This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead, Oct. 7-13
Oct. 7
1904 - Jack Chesbro got his 41st victory of the season as New York defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-2.
1927 - Herb Pennock of the New York Yankees pitched a three-hitter for an 8-1 win over Pittsburgh Pirates and a 3-0 lead in the World Series. Pennock had retired the first 22 batters before giving up a single to Pie Traynor.
1928 - Lou Gehrig's two home runs led the New York Yankees to a 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, giving them a 3-0 lead.
1933 - Mel Ott's home run in the 10th inning to give the New York Giants for a 4-3 victory and the World Championship in five games over the Washington Senators.
1935 - Detroit's Goose Goslin drove in Mickey Cochrane with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Tigers a 4-3 win and the World Championship in six games over the Chicago Cubs.
1945 - Hank Greenberg's three doubles led Detroit to an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs, giving the Tigers a 3-2 lead in the World Series.
1950 - Rookie pitcher Whitey Ford, with ninth-inning help from Allie Reynolds, beat Philadelphia 5-2 to give the Yankees a World Series sweep of the 'œWhiz Kids.'ť Jerry Coleman won the Series MVP.
1952 - Billy Martin's running catch on a high infield pop with the bases loaded in the seventh inning snuffed a Dodgers rally and the New York Yankees went on to win Game 7 of the World Series 4-2. It was the fourth consecutive world championship for the Yankees.
1969 - The St. Louis Cardinals traded outfielder Curt Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies in a blockbuster deal involving slugging first baseman Richie Allen. Flood will refuse to report to the Phillies and will take baseball to court over the reserve clause that binds a player perpetually to one team.
1975 - The Boston Red Sox win 5-3 for a three-game sweep over the Oakland Athletics in the American League Championship series. Carl Yastrzemski has two hits and made two great plays in the outfield to back pitcher Rick Wise.
1984 - The San Diego Padres won the National League pennant with a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs in the final game of the playoffs. The Padres won three straight after dropping the first two games.
1987 - Don Baylor singled to break an eighth-inning tie and Gary Gaetti homered in his first two playoff at-bats as the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in the opening game of the ALCS.
1995 - Edgar Martinez of the Seattle Mariners hit a tie-breaking grand slam in the eighth inning and drove in seven runs - most in a postseason game - to lead the Mariners past the New York Yankees 11-8 and send the AL playoff series to a decisive Game 5.
2001 - San Diego's Rickey Henderson became the 25th player with 3,000 hits and teammate Tony Gwynn ended his 20-year career by grounding out to shortstop in the ninth inning of a 14-5 loss to Colorado at Qualcomm Stadium. Henderson led off the bottom of the first with blooped a double down the right field line off Rockies pitcher John Thomson. Mike Colangelo replaced Rickey Henderson after the inning. Gwynn's career ended with eight NL batting titles, a .338 lifetime average and 3,141 hits.
2001 - Barry Bonds wrapped up his record-breaking season with his 73rd homer and shattered the slugging percentage record that Babe Ruth had owned for 81 years. He finished the season with a .328 batting average, a career-high 137 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .863, easily surpassing the mark of .847 that Ruth set in 1920.
2003 - Florida and the Chicago Cubs set several NLCS records in Marlins' 9-8, 11-inning win. The teams combined for a record seven home runs. The Marlins' Ivan Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera and Juan Encarnacion all homered in the third inning, the first time an NL team has hit three homers in one inning. And the Cubs' nine extra-base hits also was an NLCS record, as were the 17 total extra-base hits.
2014 - Joe Panik scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on Aaron Barrett's bases-loaded wild pitch, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 to advance to the NL Championship Series. The wild-card Giants took Game 4 in the best-of-five Division Series by scoring on a bases-loaded walk, a groundout and a wild pitch.
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Oct. 8
1908 - The Chicago Cubs won the NL pennant when Mordecai Brown beat Christy Mathewson 4-2 in the playoff of the disputed game Sept. 23 when Fred Merkle failed to touch second base.
1915 - The Philadelphia Phillies win their first World Series game, a 3-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Grover Cleveland Alexander allowed one run on eight hits and two walks.
1921 - The New York Giants beat the New York Yankees 1-0 in the first 'œSubway Series'ť to take the World Series, five games to three. The only run of the game scored on a first-inning error by Yankees shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh.
1929 - Howard Ehmke, a surprise starter for the Philadelphia Athletics, struck out 13 Chicago Cubs to win the opening game of the World Series 3-1.
1939 - The New York Yankees took advantage of four errors to beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-4 in 10 innings in Game 4 and win their fourth consecutive World Series. The Reds had a 4-2 lead going into the ninth inning.
1956 - Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the only perfect game in World Series history for a 2-0 triumph over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sal Maglie, the opposing pitcher, gave up five hits.
1961 - The Yankees' Whitey Ford set a World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings by extending his streak to 32 innings in a 7-0 triumph over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 4.
1973 - Rusty Staub's two home runs powered the New York Mets to a 9-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds and a 2-1 lead in the NLCS. Pete Rose of the Reds and Bud Harrelson of the Mets scuffled at second base in the fifth inning after Rose slid hard.
1986 - Mike Scott equaled a playoff record with 14 strikeouts and threw a five-hitter as the Houston Astros defeated the New York Mets 1-0 in the first game of the NLCS. Glenn Davis opened the second inning with a home run off Dwight Gooden.
2000 - Bobby J. Jones pitched the sixth complete game one-hitter in postseason history as the Mets eliminated the Giants with a 4-0 win in Game 4 of their NL division series.
2011 - Chris Carpenter tossed a three-hitter to outpitch Roy Halladay, and St. Louis edged the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 in the deciding Game 5 of their NL playoff series.
2016 - Travis Wood took over when starter Kyle Hendricks got hurt and became the first relief pitcher since 1924 to hit a postseason home run, helping the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 5-2 for 2-0 NLDS lead.
2018 - Manny Machado hit a three-run homer, David Freese came through again in the postseason and the Los Angeles Dodgers advanced to the NLCS for the third year in a row, eliminating the Atlanta Braves with a 6-2 victory.
2018 - Brock Holt became the first player to hit for the cycle in a postseason game, and the Boston Red Sox routed the New York Yankees 16-1 to grab a 2-1 lead in the ALDS.
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Oct. 9
1910 - Nap Lajoie, in a batting race with Ty Cobb, had eight hits for Cleveland in a season-ending doubleheader with the Browns. The hits were tainted, however, with St. Louis third baseman Red Corriden playing back as Lajoie bunted safely six times. Regardless, Cobb won the batting title by a fraction of a point.
1916 - Babe Ruth outpitched Sherry Smith of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Boston Red Sox won the longest World Series game, 2-1 in 14 innings.
1928 - Babe Ruth hit three home runs in a World Series game for the second time in his career, powering the New York Yankees past the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3.
1934 - Dizzy Dean of St. Louis blanked the Detroit Tigers 11-0 in the seventh game of the World Series.
1944 - The St. Louis Cardinals beat St. Louis Browns 3-1 to capture the World Series in six games. Max Lanier and Ted Wilks of the Cardinals combined on a three-hitter.
1958 - Bob Turley of the Yankees pitched 6 2-3 scoreless innings in relief to beat the Milwaukee Braves 6-2 for the World Series title. New York became the first team since 1925 to win the World Series after being down 3-1 in games.
1966 - Dave McNally pitched a four-hitter for a 1-0 victory, giving the Baltimore Orioles a World Series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Frank Robinson homered off Don Drysdale in the fourth inning.
1977 - The New York Yankees rallied for three runs in the ninth inning to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 and take the American League pennant in the fifth game of the playoffs.
1988 - The Oakland Athletics completed a four-game sweep in the ALCS by beating the Boston Red Sox 4-1. Jose Canseco tied an AL playoff record with his third home run of the series and Dennis Eckersley set a major league playoff mark with his fourth save.
1996 - Bernie Williams homered in the 11th inning to send New York to a 5-4 victory over Baltimore in Game 1 of the ALCS. The Yankees were helped by 12-year-old fan Jeff Maier. He grabbed a ball about to be caught by right fielder Tony Tarasco, giving Derek Jeter a game-tying homer in the eighth inning.
2005 - Chris Burke hit a home run in the bottom of the 18th inning, and Roger Clemens pitched three scoreless innings of relief in Houston's 7-6, series-ending victory over Atlanta in the NLDS. The longest postseason game in history took 5 hours, 50 minutes.
2018 - Craig Kimbrel and the Boston Red Sox held off the Yankees' ninth-inning rally that ended with a video replay, eliminating New York with a 4-3 victory in Game 4 of the ALDS.
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Oct. 10
1904 - Boston clinched the pennant on the last day of the season when Jack Chesbro of the New York Highlanders threw a wild pitch in the ninth to allow the winning run to score from third.
1920 - The Cleveland Indians beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 8-1 in the fifth game of the World Series. For the Indians, Elmer Smith hit the first Series grand slam and Jim Bagby, the winner, hit the first Series homer by a pitcher. Bill Wambsganns completes the 1st World Series unassisted triple play.
1924 - The Washington Senators won their only championship by defeating the Giants 4-3 in 12 innings. The winning run scored when a ball hit by Earl McNeely bounced over third baseman Fred Lindstrom's head.
1926 - Grover Alexander, 39, saved Game 7 and the World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals, fanning Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded in the seventh inning and pitching 2 1-3 hitless innings. The game ended with Babe Ruth being thrown out trying to steal second base. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Ruth walked for the third time, having homered in the fourth inning.
1931 - The St. Louis Cardinals held on to beat the Philadelphia A's, 4-2 in Game 7 of the World Series. The Athletics rallied for two runs and had two runners on base with two outs in the ninth inning when Cardinals reliever Bill Hallahan got the final out for the win.
1937 - New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez drove in the winning run for a 4-2 win over the New York Giants and the World Series title in five games.
1945 - The Detroit Tigers scored five runs in the first inning of Game 7 of the World Series en route to a 9-3 win over the Chicago Cubs and the World Championship.
1957 - Lew Burdette's third victory of the World Series, a 5-0 decision over the New York Yankees in Game 7, gave the Milwaukee Braves the championship.
1968 - Mickey Lolich won the World Series for the Detroit Tigers by defeating Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 in Game 7. It was Lolich's third win and came after the Tigers had lost three of the first four games.
1973 - New York's Tom Seaver pitched the Mets into the World Series with a 7-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.
1980 - Kansas City's George Brett hit an upper deck three-run homer off relief ace Goose Gossage to give the Kansas City Royals a 4-2 victory and a three-game sweep of New York Yankees in the ALCS.
1990 - The Oakland Athletics swept the Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant and their third straight trip to the World Series with a 3-1 victory. MVP Dave Stewart won for the eighth straight time in head-to-head matchups with Roger Clemens, who was ejected in the second inning for arguing balls and strikes with umpire Terry Cooney.
1999 - One night after winning their second postseason game in 20 tries, the Boston Red Sox made it two in a row in record style - shocking the Cleveland Indians 23-7 to force a deciding fifth game in their first-round AL playoff series.
2011 - Albert Pujols had one of the biggest postseason nights of his career in Game 2 of the NL championship series, going 4 for 5 with a home run, three doubles and five RBIs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 12-3 to even the series at 1-1.
2011 - Nelson Cruz hit the first game-ending grand slam in postseason history, lifting the Texas Rangers over the Detroit Tigers 7-3 in 11 innings for a 2-0 lead in the AL championship series.
2016 - Joe Panik doubled off the wall in right-center field to drive in Brandon Crawford with the winning run in the 13th inning, and the San Francisco Giants staved off elimination yet again by outlasting the Chicago Cubs 6-5 in Game 3 of their NL Division Series.