The Yankees give the ball to RHP Luis Severino (7-3, 3.18 ERA regular season; 0-0, 4.76 ERA postseason). He’ll face the Astros’ LHP Framber Valdez (17-6, 2.82 ERA regular season; 0-0, 3.18 ERA postseason).
Gene Tenace hits yet another World Series HR, Orel Hershiser closes out the 1988 WS, the 2004 Red Sox come all the way back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the Yankees for the fourth straight time in the ALCS to move on to the World Series and much more today in baseball history.
RHP Jose Ureña (3-8, 5.24 ERA) pitches for the visiting Rockies and LHP Tony Gonsolin (16-1, 2.10 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers.
Today in Dodgers’ history:
1947 In Game 4 of the Fall Classic, Bill Bevens comes within one out from pitching the first no-hitter in World Series history. The Yankee hurler loses his claim to fame and the game when Cookie Lavagetto, pinch-hitting for Eddie Stanky, hits a two-out ninth-inning double giving the Dodgers a 3-2 improbable victory.
1951 In Game 3 of the National League playoff series at the Polo Grounds, Bobby Thomson’s one-out three-run homer off Ralph Branca beats the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth, 5-4, and the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant. The round-tripper, better known as the ‘shot heard around the world,’ becomes one of the famous home runs in baseball history.
1962 At Dodger Stadium, the Giants beat Los Angeles, 6-4, to take the rubber game of the best-of-three National League playoffs, clinching the National League pennant. LA shortstop Maury Wills sets a major league record for the most games played in a season, appearing in all of his team’s 165 games.
1976 After being at the Dodger’s helm for 23 years, Walter Alston’s managerial career ends when the team drops a 3-2 decision to the Padres, finishing the campaign ten games behind the Reds. During his tenure, beginning in Brooklyn in 1954, the skipper known as Smokey to his players compiles a 2040-1613 (.523) record en route to capturing seven pennants and four World Series titles.
1987 Benito Santiago’s consecutive game hitting streak ends at 34 when the backstop is held hitless in three trips to the plate by Dodger hurler Orel Hershiser, who tosses a complete game in a 1-0 loss to the Padres. The stretch of straight games with a hit by the 23-year-old represents a new mark for rookies and catchers.
1993 The Giants, despite winning 103 games, are eliminated from the Western Division race when the Dodgers derail their division dreams, 12-1. Catcher Mike Piazza, who will be named the league’s Rookie of the Year, hits two home runs in the game.
1999 In the final regular-season game played at the Astrodome, Mike Hampton (22-4) beats the Dodgers, 9-4. The victory clinches the division title as the Astros finish one game ahead of the Reds in the National League Central.
2005 The ax begins to fall when two managers lose their jobs the day after the season ends. Skippers Jim Tracy (Dodgers/5 years/427-383) and Alan Trammell (Tigers/3 years/186-300) are the first to go.
2009 Needing only a win or a Colorado loss for the past week, the Dodgers finally clinch the National League West title with a 5-0 victory over the wild-card Rockies. The title marks Joe Torre’s 14th consecutive season in the postseason, having won thirteen previous divisional titles, ten with the Yankees, one with the Braves, and now his second with LA.
The Dodgers give LHP Julio Urías (17-7, 2.25 ERA) the ball to face the Padres’ RHP Joe Musgrove (10-7, 3.12 ERA). Urías leads the NL in ERA.
On this day in Dodgers’ history:
1924 Rogers Hornsby finishes the season with a .424 batting average to lead the National League. The Cardinal second baseman easily outdistances Zack Wheat, who finishes second in the race, batting .375 for the Dodgers.
1952 On the last day of the season at Ebbets Field, the Braves’ 77 years of representing Boston is extended by three innings when Eddie Mathews’ ninth-inning, two-out double ties the game. The contest is called due to darkness and ends in the 12th inning in a 5-5 tie with the Dodgers.
1955 In the bottom of the second inning, Elston Howard, in his first World Series at-bat, knots the score at 2-2 when he homers off Dodgers’ right-hander Don Newcombe. The round-tripper to deep left field at Yankee Stadium marks the first time a black batter has hit a home run off a black pitcher in the history of the Fall Classic.
1959 The Braves, who ended the National League regular season in a first-place tie with the Dodgers, lose Game 1 of the three-game series, 3-2, in front of a sparse crowd of 18,297 at County Stadium. Milwaukee will lose tomorrow’s game in L.A., spoiling their chance for a three-peat as NL Champs.
1966 At Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Larry Jaster throws a four-hitter, blanking Don Sutton and the Dodgers, 2-0. It’s the southpaw’s fifth shutout against LA this season, equaling a post-1900 major league mark held by the Senators’ Tom Hughes (against the Indians in 1905) and Grover Cleveland Alexander of the Phillies (against the Reds in 1916).
1988 In his last start of the regular season, Dodger Orel Hershiser tosses 10 shutout frames to extend his streak to 59, breaking Don Drysdale’s record of 58 consecutive scoreless innings.
1997 With his 40th home run, catcher Mike Piazza sets a single season Los Angeles Dodger record. Duke Snider holds the franchise record, slugging 43 round-trippers for Brooklyn in 1956.
2003 At Turner Field in Atlanta, Jose Reyes becomes the second Mets player to hit a home run from both sides of the plate in one game. Lee Mazzilli was the first when he went yard twice against the Dodgers in LA on September 3, 1978.
2006 At Coors Field in Colorado, James Loney collects four hits, including two homers, and drives in nine runs in the Dodgers’ 19-11 victory over the Rockies. The rookie first baseman, who had one homer and eight runs batted in in 93 previous at-bats with the team, ties the franchise RBI mark set by Gil Hodges in his 1950 four-homer game for Brooklyn and breaks the Los Angeles club mark held by Ron Cey.
LHP Tony Gonsolin (16-1, 2.10 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers and RHP Pablo López (8-8, 3.66 ERA) pitches for the Marlins.
On this day in Dodgers’ history:
1939 Wheaties sponsors the first telecast of a baseball game when their ads are aired during the Ebbets Field contest between the Reds and the Dodgers. The commercial broadcast is available only in New York City, where an estimated 500 people own television sets.
1948 Jackie Robinson hits for the backward cycle when he homers in the first inning, triples in the fourth, doubles in the sixth, and completes the rare event with a single in the eighth. In addition to his ten total bases, the Dodger second baseman drives in two runs, scores three times, and steals a base, helping Brooklyn beat the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park, 12-7.
1951 With his second home run of the game, the sixth time he has accomplished the feat this year, Gil Hodges hits his 36th round-tripper to establish a new franchise record for homers in a season. The Dodger first baseman’s seventh-inning three-run blast in the team’s 13-1 rout of Cincinnati at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field surpasses the mark of 35 set by Babe Herman in 1930.
1989 Giving up just three singles, recently acquired Mets southpaw Frank Viola outduels Orel Hershiser and beats the Dodgers, 1-0. The classic contest between two aces marked the first time in baseball history that the reigning winners of the Cy Young Award have faced one another in the regular season.
Cultural history note: On this date in 1966: On a typically cool night, the Beatles play their final concert at Candlestick Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants. The “Fab Four’s” performance on a five-foot stage, which is located just behind second base surrounded by a six-foot high wire fence, is less than stellar due the ballpark’s inadequate lighting, poor acoustics, and the group’s growing disdain of doing live shows.
The visiting Braves give the ball to LHP Max Fried (0-2, 5.73 ERA). He’ll face the Dodgers’ RHP Walker Buehler (1-0, 3.38 ERA). Fried’s first two starts have been pretty bad: he gave up eight hits and five runs to the Reds on April 7 and seven runs and three hits to the Nats a week later. Buehler won his first start, going five innings, and had no decision in his second, in which he went 5 2/3 innings.
1890 The Brooklyn Bridegrooms, who will later be known as the Dodgers, play their first National League game. The former American Association team loses to the Beaneaters, who will become known as the Braves in 1912, at Boston’s South End Grounds, 15-9.
1938 During the first inning, both Dodgers’ Ernie Koy and Phillies’ Emmett Mueller homer in their first major league at-bats. The pair of rookies will collectively hit a total 42 home runs during their nine seasons in the major leagues.
1956 In the first major league game ever played in New Jersey, the Dodgers begin their Jersey City home game experiment with a 10-inning 5-4 victory over the Phillies at Roosevelt Stadium. A sparse crowd of 12,214, limited by inclement weather, sees Brooklyn backstop Roy Campanella tie the score in the tenth inning with his 1000th career hit, a double down the left field line.
1968 Nolan Ryan makes quick work of the Dodgers when he strikes out the side on nine pitches in the top of the third inning of the Mets’ 3-2 loss at Shea Stadium. The 21 year-old New York fireballer, who will also accomplish the feat with the Angels in 1972, strikes out 11 batters in 7.1 frames, including Claude Osteen, Wes Parker, and Zoilo Versalles, the victims of his immaculate inning.
2000 Veteran hurler Orel Hershiser ties a major league mark, equaled by 19 others, hitting four batters in one game. Astro Richard Hidalgo also ties a modern major league record by getting hit three times in a game, twice by Hershiser and a third time by Dodger reliever Matt Herges.
2002 Mariners’ third baseman Jeff Cirillo ties the major league record for consecutive errorless games at the hot corner by playing his 99th contest without a miscue. John Wehner, a journeyman infielder with the Dodgers, Pirates, and Marlins, established the mark during a span of eight-plus seasons.
The Braves give the ball to RHP Huascar Ynoa (postseason 0-0, 18.00 ERA). He’ll face the Dodgers’ LHP Julio Urías (postseason 1-0, 3.60 ERA). The Dodgers hope that Urías can bounce back from his relief showing in Game Two in which he gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and Atlanta tied and later won the game.
Today in baseball history Gene Tenace hit his fourth home run of the Series in 1972, Orel Hershiser threw a four-hitter to win Game Five and the Series for the Dodgers in 1988 and the Red Sox completed their 2004 ALCS comeback from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Yankees and move on to the World Series.
In the last game of the year the Central Division champion Brewers hand the ball to LHP Brett Anderson (4-5, 4.26 ERA). The Dodgers counter with RHP Walker Buehler (15-4, 2.49 ERA).
If the Dodgers win and the Giants lose to the Padres up north, the two California teams will play a tiebreaker game tomorrow, Oct. 4, to determine who wins the NL West. Any other result sends the Dodgers to a wild card game against the Cardinals on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
Today in Dodgers’ history:
1947 In Game 4 of the Fall Classic, Bill Bevens comes within one out from pitching the first no-hitter in World Series history. The Yankee hurler loses his claim to fame and the game when Cookie Lavagetto, pinch-hitting for Eddie Stanky, hits a two-out ninth-inning double giving the Dodgers a 3-2 improbable victory.
1951 In Game 3 of the National League playoff series at the Polo Grounds, Bobby Thomson’s one-out three-run homer off Ralph Branca beats the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth, 5-4, and the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant. The round-tripper, better known as the ‘shot heard around the world,’ becomes one of the famous home runs in baseball history.
1962 At Dodger Stadium, the Giants beat Los Angeles, 6-4, to take the rubber game of the best-of-three National League playoffs, clinching the National League pennant. LA shortstop Maury Wills sets a major league record for the most games played in a season, appearing in all of his team’s 165 games.
1976 After being at the Dodger’s helm for 23 years, Walter Alston’s managerial career ends when the team drops a 3-2 decision to the Padres, finishing the campaign ten games behind the Reds. During his tenure, beginning in Brooklyn in 1954, the skipper known as Smokey to his players compiles a 2040-1613 (.523) record en route to capturing seven pennants and four World Series titles.
1987 Benito Santiago’s consecutive game hitting streak ends at 34 when the backstop is held hitless in three trips to the plate by Dodger hurler Orel Hershiser, who tosses a complete game in a 1-0 loss to the Padres. The stretch of straight games with a hit by the 23-year-old represents a new mark for rookies and catchers.
1993 The Giants, despite winning 103 games, are eliminated from the Western Division race when the Dodgers derail their division dreams, 12-1. Catcher Mike Piazza, who will be named the league’s Rookie of the Year, hits two home runs in the game.
1999 In the final regular-season game played at the Astrodome, Mike Hampton (22-4) beats the Dodgers, 9-4. The victory clinches the division title as the Astros finish one game ahead of the Reds in the National League Central.
2005 The ax begins to fall when two managers lose their jobs the day after the season ends. Skippers Jim Tracy (Dodgers/5 years/427-383) and Alan Trammell (Tigers/3 years/186-300) are the first to go.
2009 Needing only a win or a Colorado loss for the past week, the Dodgers finally clinch the National League West title with a 5-0 victory over the wild-card Rockies. The title marks Joe Torre’s 14th consecutive season in the postseason, having won thirteen previous divisional titles, ten with the Yankees, one with the Braves, and now his second with LA.
Padres at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports San Diego, ESPN (out-of-market only), SPNLA
RHP Yu Darvish (8-10, 4.21 ERA) takes the mound for the visiting Padres, facing the Dodgers’ RHP Walker Buehler (14-4, 2.58 ERA).
The Giants have put their slugging first baseman (29 HRs, 59 RBI) Brandon Belt on the IL with a fractured thumb.
As noted in the comments to the previous post, Albert Pujols has been put on the IL; Cody Bellinger has been activated.
On this day in Dodgers’ history:
1924 Rogers Hornsby finishes the season with a .424 batting average to lead the National League. The Cardinal second baseman easily outdistances Zack Wheat, who finishes second in the race, batting .375 for the Dodgers.
1952 On the last day of the season at Ebbets Field, the Braves’ 77 years of representing Boston is extended by three innings when Eddie Mathews’ ninth-inning, two-out double ties the game. The contest is called due to darkness and ends in the 12th inning in a 5-5 tie with the Dodgers.
1955 In the bottom of the second inning, Elston Howard, in his first World Series at-bat, knots the score at 2-2 when he homers off Dodgers’ right-hander Don Newcombe. The round-tripper to deep left field at Yankee Stadium marks the first time a black batter has hit a home run off a black pitcher in the history of the Fall Classic.
1959 The Braves, who ended the National League regular season in a first-place tie with the Dodgers, lose Game 1 of the three-game series, 3-2, in front of a sparse crowd of 18,297 at County Stadium. Milwaukee will lose tomorrow’s game in L.A., spoiling their chance for a three-peat as NL Champs.
1966 At Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Larry Jaster throws a four-hitter, blanking Don Sutton and the Dodgers, 2-0. It’s the southpaw’s fifth shutout against LA this season, equaling a post-1900 major league mark held by the Senators’ Tom Hughes (against the Indians in 1905) and Grover Cleveland Alexander of the Phillies (against the Reds in 1916).
1988 In his last start of the regular season, Dodger Orel Hershiser tosses 10 shutout frames to extend his streak to 59, breaking Don Drysdale’s record of 58 consecutive scoreless innings.
1997 With his 40th home run, catcher Mike Piazza sets a single season Los Angeles Dodger record. Duke Snider holds the franchise record, slugging 43 round-trippers for Brooklyn in 1956.
2003 At Turner Field in Atlanta, Jose Reyes becomes the second Mets player to hit a home run from both sides of the plate in one game. Lee Mazzilli was the first when he went yard twice against the Dodgers in LA on September 3, 1978.
2006 At Coors Field in Colorado, James Loney collects four hits, including two homers, and drives in nine runs in the Dodgers’ 19-11 victory over the Rockies. The rookie first baseman, who had one homer and eight runs batted in in 93 previous at-bats with the team, ties the franchise RBI mark set by Gil Hodges in his 1950 four-homer game for Brooklyn and breaks the Los Angeles club mark held by Ron Cey.
LHP Clayton Kershaw (9-7, 3.33 ERA) makes his second start for the Dodgers after 10 weeks on the IL. He’ll face the Reds’ LHP Wade Miley, (12-6, 3.09 ERA).
Today in Dodgers’ history:
1935 The Cubs win their 16th consecutive game as they beat Carl Hubbell, completing a four-game sweep of the Giants. The mark is the most since the 1924 Dodgers won 15 straight games.
1964 With two outs in the bottom of the 16th inning, Willie Davis, after singling, swiping second, and advancing to third on a wild pitch, steals home, giving the Dodgers a 4-3 victory over Philadelphia. The fleet outfielder’s theft of the plate is in the latest frame in a National League game the feat has ever been accomplished and ties Hal Trosky’s major league record set in 1944.
1973 Astros’ infielder Dave Campbell hits a first-inning two-run double against San Diego right-hander Clay Kirby to snap an 0-for-45 drought, tying a major league record set in 1909 by Bill Bergen, a catcher who played with Brooklyn. ‘Soup’, who will become a respected national baseball broadcaster, endured the futility while playing for three teams, combining a 17 at-bat hitless streak with the Padres and another 21 at-bat hitless streak for the Cardinals before hitting the two-bagger in his eighth at-bat with Houston.
2000 A Dodger fan, in addition to other court-ordered restrictions, has been banned from attending home games in Los Angeles for 18 months. The irate patron threw coffee in the face of a Mets fan who was cheering a grand slam hit by New York’s catcher Todd Pratt.
2014 LA’s Clayton Kershaw becomes the first 20-game winner of the season when the team routs Chicago at a windy Wrigley Field, 14-5. The 26 year-old southpaw, who has compiled a 20-3 (.870) record along with an ERA of 1.80. is the first Dodger hurler to reach the 20-win plateau twice since Claude Osteen accomplished the feat in 1969 and 1972.
Rockies at Dodgers, 1:10 PM PDT, TV: ATT SportsNet RM, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA
RHP Antonio Senzatela (2-9, 4.42 ERA) goes for the Rockies and newly-recalled RHP Mitch White (1-1, 3.06 ERA) does the same for the Dodgers.
On this day in Dodgers’ history:
1939 Wheaties sponsors the first telecast of a baseball game when their ads are aired during the Ebbets Field contest between the Reds and the Dodgers. The commercial broadcast is available only in New York City, where an estimated 500 people own television sets.
1948 Jackie Robinson hits for the backward cycle when he homers in the first inning, triples in the fourth, doubles in the sixth, and completes the rare event with a single in the eighth. In addition to his ten total bases, the Dodger second baseman drives in two runs, scores three times, and steals a base, helping Brooklyn beat the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park, 12-7.
1951 With his second home run of the game, the sixth time he has accomplished the feat this year, Gil Hodges hits his 36th round-tripper to establish a new franchise record for homers in a season. The Dodger first baseman’s seventh-inning three-run blast in the team’s 13-1 rout of Cincinnati at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field surpasses the mark of 35 set by Babe Herman in 1930.
1989 Giving up just three singles, recently acquired Mets southpaw Frank Viola outduels Orel Hershiser and beats the Dodgers, 1-0. The classic contest between two aces marked the first time in baseball history that the reigning winners of the Cy Young Award have faced one another in the regular season.
Cultural history note: On this date in 1966: On a typically cool night, the Beatles play their final concert at Candlestick Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants. The “Fab Four’s” performance on a five-foot stage, which is located just behind second base surrounded by a six-foot high wire fence, is less than stellar due the ballpark’s inadequate lighting, poor acoustics, and the group’s growing disdain of doing live shows.