Esoteric Boxscore of the Day

August 25, 2005

Blowing Your...Lead

August 20, 1972
Detroit 11, California 9

Today's Boxscore
CAL   0  0  0    9  0  0    0  0  0
DET 2 0 0 0 0 8 1 0 x
I was inspired for this one by the Blue Jays yesterday, who scored 9 in the fifth in a 9-5 victory. It was the 23rd time since 1969 that a team has scored 9 or more runs in a game, all in one inning. For today's boxscore, we harken back to 1972, when, inexplicabley, there four of these games. But this one was special. It's the only one of the 23 where the team managed to lose!

It was a day of hope for the Angels. Looking to avenge a 10-1 clobbering by the first-place Tigers the previous day, California had their best pitcher not named Nolan Ryan set to pitch against spot-starter Bill Slayback...yes, they were looking for payback against Slayback! And they thought they had it after a nine-hit, nine-run fourth inning. Being the lowest scoring team in the majors at 2.9 runs/game, and not having scored more than four runs in an entire game for over two weeks, this must have been pretty exciting.

Apparently, it was too much for Angel pitcher Clyde Wright. Heading into the sixth, he'd allowed only three hits and was enjoying a rare seven-run lead...and then utterly fell apart, allowing five consecutive hits to start the inning. He was removed, but to no avail. When the dust settled, the Tigers had put up an eight-spot and took the lead 10-9. Still exhausted from their outburst, I suppose, they put up little fight the rest of the way, losing 11-9. For such a low-scoring team, it must have been extra devistating that this was their third loss when scoring at least eight runs, also losing 10-9 and 9-8 earlier in the season. Sigh.

Here are the other teams who have outburst games.

Runs Team Date Inning Score
13 ATL 9/20/1972 2 13-6
13 PHI 4/13/2003 4 13-1
11 PHI 7/15/1972 7 11-4
11 SDN 8/2/1995 8 11-3
11 SLN 9/6/2002 3 11-2
10 BAL 7/8/1969 4 10-3
10 OAK 5/9/1972 4 10-2
10 HOU 6/11/1974 7 10-1
10 ATL 7/27/1989 6 10-1
10 MIN 6/28/1992 4 10-2
10 CLE 8/27/1997 4 10-4
10 SFN 9/23/2003 2 10-3
9 WSH 6/22/1969* 4 9-5
9 OAK 5/7/1975 7 9-1
9 TEX 5/23/1976* 2 9-0
9 NYA 6/5/1988 1 9-2
9 TEX 9/14/1988 5 9-1
9 CAL 5/8/1989 4 9-2
9 PIT 8/8/1995 2 9-5
9 KCA 4/6/2000 6 9-3
9 BOS 4/18/2001 8 9-1
*rain-shortened game

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