Aug. 2
1906 — The “Hitless Wonder” Chicago White Sox began their AL record 19-game winning streak with a 3-0 win over Boston. The record would be tied by the 1947 New York Yankees.
1907 — Walter Johnson made his major league debut with the Washington Senators and lost 3-2 to the Detroit Tigers. The first hit he yielded was a bunt single by Ty Cobb. The Tigers beat “The Big Train” 7-6 exactly 20 years later on Walter Johnson Day in the nation’s capital.
1933 — Mickey Cochrane of the Philadelphia A’s hit for the cycle, the second of his career, in a 16-3 win over the New York Yankees.
1938 — The Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals used a yellow baseball in the first game of a doubleheader as an experiment. The two teams went back to the white ball in the second game as the Dodgers swept the doubleheader 6-2 and 9-3.
1940 — Joe Cronin of the Boston Red Sox hit for the cycle in a 12-9 win over the Detroit Tigers. It was the second cycle for Cronin. Cronin cycled in 1929 to become the first player ever to cycle in two different games a decade apart.
1959 — Bill Bruton of Milwaukee hit three triples, including two with the bases-loaded, to lead the Braves to an 11-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the nightcap of a doubleheader.
1979 — New York Yankees captain Thurman Munson died in the crash of his private plane while practicing takeoffs and landings at the Canton, Ohio, airport.
1982 — Oakland’s Rickey Henderson steals his 100th base of the season in a 6 – 5 win over Seattle, tying the American League record he set last season and leaving him with 56 games to break Lou Brock’s single-season record of 118. Henderson is the first player ever to steal 100 bases twice since the modern definition of a stolen base was put in place.
1987 — Kevin Seitzer went 6-for-6, hit two homers and drove in seven runs to pace a 20-hit Kansas City attack as the Royals beat the Boston Red Sox 13-5 in 102-degree heat.
1998 — The Cuban national team claimed its 22nd gold medal at the World Baseball Championships, beating South Korea 7-1 and extending its winning streak at the event to 41 games since 1986.
2007 — Jermaine Dye homered twice and doubled twice, including a go-ahead drive that led the Chicago White Sox to a 13-9 victory over the New York Yankees. The White Sox and Yankees each scored eight runs in the second inning. It was the second time in major league history both teams scored eight or more in an inning.
2009 — Melky Cabrera became the first Yankees player in 14 years to hit for the cycle, leading New York to an 8-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
2010 — Travis Snider hit two of an AL record-tying six doubles in a seven-run fifth inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays an a 8-6 victory over the New York Yankees. Snider began the barrage of doubles with a leadoff hit against A.J. Burnett and finished it with a drive off Sergio Mitre. In between, Fred Lewis, Jose Bautista, Vernon Wells and Aaron Hill all doubled off Burnett.
2011 — New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira set a major league record when he homered from both sides of the plate in a 6-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. It was the 12th time the switch-hitting Teixeira has homered from both sides in a game, breaking a tie with Eddie Murray and Chili Davis. Teixeira hit a two-run homer batting right-handed against John Danks in the third and added a slot shot batting left-handed against Jason Frasor in the seventh.
2018 — Cody Bellinger hit a grand slam, Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig hit two homers each, and the Los Angeles Dodgers cruised past the Milwaukee Brewers 21-5. Brian Dozier and Justin Turner also went deep as the Dodgers finished with their highest scoring total at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles hit a season high-tying seven homers, and also set season highs for runs in a game, and in an inning when they had nine in the seventh.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
WBN MLB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/mlb/
Photo Credit: Outfielder Rickey Henderson #24 Oakland Athletics dives back to base circa 1990 during a game. (Photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images)
