June 4
1940 — The Pirates beat the Boston Bees 14-2 in the first night game at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field.
1940 — The St. Louis Cardinals play their first night game at Sportsman’s Park, defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers 10-1.
1951 — Pittsburgh’s Gus Bell hit for the cycle to lead the Pirates to a 12-4 victory over the Phillies at Philadelphia.
1964 — Sandy Koufax pitched his third no-hitter, striking out 12, as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Phillies 3-0 in Philadelphia.
1968 — Don Drysdale of the Dodgers blanked the Pirates 5-0 for his sixth straight shutout en route to a record 58 2-3 scoreless innings.
1972 — A major league record eight shutouts were pitched in 16 major league games: five in the American League, three in the National League. The Oakland Athletics swept a pair from the Baltimore Orioles by identical 2-0 scores.
1974 — The game between the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium was forfeited to Texas. Umpire Nestor Chylak had problems with fans all night on 10-cent beer night. The crowd got out of control when Cleveland tied the score 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth.
1989 — Toronto beats Boston 13-11 in 12 innings after trailing 10-0 after six inngs. Red Sox starter Mike Smithson threw six scoreless innings before leaving in the seventh because of a foot blister. The Jays then scored two in the seventh, four in the eighth and five in the ninth and two more in the 11th on Junior Felix’s home run. It was the biggest lead the Red Sox have blown and their 12th consecutive loss to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park.
1990 — Ramon Martinez struck out 18 and pitched a three-hitter, sending the Los Angeles Dodgers past the Atlanta Braves 6-0.
1996 — Pamela Davis pitched one inning of scoreless relief and got the win in a minor league exhibition game. She is believed to be the first woman to pitch for a major league farm club under the current minor league system. The 21-year-old right-hander pitched for the Jacksonville Suns, a Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, against the Australian Olympic team.
2000 — Esteban Yan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays becomes the 77th major league player to hit a home run in his first at bat, but just the fourth American League pitcher and the first since the Angels’ Don Rose in 1972, the year before the designated hitter rule took the bat out of AL pitchers’ hands.
2005 — Rafael Palmeiro and Melvin Mora each hit grand slams to help Baltimore rally for a 14-7 win over Detroit.
2007 — Mark Ellis hit for the cycle and Eric Chavez had a two-out homer in the 11th inning to lift Oakland to a 5-4 win over Boston.
2009 — Randy Johnson became the 24th major league pitcher to win 300 games by leading San Francisco to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader.
2012 — Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels manager became the ninth manager in AL history to manage 2,000 games with one club. The Mariners beat the Angels 8-6.
2018 — In a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge sets a record by striking out eight times.
2019 — San Francisco Giant Manager Bruce Bochy wins his 1,000th game as the manager of the Giants with a 9-3 victory over the New York Mets.
2022 — The rule preventing position players from pitching in a close game is invoked for the first time when Crew chief C.B. Bucknor objects to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts calling on OF Zach McKinstry to pitch the 9th inning gainst the Mets with his team trailing, 9 - 4. The rule, adopted before the 2020 season but not implemented until this year due to the upheavals caused by the coronavirus pandemic, states that a team cannot use a position player on the mound unless there is a difference of six or more runs between the two teams. Roberts is thus forced to use a real pitcher, Evan Phillips, to pitch the final inning. In spite of the rule, the practice of using such “mystery pitchers” is continuing undiminished, with teams even resorting to them when they have built a huge lead late in the game, in order to rest their bullpens, something that was completely unseen before the decade started.
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June 5
1915 — Philadelphia’s Grover Cleveland Alexander lost his no-hitter when Artie Butler punched a single with two outs in the ninth. Alexander struck out Bob Bescher for the final out to beat St. Louis 3-0. Alexander went on to pitch three more one-hitters during the season.
1929 — The Cincinnati Reds scored nine runs in the sixth inning en route to a 21-4 romp over the Chicago Cubs.
1935 — Chicago White Sox rookie John Whitehead loses to St. Louis 2-0. It was his first loss after winning his first eight starts, an AL record for the start of a career.
1949 — Commissioner Happy Chandler lifted the ban on all players who jumped to Mexico, starting in 1946.
1955 — Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees hit a home run off Chicago’s Billy Pierce that traveled about 550 feet. The ball cleared the left-field upper deck at Comiskey Park.
1959 — Pittsburgh’s Dick Stuart hit the longest home run at Forbes Field. Stuart smashed a shot over the center-field wall off Chicago pitcher Glenn Hobbie.
1966 — Leo Cardenas of the Reds hit four home runs in a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs. Cardenas hit two home runs in each game as Cincinnati won the opener 8-3 but dropped the second game 9-5.
1986 — San Diego’s Steve Garvey was ejected for the first time in his career when he argued a play at home plate. Garvey, the on-deck hitter, protested the last out of a triple play by the Atlanta Braves. Television replays showed that Bip Roberts was indeed safe. The Padres lost 4-2.
1989 — The Blue Jays lost their debut in the SkyDome as Glenn Braggs hit a two-run homer to lead the Milwaukee Brewers past Toronto 5-3. The $375 million complex featured a $100 million, four-section, retractable roof.
1997 — Alex Rodriguez of the Mariners became the first Seattle player to hit for the cycle in a nine-inning game. He completed the cycle with a double in the ninth of a 14-6 win at Detroit.
2001 — Colorado pitcher Mike Hampton had two homers, three RBIs and recorded his eighth win as Colorado defeated Houston 9-4.
2008 — Atlanta’s Chipper Jones became the third switch-hitter in major league history to hit 400 career home runs. Jones’ homer off Ricky Nolasco was one of his four hits in the 7-5 comeback win over Florida. Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray were the first two reach the milestone.
2013 — The Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners played the first game in major league history when each team scored five or more runs in the game when it was scoreless through the ninth. Alejandro De Aza and Alex Rios each had an RBI single in the 16th inning, and Chicago won 7-5.
2015 — Oakland’s Pat Venditte became the first pitcher in 20 years to throw with both arms in the same game, but the Boston Red Sox beat the Athletics 4-2 on a night a fan sustained life-threatening injuries when she was struck by a broken bat.
2021 — Team USA secured a spot in the Tokyo Olympics by winning the Americas Olympic Qualifier.
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June 6
1918 — Casey Stengel, after being traded by Brooklyn in the offseason, made his return to Ebbets Field a memorable one. In his first at-bat, Stengel called time, stepped out of the batter’s box and doffed his cap. A bird flew out and the fans broke into laughter.
1934 — Myril Hoag hit a major league record six singles in the New York Yankees’ 15-3 rout of the Boston Red Sox.
1939 — The New York Giants hit five home runs in the fourth inning in a 17-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds. With two out, Harry Danning, Al Demaree, Burgess Whitehead, Manny Salvo and Joe Moore connected as the Giants scored eight runs in the inning.
1945 — In the first game of a doubleheader, Boston’s Boo Ferriss scattered 14 hits to beat Philadelphia 5-2. Ferris, 8-0 on the year, tied the AL mark held by Chicago’s John Whitehead for wins at the start of a career.
1975 — Cleveland manager Frank Robinson hit two three-run homers in a 7-5 win over the Texas Rangers.
1986 — San Diego Padres manager Steve Boros was ejected before the first pitch of the game with the Atlanta Braves when he tried to give umpire Charlie Williams a videotape of a disputed play in the previous night’s 4-2 loss to Atlanta.
1992 — Eddie Murray drove in two runs at Pittsburgh to pass Mickey Mantle (1,509) as the all-time RBI leader among switch-hitters.
1995 — J.D. Drew of Florida State hit a record-setting three homers in his final three at-bats in a 16-11 loss to Southern California in the College World Series. Drew finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs and 12 total bases, also a series record.
1996 — For the second time in major league history and first in the AL, a cycle and a triple play took place in the same game. Boston’s John Valentin hit for the cycle, while Chicago turned a triple play in the Red Sox’s 7-4 victory. In 1931, Philadelphia’s Chuck Klein hit for the cycle in the same game that the Phillies turned a triple play against the Chicago Cubs.
2000 — The Rally Monkey is born, thanks to the Anaheim Angels’ video crew playing a clip from the 1994 film Ace Ventura, Pet Detective on the JumboTron. With the words Rally Monkey superimposed over a monkey jumping up and down in the Jim Carrey movie, the crowd goes wild as the Angels score two runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5.
2003 — Insisting the corked bat, designed to put on home run displays during batting practice, was accidentally used in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa is suspended for eight games by Major League Baseball. Bob Watson, baseball’s vice president of on-field operations, agrees that the Cubs outfielder’s use of an illegal bat was an “isolated incident,” but one that still deserves a penalty.
2007 — Trevor Hoffman became the first major leaguer with 500 career saves when he closed out the San Diego Padres’ 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
2017 — Scooter Gennett hit four home runs, matching the major league record, and finished with 10 RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds routed the St. Louis Cardinals 13-1. Gennett became the 17th player to homer four times in one game.
2022 — Eduardo Escobar hits for the cycle in an 11-5 win over the Padres; he is the first Mets player to do so since Scott Hairston in 2012, and the first player for any team to accomplish the feat at Petco Park.
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