers to hit two bases-loaded triples in one game. The pair of three-baggers, previously accomplished by Elmer Valo (1949 A's) and Billy Bruton (1959 Braves), helps the Tribe beat the Yankees, 17-5.
1978 Mike Cubbage completes the cycle when he connects for a two-run seventh-inning triple in the Twins' 6-3 win over the Blue Jays at Metropolitan Stadium. The rare event becomes possible when the Minnesota third baseman is thrown out (9-4-5) at third base, trying to stretch a double into a triple in his first at-bat.
1979 On his first day back in a home uniform, eight years after leaving the Expos, Rusty Staub receives the most prolonged standing ovation in franchise history when he pinch-hits for Elias Sosa in the bottom of the eighth inning in a 5-4 loss to Pittsburgh. The first-place Montreal club re-acquired 'Le Grand Orange' from the Tigers to come off the bench as an experienced pinch-hitter and to fill in at first base.
1984 Pete Rose passes Ty Cobb as the all-time single leader when he collects his 3,053rd off Steve Carlton in a 6-1 Expo victory over the Phillies. The Montreal switch-hitter, who will also pass the 'Georgia Peach' to become the all-time hit leader, ends his 24-year career with 3,215 one-base hits.
1988 Tommy John becomes the first pitcher to commit three errors on one play when he (1) bobbles Jeffrey Leonard's grounder and then, to recover, (2) throws the ball down the right-field line that Dave Winfield retrieves and fires home, where the Yankee left-hander cuts it off, (3) relaying the throw wildly to the plate, allowing two runs to score. The 45-year-old southpaw's fourth-inning miscues don't stop him from getting the victory in the Bombers' 16-3 rout of the Brewers in the Bronx.
1989 In the team's 10-1 rout of San Francisco, Dale Murphy becomes the 10th major leaguer to collect six RBIs in the same inning when he connects for two three-run round-trippers in the Braves' ten-run sixth at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The 33-year-old right fielder also becomes the second player in franchise history to go deep twice in the same frame, joining Robert Lowe, who accomplished the unusual feat in 1884.

NYT Murphy's Big Inning: 2 Homers and 6 R.B.I.

1998 Wade Boggs' eighth-inning single in the Devil Rays' 11-5 win over Oakland moves him past Babe Ruth and into 33rd place on the career hits list with 2,874. The future Hall of Fame third baseman will end his 18-year career with 3,010 hits, finishing with a .328 lifetime batting average.
1998 Pirates' second baseman Tony Womack establishes a new major league mark by not grounding into a double play in 888 consecutive at-bats. Dodger outfielder Pete Reiser previously set the record in 1946.
1998 Sammy Sosa hits his first grand slam, establishing the mark for most career homers before hitting a grand slam (246). Tomorrow, 'Slamming Sammy' will hit another, becoming the 18th major leaguer to hit a grand slam on consecutive days.
1998 With a three-run blast in the sixth inning, Arkansas Travelers' (Cardinals AA affiliate) outfielder Tyrone Horne, the Expos' 44th-round draft pick, completes the first and only home run cycle in a professional baseball game. The Troy (NC) native also slugged a two-run homer in the first inning, a grand slam in the second, and a solo shot in the fifth during the 13-4 victory over San Antonio.
2000 Jim Fregosi wins his 1,000th game as a big-league skipper when the Blue Jays beat the Mariners, 7-2. The former major league infielder, who has also managed the Angels, White Sox, and Phillies, finishes his 15-year managerial tenure with a 1028-1094 (.484) record, with one postseason appearance.
2000 The Rockies and Red Sox complete a seven-player trade. The Red Sox receive pitchers Rolando Arrojo and Rick Croushore, infielder Mike Lansing, and an undisclosed amount of cash for second baseman Jeff Frye and pitchers Brian Rose and John Wasdin, as well as minor league pitcher Jeff Taglienti.
2005 Ryan Freel becomes the first player in the Reds' 136-year history to steal five bases in a game, including two in the ninth that moves him to third base, where he scores the eventual winning run on Felipe Lopez's sacrifice fly. The Cincinnati second baseman's thievery contributes to the team's 7-6 victory over the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine.
2008 Brad Ziegler sets a major league record by pitching 27 innings without allowing a run from the start of his career. The A's 28-year-old rookie right-hander hurls a scoreless seventh and eighth in Oakland's 6-5 victory over the Rangers to surpass the previous mark of 25 frames established in 1907 by Phillies' moundsman George McQuillan.
2009 Josh Willingham becomes just the 13th major leaguer to hit two grand slams in the same game. The 30-year-old outfielder's fifth and sixth-inning bases-loaded home runs set the pace in the Nationals' 14-6 victory over Milwaukee at Miller Park.

2011 With a 9-2 victory at Yankee Stadium thanks to Felix Hernandez's seven innings of four-hit, one-run ball, the Mariners post their first win since July 5 to end their 17-game losing streak, a franchise record. Seattle's recent futility surpassed the team's longest winless drought, which consisted of 14 consecutive defeats in 1992.
2011 For the second straight season, the Cardinals trade a starting outfielder for pitching, dealing Colby Rasmus and relievers Trever Miller and Brian Tallet to the Blue Jays for Edwin Jackson (acquired from the White Sox a few hours earlier) and relievers Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski. Last year, the Redbirds dealt right fielder Ryan Ludwick to San Diego in a three-team deal that brought Indian starter Jake Westbrook to St. Louis.
2011 Ervin Santana, facing only two hitters over the minimum, no-hits against the hometown Indians at Progressive Field, 3-1. The Tribe's only run against the Angels' right-hander results from a first-inning wild pitch run following an error by shortstop Erick Aybar.

2011

"While we cannot begin to understand how umpire Jerry Meals did not see the tag made by Michael McKenry three feet in front of home plate, we do not question the integrity of Mr. Meals. Instead, we know that Mr. Meals' intention was to get the call right. Jerry Meals has been umpiring Major League games for 14 years and has always done so with integrity and professionalism. He got this one wrong." - FRANK COONELLY, president of the Pirates.

The Pirates file a formal complaint with the Commissioner's Office expressing their extreme disappointment by how their 19-inning game against the Braves ended earlier this morning. The statement shares the organization's dismay that umpire Jerry Meals did not see Michael McKenry's tag three feet in front of home plate, which resulted in Atlanta's 4-3 victory at Turner Field.

2014 In front of an enthusiastic Cooperstown crowd of nearly 50,000, the Hall of Fame inducts White Sox slugger Frank Thomas, left-hander Tom Glavine, right-hander Greg Maddux, and managers Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, and Tony La Russa. Thomas becomes the first player to be enshrined, having spent more than half of his time as a designated hitter, and Torre is the only Hall of Famer to collect more than 2,000 hits as a player and win more than 2,000 games as a skipper.
2017 The top of the Nationals lineup hit four consecutive home runs in one inning when Brian Goodwin, Wilmer Difo, Bryce Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman go deep in the bottom of the third inning in the team’s 15-2 rout of the Brewers. Milwaukee right-hander Michael Blazek becomes the first pitcher in baseball history to allow five home runs in an inning when Anthony Rendon adds another round-tripper later in the frame.

2019 With home runs from Pedro Severino and Jonathan Villar, the Orioles have now hit at least two round-trippers in ten consecutive games to establish a major league mark. Hanser Alberto's two-run single in the eighth inning will be the difference in Baltimore's 8-7 victory over the Angels in Anaheim.
2019 In the Angels' 8-7 loss to the Orioles, Albert Pujols hits his 100th home run at Angel Stadium, becoming the 12th major leaguer to accomplish the feat at two ballparks, having passed the century mark at Busch Stadium. Also, the Anaheim slugger joins Mark McGwire (Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Busch Stadium) and Frank Robinson (Crosley Field, Memorial Stadium) as only the third player to do the deed in an American and National League park.
42 Fact(s) Found