July 26
1928 — Bob Meusel of the New York Yankees hit for the cycle for the third time in his career. The Yankees scored 11 runs in the top of the 12th to beat the Detroit Tigers 12-1 in 12 innings.
1939 — The New York Yankees tied a major league record by scoring in every inning against the St. Louis Browns. Bill Dickey hit three home runs in the 14-1 win.
1962 — Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves set the National League record for home runs by a pitcher when he hit his 31st off New York’s Craig Anderson. Spahn dealt the Mets their 11th straight loss with a 6-1 victory.
1970 — Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds hit three straight homers off Steve Carlton of the St. Louis Cardinals. On the same day, Orlando Cepeda of the Atlanta Braves connected for three consecutive homers in an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
1984 — Pete Rose of the Montreal Expos tied Ty Cobb on the career singles list, No. 3,052, with a base hit in the eighth inning in a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1991 — Montreal’s Mark Gardner became the first to pitch nine no-hit innings against a Dodger home team since Johnny Vander Meer beat Brooklyn at Ebbets Field on June 15, 1938, for his second straight gem. But the Dodgers won in the 10th on two singles off Gardner and Darryl Strawberry’s RBI single off Jeff Fassero.
1998 — Trevor Hoffman’s bid to set a major league record with 42 straight saves ended when the San Diego closer gave up a home run to Moises Alou on his first delivery in the ninth inning, tying the game. The Padres wound up beating Houston 5-4 in the 10th, but Hoffman blew his chance at history.
2005 — Greg Maddux reached 3,000 career strikeouts, striking out Omar Vizquel in the third inning of a 3-2, 11-inning victory for San Francisco.
2008 — Skip Schumaker went 6-for-7 to help St. Louis beat the New York Mets 10-8 in 14 innings. He became the first Cardinals player to have six hits in a game since 1935 when Terry Moore did it against Boston.
2009 — Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice and Joe Gordon are inducted into the Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Cooperstown, NY. Gordon is the first player to be voted in by the Veterans Committee since its rules were reformulated following the controversial election of Bill Mazeroski in 2001.
2010 — Matt Garza pitched the first no-hitter in Tampa Bay Rays history and the fifth in the major leagues this season, beating the Detroit Tigers 5-0. Garza faced the minimum 27 batters, allowing only a second-inning walk.
2013 — Edwin Encarnacion hit two home runs in one inning, including his sixth career grand slam, to power the Toronto Blue Jays past the Houston Astros 12-6.
2014 — The Hall of Fame announces a change in voting rules, as players will now be able to stay on the BBWAA ballot for a maximum of 10 and not 15 years, as long as they meet the minimum 5% threshold. The move is designed to prevent the ballot from becoming overly crowded because of players tainted by steroids staying on the ballot for years on end with no realistic chance of election, but drawing votes away from more legitimate candidates. However, a number of inductees with an untainted record have had to wait over 10 years for election in recent years, such as Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven or Andre Dawson, making it likely that the rule change will have the effect of also squeezing out some worthy candidates.
2015 — Zack Greinke’s shutout streak ended at 45 2/3 innings when the Mets scored the first of two scratch runs against him. The streak was the longest in the majors since Orel Hershiser set the record with 59 for the Dodgers in 1988. New York beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 on Juan Uribe’s single off the wall in the 10th.
2015 — Four players, all elected by the BBWAA, are inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY as the Class of 2015: pitchers Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, all elected on their first presence on the ballot, and 2B Craig Biggio. Martinez steals the show by dancing on stage and entertaining the large contingent of visitors from the Dominican Republic who have come to witness his induction.
2017 — Dee Gordon homered on the first pitch by Yu Darvish, and Miami set a franchise scoring record with a 22-10 rout of the Texas Rangers.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
WBN MLB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/mlb/
Photo Credit: Cincinnati Red batter Pete Rose connects for hit #4,192 to break Ty Cobb’s record for career hits on September 11, 1985.
