Today in White Sox History: August 27
Dave Gallagher smashes seven straight singles
1910
Comiskey Park hosted the first night game ever played in an MLB ballpark, as Chicago amateur clubs the Logan Squares and Rogers Parkers played before 20,000 fans (or 3,500, depending on accounts). Twenty arc lights were strung up along the perimeter of the field to accomplish the feat, delivering 137,000 candlepower of light. The system was the brainchild of inventor George F. Cahill.
The first official night game in MLB history took place in 1935, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
1911
Ed Walsh fired a 5-0 no-hitter against the Red Sox at Comiskey Park. It was the first time a White Sox pitcher threw a no-hitter in that ballpark. Walsh only allowed one base-runner, with a walk to Clyde Engle in the fourth inning. He struck out eight in winning his 24th game of the year.
It also would be the only nine-inning no-hitter of the legendary hurler’s career.
1983
Already having streaked to a 70-57 record and in first place by 6 1⁄2 games in the AL West, the White Sox floored the accelerator for the rest of the season, beginning with a 2-1 win vs. Boston that kicked off a seven-game winning streak.
The White Sox won 15 of 17, 19 of 22, 25 of 29 and finished the season overall 29-6 in adding an additional 13 1⁄2 games to their division lead in a month’s time. Rarely in history had baseball seen the rest of a division or league so utterly demoralized by one team’s runaway dominance.
One 31-game stretch of this finishing kick, with the White Sox going 26-5, was actually equaled by the 2010 White Sox.
1988
As the leadoff hitter in what would end as a 4-1 White Sox win, outfielder Dave Gallagher went 4-for-4, with four singles. The three singles that ended his game the previous night made for seven straight hits, all one-baggers, for the rookie.
Gallagher would finish fifth in AL Rookie of the Year balloting and put up what would stand as a career-best 2.5 WAR, slashing .303/.354/.406 with a 113 OPS+.
2007
In the midst of a dismal season, the Sox cranked out four home runs in the seventh inning of a game at U.S. Cellular Field and beat the Devil Rays, 5-4. The home runs were hit by A.J. Pierzynski, Jermaine Dye, Juan Uribe and Josh Fields. Pierzynski, Dye and Uribe went back-to-back-to-back.
2021
It was one of the wildest games the White Sox ever played, especially in their series against the Cubs, as they came from six runs down to win, 17-13, at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Sox trailed 6-0 after a half-inning as starter Dallas Keuchel got lit up by the North Siders, but then the Sox scored nine unanswered runs to grab a lead that they never lost.
Catcher Yasmani Grandal, fresh from nearly two months on the injured list after a torn knee tendon, drove in a franchise-tying eight runs with a pair of three-run home runs and a two-run double. He went 4-for-6, with two runs scored.
Also of note in the game was the relief work by pitcher Reynaldo López. He came on replacing Keuchel in the second inning and retired 15 straight Cubs, striking out seven. He became the first Sox relief pitcher to retire 15 batters in a row since Ed Cicotte in 1917!