2013 – At the quarterly owners meeting held in Cooperstown, NY, Commissioner Bud Selig announces a plan to expand video review, which is now limited to home runs, significantly. Under the proposal, a manager will have the right to request up to three reviews per game – one in the first six innings and two in the last three – and will not otherwise be allowed to argue such “reviewable” calls. A number of decisions will remain non-reviewable, however. The plan still needs to be fleshed out, in particular by defining which calls are reviewable and which are not, before being submitted for formal approval at the next winter meetings. The Player’s Union and Umpires Association will also need to agree to the changes.

A proposal that would dramatically increase the number of plays that can be reviewed during a game is presented at the quarterly Owners Meetings by a committee consisting of Braves president John Schuerholz and former major league skippers Joe Torre and Tony La Russa. The rule change, which will be formally voted on by the owners in November, will allow a manager to inform an umpire that he wants to initiate a play review, with challenges being permitted once in the first six innings and twice more from the seventh through the end of the game, without any provision to cover the possibility of an obviously missed call late in the game when all of a team’s challenges have been used.

Alfonso Soriano goes 3-for-3 with a pair of homers and a career-high 7 RBIs in the Yankees’ 11 – 3 win over the Angels. Yesterday, Soriano had another two-homer game with 6 RBI. His 13 ribbies in two games are the second-most in Yankees history: Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri drove in 15 in two games in 1936.

An intentional walk is not always a great strategy, as an Eastern League game between the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and New Britain Rock Cats demonstrates. New Hampshire leads, 5 – 3, entering the bottom of the 7th and final inning of the second game of a doubleheader, but allows New Britain to tie the game with three doubles. With runners on second and third base and one out, the Fisher Cats elect to walk Reynaldo Rodriguezintentionally to set up a double play, but it goes horribly wrong as P Alan Farina’s fourth ball goes a foot over the catcher’s head and to the backstop, allowing Angel Morales to score the winning run from third base.

2013 – In Seattle’s 5 – 4 win over the Rays, the lead-off hitters for both teams flex their muscles. Brad Miller and Ben Zobrist both homer in their first at-bat, and again in the 5th inning. This has only happened once before in major league history, when Tony Phillips and Chuck Knoblauch, for the Tigers and Twins, both led off the game with a homer and added one later on in the game on June 5, 1994. Zobrist’s first long ball is the 100th of his career, while for Miller, it’s his first game in his home state of Florida.

For only the second time in big league history beginning in 1916, the earliest year the records are available, the leadoff batters for both teams homer in their first at-bat and then add another round-tripper in the same game when Seattle’s Brad Miller and Tampa Bay’s Ben Zobrist each hit a pair of homers in the Mariners’ 5-4 win at Tropicana Field. Chuck Knoblauch of the Twins and Detroit’s Tony Phillips last accomplished the feat in 1994 at Tiger Stadium.

For the second time this season, Yu Darvish of the Rangers flirts with a perfect game against the Astros. He retires the first 17 batters and he and C A.J. Pierzynski think they have struck out Jonathan Villar looking to end the 6th inning, but umpire Ron Kulpa calls the pitch a ball and Villar eventually draws a walk to break up the perfecto. An incensed Pierzynski tells the umpire what he thinks of his call and is ejected. Darvish allows his first and only hit, a solo homer by Carlos Corporan, with one out in the 8th. He strikes out a career-high 15 batters in 8 innings in the 2 – 1 win, with Joe Nathan pitching a hitless 9th for the save. Darvish’s bid for a perfect game in his first start of the season, on April 2nd, was foiled by Astro Marwin Gonzalez’s two-out single in the 9th. The Rangers have now won 13 of their last 14 games.

After losing a shutout bid with one out in the 9th inning in his first career start on August 6th, the Twins’ Andrew Albers reaches the mark in his second start, tossing a two-hitter against the Indians for a 3 – 0 win. The Twins’ runs come courtesy of a solo homer by Brian Dozier and a two-run shot by Trevor Plouffe both against Danny Salazar.

Charlie Manuel, the winningest pilot in 130 years of Phillies baseball, became the 58th manager in baseball history to win 1,000 games. During his 12-year managerial career, the 69 year-old skipper, who will be replaced by Ryne Sandberg in six days, has compiled 780 wins with Philadelphia and had another 220 with the Indians to reach the plateau.