ON THIS DATE
Aug. 7
1907: Walter Johnson won the first of his 417 victories, leading the Washington Senators past the Cleveland Indians 7-2.
1922: Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns hit two home runs in the sixth inning of rout over the Washington Senators.
1923: Cleveland’s Frank Bower went 6-for-6 with a double and five singles as the Indians routed the Washington Senators 22-2.
1956: The largest crowd in minor league history, 57,000, saw 50-year-old Satchel Paige of Miami beat Columbus in an International League game at the Orange Bowl.
1963: Jim Hickman of the New York Mets hit for the cycle in a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at the Polo Grounds. Hickman’s cycle came in single-double-triple-homer order.
1985: The strike by the Major League Baseball Players Association ended with the announcement of a tentative agreement. The season resumed Aug. 8.
1999: Wade Boggs became the first player to homer for his 3,000th hit, with a two-run shot in Tampa Bay’s 15-10 loss to Cleveland. Boggs already had a pair of RBI singles when he homered off Chris Haney in the sixth inning.
2004: Greg Maddux became the 22nd pitcher in major league history to reach 300 victories, leading the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over San Francisco.
2007: San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756 to break Hank Aaron’s storied record with one out in the fifth inning, hitting a full-count, 84 mph fastball from Washington’s Mike Bacsik. Noticeably absent were Commissioner Bud Selig and Aaron. The Nationals won 8-6.
2016: Ichiro Suzuki tripled off the wall for his 3,000th hit in the major leagues, becoming the 30th player to reach the milestone as the Miami Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 10-7.
2016: Manny Machado became the second player in major league history to homer in the first, second and third innings, driving in a career-high seven runs in a 10-2 victory over Chicago.
2018: Bartolo Colon of Texas became the winningest pitcher from Latin America in the Rangers’ 11-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners. After six tries, the 45-year-old right-hander got his 246th career victory and finally broke the tie with Nicaragua’s Dennis Martinez. Colon gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings and improved his record to 6-10.
2021: Host nation Japan wins its first ever gold medal in Olympic baseball by defeating the United States 2-0.
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Aug. 8
1903: A week after pitching his first doubleheader triumph, Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity of the New York Giants scored a double victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers 6-1 and 4-3. In the second game, he stole home.
1915: Philadelphia’s Gavvy Cravath hit four doubles and drove in eight runs in a 14-7 victory over the Reds at Cincinnati.
1920: Howard Ehmke of the Detroit Tigers pitched the fastest 1-0 game in American League history: 1 hour, 13 minutes, for a victory against the New York Yankees.
1931: Bob Burke of the Washington Senators pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox.
1954: The Brooklyn Dodgers pounded the Cincinnati Reds 20-7 at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers scored 13 runs in the eighth inning after two were out.
1973: Designated hitter Orlando Cepeda hit four doubles as the Boston Red Sox posted a 9-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
1985: Baseball, after a two-day walkout, resumed playing with 18 games scheduled, including five doubleheaders.
1988: The first night game scheduled in the 74-year history of Chicago’s Wrigley Field’s was postponed with the Cubs leading the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 after heavy rains started in the bottom of the fourth inning. Philadelphia’s Phil Bradley led off the game with a home run, but all numbers were wiped out when the rain came.
1992: Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley had his consecutive save record snapped at 40. His consecutive save records: 36 straight to start a season, and 40 straight over two seasons: ended trying to protect a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning against the Kansas City Royals. Eckersley gave up a two-out, two-run single to Gregg Jefferies to give the Royals a 3-2 lead. But the Athletics came back to win the game in the ninth, 5-3.
1997: Randy Johnson struck out 19, matching the major league record for left-handers he had tied earlier this season, as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Chicago White Sox 5-0.
1998: Paul Molitor stole his 500th base in Minnesota’s 6-3 loss to Baltimore become the fifth player with 3,000 hits and 500 steals. Molitor joined Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Lou Brock.
2000: Darren Dreifort of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit two homers and was the winning pitcher in a 7-5 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
2001: Damion Easley went 6-for-6 with a home run and three RBIs as Detroit pounded Texas 19-6.
2016: Brandon Crawford became the first major league player in 41 years to get seven hits in a game, putting the San Francisco Giants ahead to stay with an RBI single in the 14th inning of an 8-7 victory over the Miami Marlins. Crawford tripled, doubled and had five singles in eight at-bats.
2018: Milwaukee’s Jesus Aguilar, Travis Shaw and Eric Thames hit consecutive first-inning homers to spoil the debut of San Diego’s Brett Kennedy in the Brewers 8-4 win over the Padres.
2018: Jacob deGrom struck out 10 over six innings, received rare significant run support and earned his first win in nearly two months as the New York Mets blanked the Cincinnati Reds 8-0. Brandon Nimmo tied a team record with three doubles and drove in three runs as the Mets won for the 22nd time in their last 66 games. DeGrom (6-7) ended a seven-start winless streak, allowing four hits in a 100-pitch outing and lowering his major league-leading ERA to 1.77.