2018 – Rookie Ronald Acuna of the Braves achieves a very rare feat as he homers to lead off both games of a doubleheader against the Marlins. In the opener, he starts the game with a home run off Pablo Lopez as the Braves cruise to a 9 – 1 win, then in the nitecap, he victimizes Merandy Gonzalez, making his first big league start, as Atlanta completes a sweep with a 6 – 1 win. Only three other players had done this before him: Hall of Famers Harry Hooper (in 1913) and Rickey Henderson (in 1993), and most recently Brady Anderson on August 21, 1999.

2018 – After another great performance by Max Scherzer, the Nationals go into the bottom of the 9th with a 3 – 0 lead in a Sunday night game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, only to see rookie David Bote hit a two-out pinch-hit walk-off grand slam off Ryan Madson for a 4 – 3 win.

Barry Bonds gets a measure of redemption, 11 years after breaking Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record amidst rumors of steroid use. Before today’s game, his number 25 is officially retired by the Giants and he is met with thundering cheers, in contrast with the almost indifference which greeted his record-breaking feat. At 87, all-time great Willie Mays, who has known Bonds since he was a small child, steals the show by calling for a statue of him to be erected alongside his outside AT&T Park and for Bonds’s election to the Hall of Fame.

2018 – The Orioles’ awful season continues as they blow an early 8 – 3 lead against Boston to lose, 19 – 12. This puts them 46 1/2 games back of the division-leading Red Sox, with 46 games remaining, meaning they are mathematically eliminated. It matches the earliest date this has happened in baseball history, set by the 1932 Red Sox and copied by the 1962 Mets, two notoriously awful teams, and the 46 games left to play at the time of elimination is a new record in the divisional era.