<img alt="Braves v Dodgers" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EVwUEWpEXmRWa6tKgE6oHgG-rhE=/0x74:3000x2074/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73614828/51193668.0.jpg">
Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Smoltz’s side quest as a reliever really was amazing. Braves Franchise History
1920: At the Polo Grounds, the Braves eliminate the second-place Giants in the second game by a 3-2 score on Tony Boeckel’s homer in the 9th. The Giants win the opener, 2-1. The loss clinches the pennant for Brooklyn.
1921: In the first of two at Boston, Braves C Ray Powell hits three triples, tying the Major League mark, in an 8-5 win over Brooklyn. Dana Fillingim is the winner over Burleigh Grimes.
1924: Down 4-0 in the 1st, the Senators rally to top the Red Sox, 7-5, as the Fenway Park crowd of 20,000 cheers the Washington win. Rookie pinch hitter Wade Lefler, who had one at-bat with the Braves previously, drives in three runs with a bases-loaded double to win it. Lefler drove in Washington’s only run in Friday’s loss, but his five games with Washington (5 for 9 with three doubles) and one with Boston will sum up his major league career. In Philadelphia, the A’s beat the Yankees, 4-3, to give the Senators a two-game lead with two to play.
1925: In a doubleheader split with the Braves in St. Louis, the Cards’ player-manager, Rogers Hornsby, hits his 38th and 39th home runs of the year, along with a single, double, and triple to push his average to .403. In batting practice tomorrow, Hornsby will foul a ball off his foot splitting his toenail, and will sit the last three games.
1930: Almost overlooked is Wally Berger’s 38th homer for the Braves, at Ebbets Field, as Boston tops Brooklyn, 7-1. It is a record for rookies that will be tied by Frank Robinson in 1956 and finally broken by Cody Bellinger in 2017.
1950: Dodgers split with the Braves, cutting the Phillies’ lead to two games.
1951: Trying for his 23rd win, Preacher Roe loses just his third game, 4-3, to Chet Nichols and the Braves.
1952: The Braves’ Eddie Mathews hits three home runs as Boston breaks a ten-game losing streak and beats Brooklyn, 11-3. Virgil Jester wins, his last in the majors and the last victory for the Boston Braves franchise.
1959: In one of the National League’s frequent tight races, the Braves and Dodgers finish in a tie (86-68), with the Giants a close 3rd (83-71). The Dodgers beat Chicago, 7-1, while the Braves beat the Phillies, 5-2. The Giants drop two to the Cardinals, to finish with seven losses in their final eight games. The Dodgers and Braves will play a three-game playoff to determine the pennant winner.
1964: Despite three home runs by Johnny Callison, the Phils are 14-8 losers to the Braves, who complete a four-game sweep at Connie Mack Stadium. The Phils’ seventh straight loss drops them out of first place, which they had held for 73 days. Milwaukee tallies 22 hits - ten against Jim Bunning in four innings and the others against four relievers. Joe Torre has two hits including his 20th homer.
1982: Atlanta’s Phil Niekro shuts out the Giants on two hits, 7-0, to push the Atlanta Braves back into a first-place tie with the Dodgers in the NL West. The Dodgers have lost six straight games.
1987: Phil Niekro makes his final major league appearance and is pounded for five runs in three innings in Atlanta’s 15-6 loss to the Giants. Niekro, who had been released earlier in the season by Toronto, agreed to pitch one last game for the Braves, the team with which he spent his first 19 major league seasons.
2000: The Mets beat the Braves, 6-2, to clinch the National League wild card berth for the second year in a row.
2001: While the division-leading Braves, behind Greg Maddux, are succumbing quietly to fourth-place Florida, the red hot Mets, led by super sub Desi Relaford and Mike Piazza, abuse Expo pitching for ten runs in the final four frames, erasing an early 6-0 deficit. The 12-6 triumph is New York’s 18th in 21 tries and their 25th out of 31. Having started that stretch at 13 1/2 games out, New York has now pulled to within three games of first place. This leaves nine games just before NY’s final face-off against Atlanta. In tonight’s game, Piazza’s pinch-hit, bases-clearing, 9th-inning exclamation point notwithstanding, it’s Relaford who provides the game’s biggest hit as, one inning earlier, with one out, one on and the Mets down by one, the diminutive Desi makes like Mike, turning around a 2-and-2 Scott Strickland fastball and depositing it in Olympic Stadium’s right field seats, just beyond the Avis ad.
2002: Braves first-year closer John Smoltz establishes a new National League mark by recording his 54th save of the season. The previous record of 53 was shared by Randy Myers and Trevor Hoffman.
2007: Ryan Howard strikes out against John Smoltz in the 3rd inning of the Phillies-Braves contest. It is his 196th strikeout of the season, breaking Adam Dunn’s three-year-old major league record.
2009: Atlanta beats Washington, 6-3, thanks to three runs in the top of the 10th, completing a three-game sweep. The Braves have won six straight, ten in a row on the road, and 14 of 16 to displace San Francisco as Colorado’s main rivals for the National League wild card; they are now two and a half games back of the Rockies.
2022: Marlins manager Don Mattingly is ejected after the third call, and Bleier, who had never committed a balk in seven prior major league seasons and claims he has done nothing different in this game, is also tossed after getting Alonso to ground out and then letting Tumpane know he is not impressed. The Marlins hold on for a 6-4 win, and combined with an 8-2 win by the Braves over the Nationals, New York and Atlanta are now tied atop the NL East.
MLB history
1973: The Angels’ Nolan Ryan fans 16 in 11 innings, beating the Twins, 5-4. The final strikeout victim, Rich Reese, is the 383rd of the season for Ryan, enabling him to surpass the major-league record set by Sandy Koufax in 1965. Ryan opts to skip his next start on the 30th, thus passing on a shot at 400 K’s.
1993: Mariners P Randy Johnson ties an American League record for lefthanders by striking out 18 Texas Rangers in a 3-2 loss. Ron Guidry of the Yankees set the mark against California on June 17, 1978.
1998: In the Reds’ 4-1 victory over Pirates, two sets of brothers appear in the same lineup for the first time in major league history. Stephen Larkin plays first, Bret Boone is at second, Barry Larkin is at short and Aaron Boone plays third making up the all-brother infield. Aaron Boone’s three-run homer gives Brett Tomko (13-12) the complete game victory. Stephen Larkin is a career minor leaguer with a pacemaker and had a new one installed in August after his old one had a hiccup. Stephen hit .228 with three home run and 31 RBI in 80 games with the AA Chattanooga Lookouts this year.
2003: Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa blasts his 40th home run to establish a National League record by reaching the plateau for the sixth consecutive season. The Chicago right fielder, who had previously been tied with Ralph Kiner and Duke Snider, needs another season of at least 40 homers to equal Babe Ruth’s major league mark of seven seasons set from 1926 to 1932.
2014: Jonathan Lucroy hits a 5th-inning double off Tsuyoshi Wada of the Cubs in a 2-1 win to set a new record for a catcher. It is his 46th of the season at the position, besting the 45 hit by Ivan Rodriguez in 1996; it is also his 53rd overall, the others having been hit as a first baseman, tying the Brewers franchise record, set by Lyle Overbay in 2004.
2017: In a conference call meeting, Major League Baseball owners approve the sale of the Miami Marlins by Jeffrey Loria to a group headed by Bruce Sherman and former player Derek Jeter.
Information for this article was found via Baseball Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History.
<img alt="Braves v Dodgers" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EVwUEWpEXmRWa6tKgE6oHgG-rhE=/0x74:3000x2074/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73614828/51193668.0.jpg">
Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Smoltz’s side quest as a reliever really was amazing. Braves Franchise History
1920: At the Polo Grounds, the Braves eliminate the second-place Giants in the second game by a 3-2 score on Tony Boeckel’s homer in the 9th. The Giants win the opener, 2-1. The loss clinches the pennant for Brooklyn.
1921: In the first of two at Boston, Braves C Ray Powell hits three triples, tying the Major League mark, in an 8-5 win over Brooklyn. Dana Fillingim is the winner over Burleigh Grimes.
1924: Down 4-0 in the 1st, the Senators rally to top the Red Sox, 7-5, as the Fenway Park crowd of 20,000 cheers the Washington win. Rookie pinch hitter Wade Lefler, who had one at-bat with the Braves previously, drives in three runs with a bases-loaded double to win it. Lefler drove in Washington’s only run in Friday’s loss, but his five games with Washington (5 for 9 with three doubles) and one with Boston will sum up his major league career. In Philadelphia, the A’s beat the Yankees, 4-3, to give the Senators a two-game lead with two to play.
1925: In a doubleheader split with the Braves in St. Louis, the Cards’ player-manager, Rogers Hornsby, hits his 38th and 39th home runs of the year, along with a single, double, and triple to push his average to .403. In batting practice tomorrow, Hornsby will foul a ball off his foot splitting his toenail, and will sit the last three games.
1930: Almost overlooked is Wally Berger’s 38th homer for the Braves, at Ebbets Field, as Boston tops Brooklyn, 7-1. It is a record for rookies that will be tied by Frank Robinson in 1956 and finally broken by Cody Bellinger in 2017.
1950: Dodgers split with the Braves, cutting the Phillies’ lead to two games.
1951: Trying for his 23rd win, Preacher Roe loses just his third game, 4-3, to Chet Nichols and the Braves.
1952: The Braves’ Eddie Mathews hits three home runs as Boston breaks a ten-game losing streak and beats Brooklyn, 11-3. Virgil Jester wins, his last in the majors and the last victory for the Boston Braves franchise.
1959: In one of the National League’s frequent tight races, the Braves and Dodgers finish in a tie (86-68), with the Giants a close 3rd (83-71). The Dodgers beat Chicago, 7-1, while the Braves beat the Phillies, 5-2. The Giants drop two to the Cardinals, to finish with seven losses in their final eight games. The Dodgers and Braves will play a three-game playoff to determine the pennant winner.
1964: Despite three home runs by Johnny Callison, the Phils are 14-8 losers to the Braves, who complete a four-game sweep at Connie Mack Stadium. The Phils’ seventh straight loss drops them out of first place, which they had held for 73 days. Milwaukee tallies 22 hits - ten against Jim Bunning in four innings and the others against four relievers. Joe Torre has two hits including his 20th homer.
1982: Atlanta’s Phil Niekro shuts out the Giants on two hits, 7-0, to push the Atlanta Braves back into a first-place tie with the Dodgers in the NL West. The Dodgers have lost six straight games.
1987: Phil Niekro makes his final major league appearance and is pounded for five runs in three innings in Atlanta’s 15-6 loss to the Giants. Niekro, who had been released earlier in the season by Toronto, agreed to pitch one last game for the Braves, the team with which he spent his first 19 major league seasons.
2000: The Mets beat the Braves, 6-2, to clinch the National League wild card berth for the second year in a row.
2001: While the division-leading Braves, behind Greg Maddux, are succumbing quietly to fourth-place Florida, the red hot Mets, led by super sub Desi Relaford and Mike Piazza, abuse Expo pitching for ten runs in the final four frames, erasing an early 6-0 deficit. The 12-6 triumph is New York’s 18th in 21 tries and their 25th out of 31. Having started that stretch at 13 1/2 games out, New York has now pulled to within three games of first place. This leaves nine games just before NY’s final face-off against Atlanta. In tonight’s game, Piazza’s pinch-hit, bases-clearing, 9th-inning exclamation point notwithstanding, it’s Relaford who provides the game’s biggest hit as, one inning earlier, with one out, one on and the Mets down by one, the diminutive Desi makes like Mike, turning around a 2-and-2 Scott Strickland fastball and depositing it in Olympic Stadium’s right field seats, just beyond the Avis ad.
2002: Braves first-year closer John Smoltz establishes a new National League mark by recording his 54th save of the season. The previous record of 53 was shared by Randy Myers and Trevor Hoffman.
2007: Ryan Howard strikes out against John Smoltz in the 3rd inning of the Phillies-Braves contest. It is his 196th strikeout of the season, breaking Adam Dunn’s three-year-old major league record.
2009: Atlanta beats Washington, 6-3, thanks to three runs in the top of the 10th, completing a three-game sweep. The Braves have won six straight, ten in a row on the road, and 14 of 16 to displace San Francisco as Colorado’s main rivals for the National League wild card; they are now two and a half games back of the Rockies.
2022: Marlins manager Don Mattingly is ejected after the third call, and Bleier, who had never committed a balk in seven prior major league seasons and claims he has done nothing different in this game, is also tossed after getting Alonso to ground out and then letting Tumpane know he is not impressed. The Marlins hold on for a 6-4 win, and combined with an 8-2 win by the Braves over the Nationals, New York and Atlanta are now tied atop the NL East.
MLB history
1973: The Angels’ Nolan Ryan fans 16 in 11 innings, beating the Twins, 5-4. The final strikeout victim, Rich Reese, is the 383rd of the season for Ryan, enabling him to surpass the major-league record set by Sandy Koufax in 1965. Ryan opts to skip his next start on the 30th, thus passing on a shot at 400 K’s.
1993: Mariners P Randy Johnson ties an American League record for lefthanders by striking out 18 Texas Rangers in a 3-2 loss. Ron Guidry of the Yankees set the mark against California on June 17, 1978.
1998: In the Reds’ 4-1 victory over Pirates, two sets of brothers appear in the same lineup for the first time in major league history. Stephen Larkin plays first, Bret Boone is at second, Barry Larkin is at short and Aaron Boone plays third making up the all-brother infield. Aaron Boone’s three-run homer gives Brett Tomko (13-12) the complete game victory. Stephen Larkin is a career minor leaguer with a pacemaker and had a new one installed in August after his old one had a hiccup. Stephen hit .228 with three home run and 31 RBI in 80 games with the AA Chattanooga Lookouts this year.
2003: Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa blasts his 40th home run to establish a National League record by reaching the plateau for the sixth consecutive season. The Chicago right fielder, who had previously been tied with Ralph Kiner and Duke Snider, needs another season of at least 40 homers to equal Babe Ruth’s major league mark of seven seasons set from 1926 to 1932.
2014: Jonathan Lucroy hits a 5th-inning double off Tsuyoshi Wada of the Cubs in a 2-1 win to set a new record for a catcher. It is his 46th of the season at the position, besting the 45 hit by Ivan Rodriguez in 1996; it is also his 53rd overall, the others having been hit as a first baseman, tying the Brewers franchise record, set by Lyle Overbay in 2004.
2017: In a conference call meeting, Major League Baseball owners approve the sale of the Miami Marlins by Jeffrey Loria to a group headed by Bruce Sherman and former player Derek Jeter.
Information for this article was found via Baseball Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History.
Link to original article
