It's the 10-year anniversary of the Rangers' record-setting 30-3 victory over the Orioles
Ten years ago today, the Rangers couldn't stop scoring runs. Their 30-3 victory over the Orioles set the record for most runs scored in the modern game and was the most since the Chicago Colts defeated the Louisville Colonels, 36-7, on June 29, 1897. As you may have noticed, those two teams don't exist anymore.
Here is the leaderboard for the games played post-1900:
Perhaps even stranger than the once-in-a-century score, is just how it came to be. For this wasn't a game where the team exploded for a dozen runs in the first inning thanks to a wild starter and a called-upon-too-early bullpen.
Instead, the Orioles held a 3-0 lead into the fourth inning … and then the dam broke. Look at the insane win probability chart:
It began with a sputter.
Two runs scored and more were on the way.
The Rangers would go on to score five runs that inning. A big inning? Yes, but it would be dwarfed by what was to come.
After Orioles starter
Or, put more simply:
"We were just out there shaking our heads," Byrd told MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan after the game. "No one has seen that before and you won't see it again. The whole offense was clicking. Things were just going our way. Everybody was just trying to get hits regardless. It's a pride thing. You're trying to get hits and score runs but you don't expect that."
In the end, the Rangers bashed out 29 hits and six home runs, while hitting an absurd 18-of-25 with runners in scoring position.
There's another stat in the box score that you probably didn't expect: A save. Enter Rangers sidearmer Wes Littleton. Littleton entered in the seventh inning and pitched three scoreless innings to get the "save."
"I thought I was going to get cold, sitting there for 40, 45 minutes between innings," Littleton said. "I tried to keep warm in the dugout."
Littleton's save also broke the record for the largest run difference that resulted in a save. Oddly enough, that one also came between the Orioles and Rangers, when Ed Vosberg closed out Texas' 26-7 win on April 19, 1996.
Unfortunately, the Rangers couldn't celebrate too much: They had a second game to play. This one had a more ordinary result, as the Rangers won again -- this time, 9-7.