Braves Franchise History
1930: A little comedy is injected into an 11-inning, 9-8 Braves victory over the Phillies. The Braves’ Rabbit Maranville makes the third out of the 4th inning in a steal attempt at second base. He argues vigorously and at length. Fresco Thompson of the Phils finally tires of it, picks up the scrappy little guy and carries him to his position at SS.
1944: Braves 3B Damon Phillips has 11 assists versus the Giants, equaling an 1884 mark.
1954: A disappointed crowd of 45,922 at Milwaukee’s County Stadium sees the Dodgers take two from the Braves, 12-4 and 11-4. In the first game, the Dodgers break a tie with a record eight runs in the 11th. The Braves established a new National League attendance mark of 1,841,666 on their way to a season total of 2,131,388.
1961: At Milwaukee, the Braves take over third place from the Giants with a 13-inning, 7-6 victory. Eddie Mathews ends the game with his 26th homer. For San Francisco, Willie McCovey cracks his 16th homer for his third hit of the game, and the 20th hit in 45 at bats since his return to the Giants’ lineup. The Braves recognize a hot bat when they see one and, with first base open in the 11th, walk McCovey to get to Willie Mays. Mays earlier drove in his 100th run, but grounds out to end the inning.
1966: Getting the Cubs’ 4-2 win in relief, Robin Roberts becomes the first and only pitcher to beat the Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves. The future Hall of Famer gained his third career big league victory against the Boston Braves on Independence Day in 1948.
1992: After striking out his 1,000th career batter in Atlanta’s 7-6 win over Philadelphia, Braves P Charlie Leibrandt rolls the ball into the Atlanta dugout to keep as a souvenir. Unfortunately, he forgets to call time, and baserunner Ricky Jordan is allowed to advance on the error.
2010: For the first time in major league history, a walk-off home run is subject to a video review. After pinch-hitter Matt Diaz hits a two-run homer off the Marlins’ Leo Nunez in the 9th to tie the score and cap a comeback from a 6 – 1 deficit, the Braves’ Brian McCann hits a ball to deep right that bounces back onto the field. The umpires initially rule it a double, and McCann is standing at second base when the umpires step out to look at the replay; when it shows that the ball hit above the fence, he can trot home, where he is mugged by celebrating teammates.
MLB history
1977: The Cardinals’ Lou Brock steals two bases in a 4-3 loss to the Padres. It is career steal 893 for Brock, breaking Ty Cobb’s modern record.
Also 1977: At Fenway Park, Jim Rice clubs three homers – in the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th innings – but Boston loses to the Oakland A’s, 8-7. Rice adds a single in the 4th. He is the first Bosox player to hit the hat trick since Norm Zauchin on May 27, 1955.
1987: Nolan Ryan passes the 200-strikeout barrier for a major league-record 11th time, fanning seven Pirates in six innings of an 8 2 Astros loss.
1998: The Reds defeat the Marlins, 7-5, for Florida’s 89th loss of the season. Florida thereby sets a record for the most losses by a defending world champion. The old record of 88 was held by the 1991 Reds.
2004: At Toronto’s SkyDome, Blue Jays broadcaster Tom Cheek joins former players George Bell, Joe Carter, Tony Fernandez and Dave Stieb, former manager Cito Gaston and former general manager Pat Gillick as the seventh member of the club’s Level of Excellence. The recipient of the team’s highest award for individual achievement, which comes as an emotional surprise for the play-by-play announcer who called 4,306 consecutive regular season games, and another 41 during the postseason during the first 27 1/2 seasons of the franchise’s existence.
2021: In defeating the Orioles, 12-8 behind six RBIs by Joey Wendle, the Rays complete their season series against the Birds with an 18-1 record, tying the best-ever mark set by two teams in 2019, the Indians who defeated the Tigers in 18 of 19 head-to-head contests, and the Astros who did the same against Seattle.
Information for this article was found via Baseball Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History.
