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July 24, 2022

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A Real Wacky Game!

Blue Jays Beat the Red Sox 28-5!

Oh…You can’t beat fun at the old ball park! -Harry Caray

Harry would’ve loved this one!

Did any of you guys notice the crazy game between the Blue jays and the Red Sox last Friday? The Blue Jays defeated the Red Sox 28-5. It was the first game back for both teams following the All-Star break. It was only the sixth time since 1900 that a team has scored 28 or more runs.

(The highest combined score in a single game is 49 runs set on August 25, 1922, when the Cubs defeated the  Phillies 26–23. In the featured photo above, we see players from the 1922 Cubs. Holding the clipboard is Pete Alexander, and on the right is manager Bill Killefer).

A Real Wacky Game!

In reading about the game between the Blue Jays and the Red Sox, I discovered that all kinds of weird things happened that night. For instance, it was the first time the Blue jays had scored 28 runs in their history. Their previous record was 24. That record was blown away by the fifth inning. They also set a team record with 29 hits. It was a historic game for the Red Sox too, and one they would just as soon forget about. It was the first time in their long history that they had given up that many runs in one game.

Two Blue Jays players had six RBIs. Lourdes Gurriel went 6-for-7, only the second player in their history to have a 6-hit game. The Blue Jays scored 11 runs in the fifth inning, but get this: All the damage came after the first two batters were out! After that, they sent 15 batters to the plate!

Probably the  craziest thing of all was Raimel Tapia’s inside-the-park Grand Slam (Yes…you read that right!) It happened after a misplay by Boston center fielder Jarren Duran, who failed to chase down the ball after he misjudged it and basically conceded the four-run Slam. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that before!

Of course, a wacky game like this set off my baseball historian antenna and alarm bells. I’d be remiss in my duties if they didn’t! So I thought it might be fun to do a little research regarding major league runs-scored records. This is something we don’t normally think about. Here’s a few of the more interesting records I found:

Individual Records

• Rickey Henderson holds the record for most career runs scored with 2295.
• The modern record for most runs scored in a season is 177 by Babe Ruth in 1921. The Babe also holds the record for most seasons leading the major leagues in runs scored with eight.
• The record for most consecutive games with at least one run scored is 18, shared by the Yankees’ Red Rolfe and the Cleveland Indians’ Kenny Lofton.
• Of the six modern-day players to score 6 runs in a game, the first to perform the feat was Mel Ott of the New York Giants on August 4, 1934 (he repeated the accomplishment ten years later, making him the only player ever to do it twice); the most recent was Shawn Green, then of the Los Angeles Dodgers, on May 23, 2002.

Team Records

• The modern record for most runs scored by a major-league team is 1,067, achieved by the New York Yankees in 1931.
• The team record for most consecutive games with at least one run scored (i.e., most consecutive games not being shut out) is 308, set by the Yankees between August 3, 1931, and August 2, 1933.
• The team record for most runs in its overall history (up until 2013) is the Chicago Cubs with 94,138.
• The modern record for most runs scored by a team in a single inning is 17, achieved by the Boston Red Sox against the Detroit Tigers on June 18, 1953.
• The modern-day record of 30 runs in a game was set on August 22, 2007, by the Texas Rangers against the Baltimore Orioles.
• As mentioned above, the highest combined score in a single game is 49 runs set on August 25, 1922, when the Cubs defeated the  Phillies 26–23. In doing a little research into this historic game, I found that the Cubs had 25 hits and Phillies 26, combining for 51 hits, smashing the previous record. The pitchers faced a combined 125 batters and allowed 21 walks. It was not a good day for the defense, as the Phillies committed four errors and the Cubs committed five, so 21 of the 49 runs were unearned!  All this activity took place in a game that lasted just 3 hours and 1 minute! Can you imagine how long a game like this would take today?

Gary Livacari

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