Lately, I’ve heard the expression “crooked numbers” to describe it when a team scores more than one run in an inning. I looked this phrase up on Google and it seems to date back no earlier than 2002. Who coined the phrase?
The first time I heard it was from Tony Kubek, when he was broadcasting a game. This would be back in the 80’s at least - maybe the late 70’s. He said that he got the expression from somebody else, but I forget who - maybe an old ex-teammate or somebody like that. Hey, maybe it was Satchel Paige - he would turn a colourful phrase from time to time.
Anyway, the only thing I can say for sure is that the expression was used at least as far back as the 80’s.