This Date in Baseball

Sept. 24

1940 — Jimmie Foxx of the Red Sox hit his 500th career home run off Philadelphia’s George Caster in the first game of a doubleheader at Shibe Park. Foxx’s homer came in the sixth inning after Ted Williams homered. Joe Cronin followed with a homer and, later in the inning, Jim Tabor also homered. The four homers in the inning were a first in the AL.

1969 — The New York Mets clinched the NL East Division title, with Gary Gentry pitching a four-hitter in a 6-0 victory over St. Louis.

1974 — Detroit’s Al Kaline doubled down the right-field line off Dave McNally of Baltimore for his 3,000th career hit. The Orioles beat the Tigers 5-4 at Memorial Stadium.

1984 — Rick Sutcliffe threw a two-hitter and led the Chicago Cubs to their first league title since 1945 with a 4-1 victory over Pittsburgh.

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1988 — Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays, one strike away from a no-hitter, gave up a bad-hop single to Julio Franco. Stieb settled for a 1-0 one-hit victory over Cleveland.

1992 — Dave Winfield of the Toronto Blue Jays, at 40, became the oldest player to drive in 100 runs. Winfield drove in four runs with a homer and a two-run double in an 8-2 win over Baltimore.

1993 — The Colorado Rockies set an NL record for victories by an expansion team with their 65th win of the season. Colorado beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-2, surpassing the 64 wins by the Houston Colt .45s in 1962.

1998 — Boston’s Tom Gordon set a major league record for most consecutive saves with his 42nd to preserve the Red Sox’ 9-6 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

2004 — The Atlanta Braves clinched their 13th consecutive division title, winning the NL East with an 8-7 victory over the Florida Marlins. The Braves’ record streak of division championships began with the 1991 NL West title and excludes the 1994 strike-shortened season.

2006 — Trevor Hoffman became baseball’s career saves leader, earning No. 479 to pass Lee Smith and help NL West-leading San Diego beat Pittsburgh 2-1. It was his NL-leading 43rd save in 48 chances. Smith piled up 478 saves from 1980-1997.

2006 — David Ortiz hit his 53rd homer and 32nd on the road in Boston’s 13-4 loss to Toronto. The blast tied Babe Ruth for most home runs on the road in AL history.

2008 — Francisco Rodriguez worked the ninth inning of the Los Angeles Angels’ 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners to end the season with a major league record 62 saves.

2009 — Los Angeles beat Washington 7-6 to hand the Nationals their 100th loss of the season. The Nationals, who were 59-102 last season, are the first NL franchise to lose 100 games in consecutive seasons since the San Diego Padres, who dropped 102 in both 1973 and 1974.

2013 — Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha lost his no-hit bid on Ryan Zimmerman’s infield single with two outs in the ninth inning, and St. Louis beat the Washington Nationals 2-0. Making his ninth career start, Wacha became the third pitcher this season to have a no-hit bid broken up with one out to go. Wacha was pulled after Zimmerman’s hit and Trevor Rosenthal got Jayson Werth to ground out for the win.

2014 — The New York Yankees were eliminated from postseason contention after losing to the AL East champion Orioles 9-5. The Yankees missed the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since 1992 and ’93.

2015 — Pedro Alvarez hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the eighth inning, and Pittsburgh earned their 10,000th win since joining the National League. Starling Marte collected four singles in the 4-0 win over Colorado. He finished 13 for 20 in the four-game sweep.

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