Advertisement

History made: Four first-place teams play on same night in Chicago

Kyle Ringo

The Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals combined to make history Thursday night in Chicago when they played a pair of baseball games in the Windy City.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]

According to STATS, it was the first time in history four first-place teams played in the same city on the same day, which is a quite a coup for baseball fans in Chicago.

The Cubs and Nationals met in Wrigley Field in the opener of a four-game series between the teams with the best records in baseball. The Cubs went into Thursday’s action with the best record at 20-6 and Washington was right behind at 19-8. Meanwhile, the White Sox held the best record in the American League and were leading the AL Central by four games at the start of play. The Red Sox were a half-game ahead of Baltimore in the AL East.

(AP)
(AP)

At the end of the night, all four teams remained in first place, as the Red Sox managed a 7-3 win over the White Sox on the strength of homers by Dustin Pedroia, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Hanley Ramirez. The Orioles also won too, so the Red Sox clung to that half-game lead.

The Cubs gave Chicago a win, downing the Nats by the score of 5-2, behind a strong outing from starter Kyle Hendricks (two hits and no runs in six innings) and a four-RBI night from Ben Zobrist.

[Elsewhere: Chicago Cubs welcome mariachi band to clubhouse on Cinco de Mayo]

The Cubs improved to an MLB-best 21-6, while the White Sox’s 19-10 mark remained the best in the AL.

There will be no four-first-place-teams sequel Friday. The Red Sox-White Sox game was the finale of their series. Hope you enjoyed the historic night while you could, Chicago.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

The StewPod: A baseball podcast by Yahoo Sports
Subscribe via iTunes or via RSS feed

- - - - - - -

Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo