This date in baseball
June 17
1915 George "Zip" Zabel of the Chicago Cubs was called into the game against the Brooklyn Dodgers with two outs in the first inning. He won 4-3 in the 19th inning in the longest relief effort in the majors.
1943 Player-manager Joe Cronin of the Boston Red Sox hit a three-run pinch-hit home run in both games of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia A's. The Red Sox won the opener 5-4 and lost the second game 8-7.
1960 Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox connected for his 500th career home run off the Cleveland Indians. Williams, the fourth to accomplish the feat, hit a two-run home run off Wynn Hawkins in a 3-1 victory.
1971 Don Kessinger (Forrest City) of the Chicago Cubs went 6 for 6, with five singles and a double, in a 7-6, 10-inning victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
1978 Ron Guidry of the New York Yankees struck out 18 California Angels to set an American League record for left-handers. Guidry, who struck out 15 in the first six innings, ended with a 4-0 four-hitter.
1993 Baseball owners voted 26-2 in favor of expanding the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, doubling the teams that qualify to eight starting in 1994.
2007 Brandon Watson extended his hitting streak to 43 games, breaking a 95-year-old International League record with a base hit in the Columbus Clippers' 9-8 loss to the Ottawa Lynx. Jack Lelivelt set the IL record for the Rochester Hustlers in 1912.
2007 Frank Thomas hit his record-breaking 244th home run as a designated hitter in Toronto's 4-2 loss to Washington. The solo shot in the third inning moved Thomas past Edgar Martinez for the most home runs by a DH in major league history.
2008 Seattle's Felix Hernandez struck out the side on nine pitches in the fourth inning of a 5-4 victory over Florida, becoming the 13th pitcher in American League history to accomplish the feat.