Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza ties a major league record hitting his third grand slam of the month. The blast highlights a nine-run 2nd inning which leads Los Angeles to 12 – 4 victory over the visiting Chicago Cubs.
At Candlestick Park, Geoff Jenkins hits a home run off Orel Hershiser to become the first Milwaukee Brewers player to hit a home run in his major league debut. The Brewers defeat the Giants, 7 – 5. Jenkins joins Chuck Tanner, who accomplished the feat in 1955 as a member of the Milwaukee Braves, as the only players in Milwaukee baseball history to homer in their first game.
Chicago White Sox second baseman Ray Durham ties a major league record by reaching base on an error three times in Chicago’s 14 – 7 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Durham adds three hits with four runs and two RBI. Durham is also involved in two other plays in which he advances on errors – a stolen base in which he goes to third base on a throwing error, and he triples and scores on another error.
1998 – Sean Berry tags Miguel Batista for a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth for a 4-3 triumph against Montreal. Craig Biggio scores his 891st career run, breaking Cesar Cedeno’s franchise record.
The first-ever American League-National League doubleheader ends up a good day for New York. The Yankees are forced to come to Shea Stadium after a beam fell into the stands at Yankee Stadium on April 13th. They earn their first victory in Queens in 22 years as they defeat the Angels, 6 – 3. Former Mets star Darryl Strawberry, the all-time home runleader at Shea, adds to his total with a shot into the left field bleachers. In the regularly-scheduled night game, the Mets beat the Cubs, 2 – 1. The Yankees, who played at Shea in 1974and 1975 while Yankee Stadium was renovated, draw a crowd of 40,743, a dramatic contrast to the gathering of 16,012 who show up for the Mets game at night.
1998 – Mark McGwire hits three home runs, breaking an eight-game homerless drought, to help the Cardinals to a 15 – 5 victory over Arizona. After tying Willie Mays’ major league record by homering in the first four games of the season, McGwire had not homered since April 4th.
Diamondback third baseman Matt Williams knots the score at 4-4 when he hits the first-ever grand slam in franchise History. The fourth-inning blast off southpaw Kent Mercker proves to be of little consequence in the expansion team’s 15-5 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. (Our thanks to M. Blake for suggesting this entry.)
Ken Griffey, Jr. of the Seattle Mariners hits his 300th career home run to become the second-youngest player to reach the milestone. Griffey’s 300th, a two-run shot to right off the Cleveland Indians’ Jose Mesa, is his second homer of the game and sixth of the season. At 28 years, 143 days old, Griffey is second only to Jimmie Foxx, who hit his 300th at 27 years, 328 days. Foxx hit 534 homers during his Hall of Fame career.
Prior to tonight’s game against the Angels, a 500-pound concrete and steel beam falls into the empty loge boxes between third base and left field at Yankee Stadium. The next two games scheduled to played at the Bronx ballpark will be postponed with the team scheduling one of the games to be played across the river at Shea Stadium.
1998 – The New York Yankees draw the largest regular-season crowd ever at the renovated Yankee Stadium, as 56,717 attend the home opener against the Oakland Athletics. Then the Yankees crush the club scoring mark by winning the 17 – 13 slugfest.
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