This Date In Baseball

April 11

1907 - Roger Bresnahan of the New York Giants became the first major league catcher to wear shin guards.

1912 - Rube Marquard of the New York Giants began a 19-game winning streak with an 18-3 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1961 - The Los Angeles Angels won their first major league game, 7-2 over the Orioles at Baltimore. Ted Kluszewski had two homers for the Angels.

1962 - The New York Mets played their first game and lost 11-4 to the Cardinals in St. Louis. Stan Musial of the Cardinals had three hits and tied Mel Ott's National League career record with his 1,859th run. The Mets would lose their first nine games on the way to a 40-120 record.

1969 - The Seattle Pilots played their first game, with Gary Bell shutting out the White Sox 7-0 at Sicks Stadium.

1990 - Mark Langston made his Angels debut by combining with Mike Witt on a no-hitter as California beat the Seattle Mariners 1-0.

1996 - Greg Maddux's major league record of road victories ended at 18 in a row with a 2-1 loss to the San Diego Padres. He had been 18-0 with an 0.99 ERA in 20 regular-season road starts since losing at Montreal on June 27, 1994.

2008 - Missouri's Jacob Priday set a Big 12 Conference record, hitting four home runs against Texas in a 31-12 rout. The senior went 5-for-5, drove in nine runs and scored six times.

2011 - Sam Fuld had four extra-base hits and drove in three runs to help Tampa Bay bust out of an early season slump with a 16-5 win over the Boston Red Sox. Fuld, needing a single to complete the cycle, doubled into the left-field corner in his last at-bat in the ninth.

2017 - Yoenis Cespedes hit three of New York's seven homers to back Matt Harvey, and the Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 14-4. Lucas Duda hit two homers and Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis d'Arnaud also went deep for New York.

Today's birthday: Kenta Maeda, 31.

April 12

1906 - Johnny Bates of Boston became the first modern player to hit a home run in his first major league at bat. Irv Young allowed one hit as Boston beat Brooklyn 2-0.

1909 - The Philadelphia Athletics opened Shibe Park with an 8-1 win over the Boston Red Sox. Shibe Park was the first concrete and steel stadium.

1911 - The Washington Senators opened Griffith Stadium with an 8-5 win over the Boston Red Sox.

1912 - The Chicago Cubs' Tinker-Evers-Chance double play combination played its final major league game together.

1927 - Bill Terry of the New York Giants hit the first grand slam ever hit on opening day. The Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 15-7.

1955 - In their first game in Kansas City, the transplanted Athletics defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-2 at Municipal Stadium. The standing-room crowd of 32,147 was the largest paid crowd for any event in Kansas City.

1960 - The San Francisco Giants beat the began play St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 in the first game at Candlestick Park.

1965 - The first National League home run in the Houston Astrodome was hit by Richie Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies off Bob Bruce in a 2-0 victory over the Astros.

1966 - A crowd of 50,671 welcomed the Braves to Atlanta, but Willie Stargell spoiled the occasion with a two-run homer in the 13th inning to give the Pirates a 3-2 victory.

1980 - In an awesome display of power, Cecil Cooper and Don Money each hit grand slams in the second inning of Milwaukee's 18-1 rout of the Boston Red Sox.

1992 - Boston's Matt Young pitched eight no-hit innings at Cleveland but lost 2-1. In the second game, the Indians managed only two hits off Roger Clemens to set a major league record for fewest hits (2) in a doubleheader.

1994 - Scott Cooper hit for the cycle and drove in five runs to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 22-11 rout of the Kansas City Royals. Cooper went 5-for-6 with two doubles and completed the cycle with a single in the ninth.

2018 - Shohei Ohtani hit a bases-loaded triple in Los Angeles' five-run seventh inning, helping the Angels beat the Kansas City Royals 7-1 for their fifth straight victory. The pitcher-outfielder was tied with Mike Trout for the Angels' lead with 11 RBIs in 26 at-bats.

Today's birthdays: Tomas Nido, 25; Brad Brach, 33.

April 13

1914 - The first Federal League game was played in Baltimore and the Terrapins defeated Buffalo, 3-2, behind Jack Quinn. A crowd estimated at 27,000 stood 15 rows deep in the outfield to witness the return of major league baseball to Baltimore.

1933 - Sammy West of St. Louis went 6-for-6 in an 11-inning win over the Chicago White Sox. He had five singles and a double off Ted Lyons.

1953 - For the first time in half a century, a new city was represented in the American or National leagues. The Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee and opened in Cincinnati, where Max Surkont set down the Reds, 2-0.

1954 - Henry Aaron made his major league debut in left field for the Milwaukee Braves and went 0-for-5 in a 9-8 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati's Jim Greengrass hit four doubles in his first major league game.

1963 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds tripled off Pittsburgh's Bob Friend for his first major league hit.

1972 - The first player strike in baseball history ended.

1984 - Montreal's Pete Rose got his 4,000th hit, a double off Philadelphia pitcher Jerry Koosman. The hit came exactly 21 years after his first hit. Rose would score on Tim Raines one out single, sliding into home to give Montreal a 4-1 lead in their eventual 5-1 victory.

1987 - The San Diego Padres set a major league record when the first three batters in the bottom of the first inning hit homers off San Francisco starter Roger Mason in their home opener. The Padres, trailing 2-0, got homers from Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn and John Kruk.

1993 - Lee Smith became the all-time saves leader as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-7. Smith got his 358th save, surpassing Jeff Reardon of the Cincinnati Reds.

1999 - Texas catcher Ivan Rodriguez drove in nine runs in the Rangers' 15-6 victory at Seattle.

2004 - San Francisco's Barry Bonds hit his 661st homer, passing Willie Mays to take sole possession of third place on baseball's career list.

2009 - Orlando Hudson hit for the cycle as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Randy Johnson and San Francisco 11-1.

2009 - Jody Gerut christened the Mets' new home, Citi Field, with a leadoff homer in San Diego's 6-5 win over New York. Gerut's shot off Mike Pelfrey marked the first time in history that the first batter homered in a regular-season opener at a major league ballpark.

2011 - A federal jury convicted Barry Bonds of a single charge of obstruction of justice, but failed to reach a verdict on the three counts at the heart of allegations that he knowingly used steroids and human growth hormone and lied to a grand jury about it.

2018 - Houston's Gerrit Cole struck out a career-high 14 batters in seven innings to lead the Astros to a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers. Cole joined Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers in major league history to strike out at least 11 in three consecutive starts to start a season. Cole also set an major league record with 36 strikeouts in his first three starts with a new team, surpassing Randy Johnson in 1999 with Arizona (34).

Today's birthday: Koda Glover, 26; Lorenzo Cain, 33; Hunter Pence, 36; Steve Pearce, 36.

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