The Arizona Diamondbacks force their NLDS with Milwaukee to a decisive Game 5 with a 10 – 6 win at home today. The D-Backs use four home runs – a grand slam by Ryan Roberts, two long balls by Chris Young and one by Aaron Hill – to power their way to the win. They jump to a 5 – 0 lead off Randy Wolf in the 1st inning on Roberts’ slam, their second in as many games; the only other team to hit grand slams in back-to-back postseason games was the 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers. Arizona never looks back after its quick start, although starter Joe Saunders struggles and is lifted after three innings; his replacement, Micah Owings, is the winner. Read More October 5, 2011
1956 – Roberto Clemente’s 5th-inning, two-out, two-run rope into Crosley Field’s right-centerfield bleachers vaults Pittsburgh past Cincinnati both in the game and in the standings, transforming a 3 – 2 deficit into a 4 – 3 lead and pushing Pittsburgh to the head of the class, atop the National League by half a game over the newly-demoted Redlegs. Read More June 12, 1956
In front of a record crowd of 23,864 fans at Ruppert Stadium, Lou Gehrig plays his last game in a Yankee uniform when he participates in an exhibition contest against the Kansas City Blues (AA), the team’s American Association farm club. The ‘Iron Horse’, playing only three innings and batting eighth, grounds out weakly to second base in his only at-bat. Read More June 12, 1939