This Date in Baseball

Sept. 15

1912 - Joe Wood of the Boston Red Sox pitched his 16th consecutive victory to tie Walter Johnson’s record as he beat the St. Louis Browns 2-1.

1938 - Brothers Lloyd and Paul Waner hit back-to-back homers for the Pittsburgh Pirates off Cliff Melton of the New York Giants. This was the only time brothers hit successive home runs in a major league game. It was Lloyd’s last homer.

1946 - The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in five innings when the game was called because of gnats. The insects became such a problem for the players, umpires and fans that the game had to be stopped.

1963 - All three Alou brothers - Felipe, Matty and Jesus - played in the outfield at the same time for the San Francisco Giants in a 13-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1969 - St. Louis left-hander Steve Carlton struck out 19 Mets for a nine-inning game record. New York won the game 4-3 on two, two-run homers by Ron Swoboda.

1971 - Houston pitcher Larry Yount, the older brother of Hall of Famer Robin Yount, was credited with his only major league appearance and didn’t throw a pitch. Yount took the mound in the ninth inning of a 4-2 loss to Atlanta and after a few warmup tosses had to leave with elbow pain. He never appeared in another major league game.

1979 - Bob Watson of the Red Sox became the first player to hit for the cycle in both leagues as he led Boston to a 10-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He hit for the cycle with the Houston Astros against San Francisco on June 24, 1977.

1990 - Bobby Thigpen pitched one inning and became the first relief pitcher with 50 saves in a season as the Chicago White Sox beat the Red Sox 7-4.

1997 - Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 51st and 52nd homers in Seattle’s win over Toronto to become the sixth major league player to hit 100 or more home runs over two consecutive seasons. Griffey hit 49 homers last season.

1998 - Ken Griffey Jr. hit his AL-leading 52nd homer and drove in five runs to become the fourth-youngest player to reach 1,000 RBIs, leading the Seattle Mariners over the Minnesota Twins 12-7.

2002 - Arizona’s Curt Schilling struck out eight to reach 300 for the season, joining Randy Johnson as the first teammates in baseball history to each strike out 300 in the same season. The Diamondbacks beat Milwaukee 6-5 in 13 innings.

2009 - David Ortiz hit his record-breaking 270th homer as a designated hitter and had an RBI single in Boston’s 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Frank Thomas had held the mark with 269.

2011 - Pablo Sandoval tripled in the sixth inning to complete the first cycle of his career and San Francisco beat Colorado 8-5.

2017 - The Cleveland had its AL record run stopped at 22 straight games as the Indians were beaten 4-3 by the Kansas City Royals, who became the first team to conquer the defending league champions since Aug. 23.. The Indians came within four of matching the overall record held by the 1916 New York Giants.