This Date In Red Sox History: Pennant Clinched, Kevin Jarvis, Hideo Nomo

Games of Note: It's 1918, and Babe Ruth is on the mound for the Red Sox. Boston wins, giving Ruth his ninth win in 11 starts, while also clinching the pennant for the Sox.

Jumping forward all the way to 1997, Andruw Jones hits a grand slam in Fenway Park, giving the Braves the National League record for grand slams in a season with 10. Notice the oddity there, caused by interleague play -- Jones and the Braves passed the old NL mark while playing against an AL club, in an AL park.

Transactions: There's a huge list of minimal transactions in Boston's history on August 31:

• Conor Jackson came to Boston for Jason Rice in 2011.
• Manny Delcarmen was sent to the Rockies for prospect Chris Balcom-Miller in 2010.
• Kevin Jarvis, the living white flag of the 2006 campaign, was acquired from the Diamondbacks in 2006.
• David Wells was sent to the Padres in exchange for George Kottaras, who would have his best days outside of Boston, on the same day.
• Dante Bichette became a Red Sox, with Chris Reitsma heading to Cincinnati. Those were dark times in 2000.

Birthdays: Hideo Nomo turns 44 years old today. Nomo pitched for Boston in 2001, throwing a no-hitter in his very first start. Nomo struck out 11, walked three, and threw 110 pitches with a game score of 95. On the season, Nomo achieved a 100 ERA+, throwing 198 innings with a league-leading 220 strikeouts and 10 punch outs per nine innings.

Then there's Jeff Frye, who played in Boston for four years, and turns 46 today. Frye played for four different teams, but spent the most time with the Red Sox. Frye hit .295/.363/.392 while with Boston -- that looks pretty good these days, but back then, it was good for just an OPS+ of 92.