You know, you look at that score and you think "Wow, the Cowboys really trounced the Ravens." NOT! No, folks, that was the score in Wednesday's Texas Rangers - Baltimore Orioles baseball game. And to top it off, it was only game one of a double-header. This game set the record for runs scored in a double header in the first game. The Rangers' Wes Littleton pitched three scoreless innings, protecting a 27-run lead and earned his second career save.
"I knew we'd get the bats going, but I never expected anything like this" said Ranger manager Ron Washington. "When the faucet is on, you want it to stay on. You never want to cut it off. " Maybe Baltimore should have called a plumber!
The Rangers are the first team in 100 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting an American League record. The previous was 29 runs scored by the red Sox in 1950 and Chicago White Sox in 1955. (The all-time record of 36 runs was set by the Chicago Colts - now the Cubs - on June 29, 1897.)
"This is something freaky" according to Marlon Byrd who hit one of two Rangers' grand slams. "You won't see anything like this again for a long, long time. I am glad I was on this end of it." Yeah, no kidding. And how about the other grand slam, hit by Travis Metcalf who was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma that morning? "It was AMAZING in capital letters."
"We set a record for something on the good side of baseball," said Washington.
At one point, the Orioles led the game 3-0, then the train derailed. Texas scored five runs in the fourth, nine runs in the sixth, ten runs in the eighth and the for good measure scored six more times in the ninth.
And all this came hours after it was announced that Baltimore Oriole's manager Dave Trembley would return for the 2008 season. Trembley was asked after the game how you handle such a crushing defeat. "You have a real short memory and you let it go."
Good luck with that one, Dave.