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Showing no mercy

ARLINGTON , TEXAS , APRIL 19, 1996 – On this day in 1996 the Texas Rangers ran up a heck of a score against the Baltimore Orioles – who happened to have been in first place at the time. The host Rangers showed no mercy in beating the Orioles 26 to 7. It was the biggest tally in the American League in 41 years.

With a score of 10 to 7, the game was relatively close going into the bottom of the eighth – the Rangers last at bat if they are ahead. But the home team scored an astounding 16 runs in an 8^th inning that lasted almost an hour. No team ever scored that many runs in an 8^th inning.

The inning consisted of a grand slam home run, and an Oriole reliever walking four – three with the bases loaded. Some sniping developed between the managers, Davey Johnson for Baltimore and Johnny Oates for Texas. Each thought the other had run up the score in previous games.  

Twenty-six is not the most runs scored by a major league team. Two teams tie for that description. The Boston Red Sox scored 29 runs against the St. Louis Browns in 1950, and the Chicago White Sox scored 29 runs against the Kansas City As in 1955.

Read more :

http://www.retrosheet.org/

http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=bal

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=tex

Another story tomorrow