Major League Baseball suspends Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Cueto, who kicked at players with his spikes when he was pushed against the backstop during a recent brawl with the Cardinals, for seven games for his “violent and aggressive actions”. Managers Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker are suspended two games, with fines being handed out to the Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and pitcher Russ Springer, and Redbird backstop Yadier Molina and right-hander Chris Carpenter.

In his first game for the Philadelphia Phillies, Pedro Martinez gives up 3 runs in 5 innings on his way to a 12 – 5 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez both hit three-run homers in the 4th in support of Martinez’s pitching. Phillies OF Shane Victorino is hit with a cup of beer thrown from the bleachers while making a catch in the 5th inning. He files a police complaint the next day, and the guilty fan is identified and charged with battery and illegal conduct in a sports facility. Cubs management also apologizes to Victorino for the incident.

2008 – Scott Feldman has a day he would like to forget, becoming the first pitcher in 90 years and 9 days to allow 12 runs without losing as the Rangers eventually do fall, 19 – 17, to the Red Sox. Gene Packard was the last hurler to be so, um, lucky. David Ortiz hits two three-run homers in the 1st inning and scores four times on the day while Kevin Youkilis drives in 5 on two home runs.

After the Red Sox tally ten times in the first inning, powered with a pair of three-run homers by David Ortiz, the Rangers rally back and take a 15-14 lead with eight runs in the fifth and five in the sixth. Kevin Youkilis’s eighth-inning three-run homer over Fenway Park’s Green Monster gives Boston an eventual 19-17 victory, with the slugfest’s 36 runs tying an American League record.

On the day he would have celebrated his 69th birthday, Skip Caray’s public tribute is attended by over a thousand fans at Turner Field. Known for his witty and sometimes sarcastic style, the Braves’ longtime nationally acclaimed broadcaster, who started broadcasting games for Atlanta in 1976, died on August 3.

2007 – Magglio Ordóñez homers twice in the 2nd inning as the Tigers score eight against Dallas Braden. He becomes the second player in Detroit Tigers history to hit two home runs in an inning; Al Kaline was the other.

Retiring 41 consecutive batters, Bobby Jenks breaks David Wells’s American League record (38) and ties the major league mark established by Jim Barr of the Giants, who retired 41 straight batters in 1972. The White Sox closer reached the record book by pitching a perfect ninth inning against the Mariners.

The Astros honor Craig Biggio with a pregame ceremony for reaching 3,000 hits and his 20-year tenure with the team. The scrappy second baseman, who announced last month he will retire at the end of the season, adds to the special day by homering in the fifth inning of Houston’s 6-4 victory over the Brewers.

With their pitching staff shot after a 14-inning marathon yesterday, the Reds summon 35-year-old Chris Michalak from Louisville and he stops the Phils on one run and three hits in 6 2/3 innings in a 9 – 7 Reds win. It is Michalak’s first big league win since September 2, 2001.