July 4 has been the stage for several memorable events in baseball history, but it’s also hosted some less-than-great moments.
Here are three of the worst performances in MLB history to take place on America’s birthday.
Bubba Harris has a July 4 to forget – 1948
Independence Day, 1948, was a day to forget for Harris, a reliever for the Philadelphia Athletics. In a one-side 19-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox, the right-hander had one of the worst 0.2 innings in baseball history.
Harris faced only 14 batters, but he walked five of them while allowing 12 earned runs off six hits. Oddly enough, Hall of Famer Ted Williams was the only player in the Red Sox lineup to finish without a hit (0-for-3, three walks), while Johnny Pesky led the way with five RBI in the rout.
Since Harris’ unfortunate outing 76 years ago, only two relievers have allowed 12 or more runs in a game, Jordan Yamamoto (2020) and Vin Mazzaro (2011).
D.C.’s team gets victimized by the Bronx Bombers on Independence Day – 1927
Nearly a century ago, the Washington Nationals didn’t represent the nation’s capital well on July 4. On that day in 1927, the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees swept Tris Speaker and company in a double-header, outscoring 33-1.
New York opened the afternoon with an overwhelming 12-1 victory in Game 1, but the misery was only beginning. In Game 2, led by prime Babe Ruth and that year’s league MVP, Lou Gehrig, the Yankees defeated Washington 21-1.
Ruth went an impressive 3-for-3 with an RBI and two walks, but Gehrig and shortstop Tony Lazzeri stole the show, finishing a combined 6-for-9 with five RBI apiece in the win. Every starter in the Yankees’ lineup knocked in at least one run except starting pitcher Wilcy Moore, who went the distance on the mound, allowing one earned run over nine innings.
At the time, it was only the 10th time in baseball history that a team had lost a game by 20 or more runs.
Cesar Geronimo finds himself on the wrong side of unique baseball history for a second time – 1980
On his way to a record 5,714 career strikeouts, Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan became only the fourth pitcher to reach 3,000 K’s on July 4, 1980, in the Houston Astros’ 8-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. However, the man he fanned to accomplish the remarkable feat, Geronimo, joined the history books for an entirely different reason.
It’s never easy to be on the wrong side of someone else’s historic achievement, but for Geronimo, this wasn’t his first rodeo. Nearly six years to the day, on July 17, 1974, he struck out against Bob Gibson, helping another future Hall of Famer become, at the time, only the second member of the 3,000 strikeout club alongside Walter Johnson.
Since Max Scherzer joined the elite list in 2021, it now has 19 members. But Geronimo remains the only player to fall victim to a pitcher’s 3,000th strikeout twice.