Texas 30, Baltimore 3
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 22, 2007
Some game for the O's today, huh? According to the AP Report:
The Texas Rangers became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting an American League record Wednesday in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles.
Trailing 3-0 in the opener of a doubleheader, the Rangers scored five runs in the fourth, nine in the sixth, 10 in the eighth and six in the ninth.
It was the ninth time a major league team scored 30 runs, the first since Chicago set the major league record in a 36-7 rout of Louisville in a National League game on June 28, 1897, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
What I found interesting is that Baltimore used just 4 pitchers to allow those 30 earned runs in this contest. This made me wonder: How many times, since 1957, has a team allowed 21+ ER in a game and used 4 pitchers or less in the contest? Thanks to BB-Ref.com Play Index, we have the answer:
Cnt Date Tm Opp GmReslt IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk Ptchrs ERA +----+-------------+---+----+-------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+------+------+ 1 2004-08-31 NYY CLE L 0-22 9 22 22 22 9 6 3 218 122 3 2 59 49 5 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 4 22.00 2 1996-04-28 COL MON L 9-21 9 20 21 21 8 8 3 214 120 3 1 56 46 6 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 21.00 3 1987-06-03 HOU CHC L 7-22 8 21 22 22 9 6 6 0 0 54 44 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 4 24.75 4 1962-08-19 KCA NYY L 7-21 9 20 21 21 5 2 4 0 0 53 46 4 2 0 1 1 0 0 3 0 1 4 21.00 5 1960-06-26(2) BOS CHW L 7-21 8 22 21 21 5 8 3 6 6 53 46 3 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 4 23.62
Prior to today, it's just five times since 1957. Note: the only two times that it's happened in the N.L., it was at Wrigley and Coors. No shock there.
Still, four pitchers to allow 30 runs. Leo Mazzone must have rocked himself silly today.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:17 pm
I'm finding it difficult to accept that game even though I just read about it. 30 runs in one game...geez. That makes a huge dent on the team ERA. An average AL team in 2006 gave up 788 runs or so for the year, in about 1437 innings. Giving up an extra 30 is 0.18 runs added to the team ERA for the entire season...that's unfathomable to me.
Another weird thing is how the Rangers scored in only 4 innings. I wonder what the previous record was for most runs when scoring in only 4 innings. (Sean?)
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:18 pm
By the way, this sure was a nice reward for Dave Trombley being named manager for 2008. Maybe he'll reconsider?
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Here are some other interesting tidbits from the boxscore:
*14 RBIs came from the 8th and 9th batting spots. Could that be a record? There were 4 HRs in the 8th and 9th batting spots. Is that a record?
*In the Texas starting line-up, only one player had more that 50 RBIs this season, Michael Young. He didn't have any RBIs in the game; while Saltalamacchia, who had 5 RBIs going into the game, amassed 7 RBIs in the game; David Murphy had 1 RBI going into the game and had 2 in the game.
*Talk about a meager line-up, of the 10 Rangers who played, Michael Young was the only one who ever notched 100 RBIs in a season. In fact, Michael Young was the only one of the ten who ever notched 60 RBIs in a season. Frank Catalanotto had 59 in a season twice. SIX or SEVEN of the 10 players are basically platoon guys.
*The Rangers had 29 hits for those 30 runs.
*Jason Botts went 3 for 7 with 4 Ks.
*Texas is in LAST PLACE and has the 2nd worst record in the AL.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:09 am
For teams that've scored 30 runs before, the fewest innings in which they scored was 6:
7/3/1883, CHI NL: 8-0-3-6-0-1-0-9-4 (31)
6/18/1893, CIN NL: 14-0-1-4-0-3-6-2-x (30)
The most innings scored was nine:
6/29/1897, CHI NL: 3-5-7-1-2-1-2-7-8 (36)
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:47 am
I see that in the 2004 Yankee 22-run game, Clevelanders threw 218 pitches. And in the 1996 Colorado 21-run game, Expos threw 214 pitches. Apparently there isn't data for the earlier games you list, and I can understand that keeping track of every pitch is a statistical pain. In last night's 30-3 game, however, Baltimore pitchers seem to have thrown 252 pitches. In a 9-inning game for which pitch counts have been kept, is that a record? I wonder what the record is for pitches thrown by one staff in an extra-inning game. . . . At least in an extra-inning game there would be some purpose to all the work, because there's some chance that your team might actually win.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:55 am
In this game, Jason Botts became the first player in a 9 inning game to have at least 3 hits and 4 strikeouts (according the PI, so over the last 50 years)
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:56 am
I don't have the capability to look up, but I would venture to say no back-to-back players in the batting order have had 7 RBIs each......and coming from the 8 and 9 spot makes it more special.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:21 am
Wes Littleton earned a save for his efforts last night. Thats sweet.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:24 am
It would have been embarassing if he had blown the save.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 am
David,
The A's once threw 263 pitches in just 8 innings.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET199304130.shtml
The Royals once threw 345 in 18 innings.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA199106060.shtml
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
[...] things about that game: only four pitchers were used. For all thirty runs. (BR-ref.com had a similar observation, and some other interesting notes.) The weird thing about it was that it wasn’t one of those [...]