July 3
1913 – Boston racks 15 hits off Walter Johnson, but the Big Train does not yield a single run. The Sens take the tilt in 15 innings, 1-0 in Beantown. The 15 Red Sox safeties ties a ML record for most hits in an extra inning shutout loss.
1914 – Washington’s Rip Williams falls a single short of a cycle, as Johnson easily shutouts the Red Sox, 12-0, in game one at Griffith. In the finale, Boston comes back behind the pitching and hitting of Joe Wood for a 3-1, 10 inning win. Wood singles and scores a run in the 2-run Sox 10th.
1916 – The Big Train tosses 11 innings, but falls to New York, 1-0, in the nation’s capital. P Ray Caldwell of the Yanks out-duels Johnson for the victory.
1923 – In another pitching duel, New York’s “Bullet” Joe Bush and Washington’s George Mogridge battle for 15 innings. In the bottom of the 15th, Babe Ruth ends the 1-1 tie with a game winning home run for the 2-1 Yankee win.
1925 – On the eve of Independence Day, the Nats offense provides plenty of fireworks in an 11-0 whipping of the Red Sox in Fenway. Nats P Stan Coveleski keeps SS Roger Peckinpaugh and 2B Bucky Harris on their toes, as the two infielders handle a combined 22 fielding chances.
1927 – The red hot Senators and Yankees face off in front of a capacity crowd in Griffith. Ruth’s 1st inning home run to center will be the longest home run ever hit in Griffith until 1953, when Mickey Mantle blasts one longer. While the partisan crowd gives the “Sultan of Swat” an ovation, the Bambino’s blast does not deter the Sens from winning their 10th straight, 6-5.
1954 – Mantle runs his hitting streak to 12 games, as the Sens are nipped at Yankee Stadium, 3-2. Mantle’s opposite field homer off Bob Porterfield is all of New York’s offense.
1958 – Russ Kemmerer is victimized by 2 Mantle home runs in an 11-3 Yanks thrashing of the Sens in Griffith. Mantle’s first homer is another that adds to the Mantle legacy, as the ball is still rising when it clears the 31 foot high wall in right-centerfield.
1971 – The Senators defeat the Tribe, 4-3, in Cleveland. 2B Bernie Allen, RF Larry Biittner and starting pitcher Jackie Brown each drive in a run apiece for Washington. The Senators bullpen tandem of Horatio Pina and Joe Grzenda do spectacular work of limiting Cleveland to 3 hits in the last 3.1 innings to nail down the victory.
Senators Birthdays
Joseph Casey Cox B Jul. 3, 1941 Still Living
Casey Cox joined the Senators on April 15th of 1966, coincidentally appearing in 66 games that season. Pitching for some usually bad teams, his best season in Washington would come during that memorable 1969 season (the only year the expansion Senators finished above .500) when he went 12-7 with a 2.78 ERA. Cox was a workhorse of the Senators pitching staff, appearing in at least 37 games per season, except for 1968, from 1966 through 1971.
Moving to Texas with the franchise in 1972, Cox would appear in 35 games for the newly minted Texas Rangers and finish the season with the New York Yankees. One last appearance on April 6, 1973 with the Yankees would end Cox’s career.
Edward Jack Roebuck B Jul. 3, 1931 D Jun. 14, 2018
Another guy who knew how to pick his spots was Ed Roebuck, who made his major league debut with the eventual World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955. Roebuck posted a 5-6 record in 1955. He’d remain with the Dodgers in Brooklyn through 1957 and then be uprooted with the rest of the franchise to the west coast.
Roebuck would remain with the Dodgers through July of 1963 when he was traded to the Senators for Marv Breeding. Appearing in 26 games for the Senators in 1963, Roebuck posted a 2-1 record with a 3.30 ERA.
Roebuck would appear in 2 games for the Senators in 1964 and then was sold to the Philadelphia Phillies in April of that year. He’d finish his career in Philly, after 6 games in 1966.
