Highest scoring games in MLB history
By Curt Bishop
Whenever fans go to MLB games, they always look forward to the possibility of seeing an offensive explosion from both sides.
But what are some of the highest scoring games in league history? What specific games have been complete barnburners that are fun for everybody to see?
Of course, these types of games are incredibly rare. They're so rare in fact that people tend to call them "football scores." It's more common for less than 10 runs to be scored by both teams. But let's dive into some historic barnburners.
The biggest barnburners in MLB history
Winning team | Losing team | Winning score | Losing score | Total score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cubs | Phillies | 26 | 23 | 49 |
Red Sox | Indians | 23 | 15 | 38 |
Tigers | White Sox | 21 | 14 | 35 |
Rangers | Orioles | 30 | 3 | 33 |
Red Sox | Indians | 29 | 4 | 33 |
Indians | Yankees | 17 | 16 | 33 |
Cubs | Mets | 23 | 10 | 33 |
Yankees | Orioles | 16 | 10 | 26 |
Cubs | Reds | 26 | 0 | 26 |
STL Browns | Tigers | 20 | 4 | 24 |
The highest scoring game in baseball history took place on August 25, 1922. The Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs squared off in a game that saw 49 total runs scored. Chicago held on for a 26-23 win.
The game even featured a total of 51 hits, 17 walks, and 11 errors.
In 1950, the Boston Red Sox met up with the Cleveland Indians in a game that was a rout of epic proportions. Boston scored 14 runs in the first inning alone. Every player in Boston's lineup picked up at least one hit and the team demolished the Indians by a final score of 29-4.
The Cubs took part in another high-scoring game on August 10, 1883, against the Cincinnati Reds.
This one was pretty one sided, as the Cubs scored all 26 runs. This game is still the largest shutout victory in baseball history.
Another slugfest took place on July 2, 1920, between the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox.
Detroit scored 10 runs early, but Chicago bounced back to put up 14 of their own. The dust settled after a 21-14 Tigers victory.
The most recent such game took place in 2007 when the Texas Rangers busted out for 30 runs at Camden Yards against the Baltimore Orioles. Interestingly enough, the Orioles were the ones that struck first, jumping out to a 3-0 lead.
But the thrashing began in the fourth inning when Texas got their bats going. They scored five runs in the fourth and never looked back, tallying 30 unanswered runs by the end of the game.
As you can see, baseball has witnessed to some wild games that featured a ton of runs scored. These are only a few of those games, and it could always happen again when we least expect it.