Sept. 5
1908 — Brooklyn’s Nap Rucker pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against Boston. Rucker struck out 14 and walked none.
1918 — Babe Ruth pitched a six-hitter for the Boston Red Sox, who beat the Chicago Cubs 1-0 in the opening game of the World Series. The Series was started early because of World War I.
1954 — Roswell’s Joe Bauman of the Longhorn League hit three home runs to give him 72 for the season. Bauman never made it to the majors.
1955 — Brooklyn pitcher Don Newcombe connected for his seventh homer of the season for a National League record for home runs by a pitcher. The Dodgers, behind Newcombe’s power and 20th win, defeated the Phillies 11-4.
1971 — J.R. Richard tied Karl Spooner’s major league record by striking out 15 San Francisco Giants in his first major league game as the Houston Astros beat the Giants.
1982 — Roy Smalley hit a pair of three-run homers, one from each side of the plate, as the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 18-7.
1998 — Mark McGwire became the third player in baseball history to reach 60 home runs, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-0. He joined Babe Ruth and Roger Maris with 60 homers in a single season.
2002 — Alex Rodriguez became the fifth player in major league history to record successive 50-homer seasons, hitting two in Texas’ 11-2 rout of Baltimore. Rodriguez, who hit 52 homers last season, joined Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr.
2003 — Mike Maroth became the first major league pitcher in 23 years to lose 20 games in a season when Detroit lost to Toronto 8-6. Maroth (6-20) allowed eight runs and nine hits in three-plus innings. Oakland’s Brian Kingman went 8-20 in 1980.
2009 — Pittsburgh’s Ross Ohlendorf became the 40th major league pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches in an inning, but didn’t figure in the decision as the Pirates lost 2-1 to St. Louis in 10 innings.
2018 — Shohei Ohtani homered twice during a huge night at the plate after getting bad news about his pitching arm, and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers 9-3. Perhaps headed for Tommy John surgery, the two-way rookie sensation went 4 for 4 with three RBIs, four runs and a stolen base to power the Angels. Ohtani’s homers were towering drives into the right-field seats. With his second two-homer game, the designated hitter tied Kenji Johjima’s 2006 major league record of 18 homers by a Japanese rookie.
2018 — Brandon Phillips hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth inning, highlighting his long-awaited season debut and capping the biggest comeback by the Boston Red Sox this year for a 9-8 win over the Atlanta Braves. The Red Sox overcame a late six-run deficit to sweep the three-game series between division leaders.
2023 — Giancarlo Stanton hits the 400th home run of his career off José Cisnero in the 6th inning to break a 1 – 1 tie and lead the Yankees to a 5 – 1 win over the Tigers. Having needed 1,520 games to reach the mark makes him the fourth fastest in history following Mark McGwire, Babe Ruth and Alex Rodriguez.
_____
