This Date in Baseball
May 27
1904 — Dennis McGann of the New York Giants stole five bases in one game to set a major league record.
1937 — Carl Hubbell, working in relief for the New York Giants, won his 24th straight game over two seasons. Hubbell pitched two innings and Mel Ott hit a ninth-inning home run to beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-2. Hubbell’s string started July 17, 1936.
1955 — Norm Zauchin of the Boston Red Sox knocked in 10 runs with three home runs and a double in the first five innings of a 16-0 victory over the Washington Senators.
1960 — Baltimore catcher Clint Courtney used the “big mitt” for the first time to catch knuckleball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. The mitt, designed by Paul Richards, was 50 percent larger than the standard. Nothing got by Courtney as the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 3-2.
1968 — Montreal and San Diego were awarded National League franchises as the league expanded for the first time in seven years.
1974 — Pittsburgh’s Ken Brett beat the San Diego Padres 6-0 with a two-hitter and in the second game of the doubleheader, hit a pinch-hit triple to give the Pirates an 8-7 victory.
1981 — Seattle’s Lenny Randle dropped to his hands and knees in an attempt to “encourage” Amos Otis’ slow roller to go foul. Umpire Larry McCoy accused the Mariner third baseman of blowing the ball foul and gave the Kansas City outfielder the single. Randle explained he was merely yelling at the ball not to stay fair. The Royals won 8-5.
1986 — At Cleveland, the Boston Red Sox were leading the Indians, 2-0, in the sixth inning when the game was delayed then called on account of fog.
1997 — Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr. broke his own major league record for home runs hit through May by connecting for his 23rd of the season in an 11-10 loss to Minnesota. Griffey’s homer broke the mark he set in 1994.
2004 — Carlos Pena was 6-for-6 with two home runs, five RBIs and four runs in Detroit’s 17-7 victory over Kansas City.
2009 — Daisuke Matsuzaka and the rest of Boston’s pitchers tied a modern-day record with six wild pitches. Matsuzaka tied a franchise record set 80 years ago with four, while relievers Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson also sent catcher George Kottaras scrambling. It was just the fifth time since 1900 that a team threw six wild pitches in a game.
2010 — Florida International’s Garrett Wittels extended his hitting streak to 50 games, after a third-inning single against Western Kentucky. Wittelsed within eight games of matching the NCAA Division I record of 58, set by Oklahoma State’s Robin Ventura in 1987.
2012 — Taylor Sewitt threw 11 shutout innings of relief, entering the game with no outs in the first, to help Manhattan College beat Canisius 3-2, for the school’s second straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.
2012 — Paul Konerko hit a tiebreaking three-run homer — his 400th with the White Sox — and Chicago routed the Cleveland Indians 12-6. The offensive outburst gave Chicago nine or more runs in four consecutive games. The White Sox last accomplished that feat June 27-30, 1938.
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