With his 16th bunt single of the season, Houston center fielder Willy Taveras extends his hitting streak to 26 games to set an Astros record. The previous mark was set by second baseman Jeff Kent in 2004.
In front of a full house at Yankee Stadium, Ron Guidry’s uniform 49 is retired on the lefty’s special day. ‘Louisiana Lightning’, who played his entire career in New York, posting a 170-90 record for the Bronx Bombers, is surprised the club hasn’t just honored him with a day but has retired his jersey and placed a plaque in Monument Park in his honor.
Cleveland’s rookie C Josh Bard hits a game-winning 2-run home run in the bottom of the 9th inning against Seattle in his first major league appearance. He has two hits and three RBIs as the Tribe wins, 4 – 2.
The Padres score nine runs in the 5th inning on their way to an 18 – 2 win over the Marlins. Bubba Trammell, who has two homers in the game, starts the scoring in the 5th with a homer. 7 players have RBIs in the 5th, and the last 11 hitters come up with the bases loaded. Jake Peavy is the easy winner.
Bobby Abreu hits a solo homer in the 14th to give the Phillies a 5 – 4 win over the Cards in 5 hours, 13 minutes. Scott Rolen is 4 for 5 in his first appearance against his old team.
The Orioles spot the Blue Jays six runs and then roar back with four homers to win, 11 – 7. The win puts Baltimore (63-63) at .500. From here on it will be all downhill.
In his major league debut, Jason Jennings gets off to an impressive start by going 3-for-5 at the plate while tossing a complete-game shutout in the Rockies’ 10-0 rout of New York at Shea Stadium. With his ninth-inning round-tripper off Donnie Wall, the 23 year-old right-handed rookie becomes the only hurler to blank his opponent and to go deep in his first big league game.
In a 6 – 2 loss to the Blue Jays, it is a busy night for Twins CF Torii Hunter. Hunter throws out consecutive runners Darrin Fletcher and Homer Bush, both trying to stretch singles. Later in the inning he bobbles a ball for an error. Roy Halladay is the winning pitcher.
Barry Bonds and Shawon Dunston of the San Francisco Giants become just the 12th pair of teammates to hit back-to-back homers as pinch hitters when they go deep in the top of the 9th. Bonds’ pinch homer is his first since 1989 and snaps a 5 – 5 tie. It is also his 549th home run, moving him ahead of Mike Schmidt into 8th place. The Giants win, 10 – 5.
The Pirates defeat the Diamondbacks, 5 – 1, despite a 16-strikeout performance in seven innings of work by Randy Johnson. In doing so, Johnson ties Nolan Ryan as the only ones in history to fan 300 in three straight seasons.