May 31
1914 — Joseph Benz of the White Sox pitched a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians for a 6-1 victory.
1927 — Detroit first baseman Johnny Neun made an unassisted triple play against Cleveland. He caught Homer Summa’s liner, tagged Charlie Jamieson between first and second and then touched second base before Glenn Myatt could return. The Tigers beat the Indians 1-0.
1937 — Carl Hubbell’s 24-game winning streak ended with a 10-3 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hubbell’s last defeat came on July 13, 1936, 1-0 to the Chicago Cubs.
1944 — Al Unser’s only home run of the year, a pinch-hit grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, helped the Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 6-2.
1964 — The New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants played the longest doubleheader in major league history — 9 hours, 52 minutes — with the help of a 23-inning game in the nightcap that was won by the visiting Giants 8-6 on run-scoring hits by Del Crandall and Felipe Alou against Galen Cisco. The second game took 7:23 to play.
1970 — Chicago’s Luis Aparicio and Walt Williams each collect five hits in a 22-13 rout of the Boston Red Sox. Williams also scored five times. The two teams collected 40 hits, one short of the AL record set in 1950.
1980 — Ken Landreaux went 0-for-4 in Minnesota’s 11-1 loss to Baltimore, ending his hitting streak at 31 consecutive games. It was the longest streak in the American League since Dom DiMaggio’s 34-game streak in 1949.
1997 — Ila Borders became the first woman to pitch in a regular-season professional game, in the sixth inning of the St. Paul Saints’ Northern League game against Sioux Falls. She gave up three earned runs without getting an out.
1999 — Umpire Frank Pulli used TV replay to take away a home run from Florida’s Cliff Floyd in the fifth inning of the Marlins’ 5-2 loss to St. Louis.
2008 — Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox hit career homer No. 500, a drive off Baltimore right-hander Chad Bradford to become the 24th major leaguer to reach the milestone.
2009 — Stephen Cardullo set a tournament record with seven hits, including three of Florida State’s NCAA-record 15 doubles, as the Seminoles routed Ohio State 37-6 advanced to the super regionals. Florida State set NCAA postseason records with 37 runs, 38 hits and 66 total bases, while Cardullo set the school mark for hits.
Today’s birthday: David Fletcher 27, Jake Peavy 40, Dave Roberts 49.
