In honor of their hard playing center fielder, the first 10,000 adult fans attending the game at Great American Ball Park receive a Ryan Freel Dirty T-shirt giveaway from the Reds. The Cincinnati leadoff hitter, known to finish games wearing a filthy uniform, doesn’t disappoint as he raises lots of dust getting on base twice, including a key single in the tenth inning, in the Reds’ 2-1 victory over the Phillies.Â
The first Virginia Tech home athletic event, a game against Miami, since the campus massacre, which claimed 32 lives of students and staff, draws 3,132 fans. The overflow crowd is the largest ever recorded in the 18-year history of English Field, home of the Hokies college baseball team.
Alex Rodriguez becomes the second player to hit twelve home runs in the season’s first fifteen games when he goes deep twice in the Yankees’ 7-6 loss to Boston at Fenway Park. Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt also accomplished the feat, hitting a dozen for the Phillies in 1976.
On April 18, 2007, David Wright singles against the Florida Marlins to extend his hitting streak to 25 games, the longest in New York Mets’ history. Wright’s streak stretches back to the end of the 2006 season, and breaks the previous franchise mark held jointly by Hubie Brooks (1984) and Mike Piazza (1999).
At Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field, Mark Buehrle hurls the 16th no-hitter in White Sox history and the first home no-no since 1967. The South-side southpaw faces the minimum 27 batters, thanks to picking off Sammy Sosa, who walked in the fifth inning.
On April 17, 2007, Alex Rodriguez hits his eighth homer of the young season, in the Yankees’ 12th game. He becomes just the third player to hit eight homers in the first 12 games or less, joining Mike Schmidt (1976) and Luis Gonzalez (2001).
On April 17, 2007, members of the Washington Nationals wear Virginia Tech baseball caps in their game against the Atlanta Braves, to honor the victims of the deadly shooting on that school’s campus the day before.
On April 15, 2007, on the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut, the entire Dodger team wears uniform #42 in his honor. At least one player on each MLB team wears #42, after Ken Griffey Jr. had asked commissioner Bud Selig for permission to do so. In Oakland, Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, who is the only major leaguer still grandfathered in to wear #42, allows a three-run walk-off homer to Marco Scutaro of the A’s.
To honor Jackie Robinson, some players on each team, including Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter and Braves’ outfielder Andruw Jones, wear the Dodger immortal’s uniform No. 42 on the 60th anniversary of his historic breaking the color barrier in baseball. In the Cardinals and Brewers contest at Busch Stadium, every player and coach on both teams dons Jackie’s revered number.
The Indians became the first team in almost 55 years to notch a victory with their only hit coming in the team’s first at-bat when Grady Sizemore doubles leading off the first inning in Tribe’s eventual 2-1 win over Chicago at Jacobs Field. The last time the Tribe won while getting just one hit or less was in 1992, a 2-1 victory over Boston with the team being no-hit by Matt Young.
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