Record: 3-6 - Home: 2-3 - Road: 1-3
No birthdays to look back on, and we're getting round to the ends of the season, so there'll be a steadily decreasing amount of previous games to cover as well. With this being the last day of the month of September, I think it makes sense to draw this feature to a timely end for the season. I hope you've enjoyed me digging out these nuggets from team and player history [with a significant amount of help from the team's press office and their daily notes!]. We'll get this wayback machine revved up again in April. But let's finish with some general baseball landmarks for the day.
- 1910. Ray Jansen makes his debut for the St. Louis Browns. It's also his only game in the majors. Now, there's nothing unusual about that - From 1901 through the end of last year, almost seven hundred players have been one and done. But Jansen is the only one to have had four hits in his sole appearance, going 4-for-5. The problem was his fielding where he made three errors in ten chances at third-base, as the Browns lost 9-1. This makes Jansen's major-league career batting average (.800) better than his fielding percentage (.700).
- 1927. Walter Johnson, whose 417 wins are second on the all-time list behind Cy Young, made his final appearance, as the Washington Senators lost 4-2 to the Yankees in New York. Oddly, Johnson didn't pitch in the game, but was a ninth-inning pinch hitter, flying out to the Yankees' right-fielder. Said right-fielder also became the first man ever to hit 60 home-runs over a season in this game, Babe Ruth going 3-for-3 and driving in two runs. The Yankees started four future Hall of Famers, in Ruth, Earle Combs, Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri.
- 1956. In the final game of the season, the Chicago White Sox turned to Jim Derrington to start - at the age of 16 years and 10 months, he becomes the youngest starting pitcher in the majors this century. He struggled with his control, walking six in six innings, leading to five runs and the loss, as the A's beat the Sox 7 - 6. However, Derrington did single, becoming the youngest player to get a hit in American League history. He played the next season, throwing 37 innings, but his major-league career was ended before Derrington's eighteenth birthday.
- 1988. Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays comes within one out of a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. But it is broken up with two outs in the ninth inning when future D-backs color commentator Jim Traber comes off the bench and singles. Remarkably, it was the second consecutive outing where Stieb had lost a no-hitter on the 27th out, Julio Franco having singled with two outs in the ninth off Stieb, six days previously. He's the only pitcher since 1966 to throw consecutive one-hit shutouts [R.A. Dickey had consecutive one-hitters this year, but allowed an unearned run in one contest]