If there’s one thing baseball fans salivate at when kicking back with a beer, some nuts, and a hot dog, it’s seeing some runs scored, some offense, and most of all home runs. And yes, we also like to see close games, in which both fanbases remain sucked into the game and emotionally invested, but then there are some games which are absolutely rare. Some of these are no-hitters, perfect games, and pitching duels with two aces dominating the opposing lineup. However, there’s a reason home run derbies exist every year – it’s because people love slugfests. In these cases though, it’s going to be the times where one side clobbered the other in historic proportions.
You would expect the most lopsided games to have happened way back during the infancy of the MLB, since that’s when not as many people trained for years to become true pros in the game. There were indeed a lot of huge spankings in the 1880s and 1890s, but subsequently these rare games have quite well spread out throughout history, even as the composition of the ball was changed back and forth, at times favoring batters, at times pitchers, now another focal point of sports betting online.
Without further ado, we move onto the 5 biggest pro baseball embarrassments ever.
The All-Time Biggest Blowout: Chicago White Stockings vs Cleveland Blues, 35-4 (1882)
When it comes to sheer scoring, no game in Major League Baseball history matches what happened on July 24, 1882. On that day, the Chicago White Stockings (the franchise that would later become the Chicago Cubs) annihilated the Cleveland Blues by a staggering 35–4. It remains the most runs ever scored by one team in a single MLB game, more than 140 years later.
Mind you, this game was eons away, back during an era when batters weren’t even hitting overhand pitches. Until 1884, pitches had to be thrown underhand, and batters even had the ability to dictate whether the pitch would be thrown low or high. In this game, a lot of the scoring that actually happened was on account of errors – 10 total. At the time, the Blues had a lot of problems going on, so this was more of a pinnacle than a fluke. In fact, not all of their problems were defensive – they didn’t score any of those runs till the very end.
The game was indeed a unique game for the time, even though pitching and fielding were clearly all over the place then and smaller whoopings happened in the next couple decades. Chicago’s future Hall-of-Famers Cap Anson and King Kelly, the latter doubling as the team’s manager, scored in nearly every single inning. This team would eventually become known as the Chicago Cubs.
Rangers vs Orioles, 29-4
The 1990s and 2000s saw a revival of huge humiliations, which teams exchanged with each other following that time. One possible reason was the steroids epidemic, which tons of big sluggers were later caught using and penalized for. But this particular 30-3 game was fascinating, since in most big blowouts have the stars putting on a clinic. Instead, the stars of this game were ironically the offensive starters slated to perform the worst – catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and 3rd baseman Ramon Vasquez. In baseball, the players expected to knock in the most runs bat first in the lineup. These two batted second-last and last, yet they accounted for just under half of those runs, 7 a piece.
This game also started off with the Orioles leading 3 to nothing. Until the Rangers went off in the 4th ending. Many fans joked that they needed to make a comeback, so they did that one to a tee. In that inning, the Orioles decided to take their pitcher Cabrera out of the game. Perhaps that was a mistake, since the bullpen opened the turnstiles to hell. This was the highest run total racked up by a single team since 1900. Only back in sloppy 19th century baseball was there such an offensive trampling.
Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Browns, 25-1
Though not one of the top mismatches of all time, this match is unique for a couple other reasons. Before the aforementioned game where the Rangers hit 30, the highest total for runs in the modern era was this offensive beating. Like the previous one, the Browns got on board first in the top half of the first inning, but then Boston took five of their own and never looked back.
The only inning they didn’t score in was the 8th. Their first baseman whacked three home runs and accounted for a quarter of their runs with 7 batted in while second baseman Bobby Doerr added 6 more. Every starter had multiple hits, combining for 28 total, in a humiliation courtesy of the whole team. It took the opposite side 7 pitchers to make it through the anguish alive. Like the Blues, the Browns also were a limping team to begin with, and this must’ve been a massive hit to their confidence.
Another significant thing about this game was it was the next huge blowout following WW2, which is when a lot of MLB players departed to fight in the war. A lot of good talent was gone. It gave a lot of players time to practice and become a force. Meanwhile, a lot of the other rivals weren’t around to compete. Still, it was a distraction that a lot of fans sorely craved.
Angels vs. Rockies, 25-1
This game was a practically flawless domination on both sides of the ball. In the 3rd inning, the game turned from an Anaheim Angels advantage to piling on 13 more. Hunter Renfroe hit a grand slam, Micky Moniak hit a two-run homer and it was already 15-0 and the game had just started. In most cases, when the game is put out of reach, a team takes it easy and gives the starters a break. One thing about baseball though is once a starter is subbed out, they can’t go back in.
Meanwhile, the Angels’ pitcher Griffin Canning, struck out seven batters in six innings, allowing just 4 hits and a run. The other side, meanwhile, burned through six pitchers. 25-1 was the biggest margin in Angels history and the batters had to keep playing, and it ended up pretty ugly.
Cleveland Indians vs. Boston Red Sox, 27-3
At this time, 1923, it was uncommon for anyone to hit more than 20 home runs in a season, so back in 1923, this game was special. This was also right when the live-ball era started, advantaging the offense, when they started using materials that made the baseball move easier. The Red Sox pitcher Lefty O’Doul was so embarrassed in this game, that he went into hitting afterwards instead, and actually fared quite well at that. Cleveland’s player manager Tris Speaker was already destined for the hall of fame. Joe Wewell, Riggs Stephenson, and Charlie Jamieson drove in runs what seemed to be every single time they swung.
The Indians’ baserunning was aggressive too. Meanwhile, the Red Sox left runners stranded every inning and their entire bullpen was punished.
This game was very symbolic of the Boston curse that they were said to absorb for selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees – never to win a World Series again. They were a bottom dweller for a long time, and the curse lasted all the way up to 2004, when they finally won it all.