# "In baseball, the winning team usually scores..." **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 16, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439 "2017-07-16T22:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/1 "2017-07-16T22:20:00Z")
“…more runs in one inning than the other team scores the whole game.” Is this true and does anyone know the source? I have heard it referenced before but never attributed to any one person or source. You can probably (maybe?) figure it out on Baseball Reference, but I’m no good at trying to navigate that site in anything but the most superficial way. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/2 "2017-07-16T22:28:20Z")
I’m pretty sure I read this for the first time in one of Bill James’s Baseball Abstracts in the early eighties–1983 maybe or 1984? With changes in numbers of runs scored and how they are scored, I suppose it’s possible that it is no longer the case–but I would guess things haven’t changed that much. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2017, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/3 "2017-07-16T23:58:31Z")
Well, for starters, it’s going to be true of any 1-0 game, which isn’t all that uncommon. Or any other shutout. And in multi-run games, it’s still common for runs to be clustered: A homer with anyone on base will score multiple, and even a simple single with bases loaded will leave the bases loaded, ready for the same thing to happen again. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/4 "2017-07-17T00:20:27Z")
Not a particularly astute observation, really. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/5 "2017-07-17T00:31:30Z")
I suppose the logical response is: “so what?” ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/6 "2017-07-17T00:39:24Z")
It affects strategy and the kind of players one develops, and is the countervailing example to proponents of one-run baseball strategies like bunting. That’s why it is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![journeyman\_southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/7 "2017-07-17T00:57:40Z")
Old article is old, but David W. Smith (the founder of Retrosheet) [tackled this question in 1991](https://web.archive.org/web/20010210042119/http://diamond-mind.com:80/articles/bigbang.htm) and found the saying to hold true about 46-47% of the time. In the intro to the article he says the notion was “popularized by sports writer Tom Boswell – with a big assist from Earl Weaver.” ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/8 "2017-07-17T02:04:39Z")
> [@journeyman\_southpaw](#): > > Old article is old, but David W. Smith (the founder of Retrosheet) [tackled this question in 1991](https://web.archive.org/web/20010210042119/http://diamond-mind.com:80/articles/bigbang.htm) and found the saying to hold true about 46-47% of the time. In the intro to the article he says the notion was “popularized by sports writer Tom Boswell – with a big assist from Earl Weaver.” Interesting, thank you. I remember reading that this notion was behind Weaver’s “pitching, defense, and the three-run home run” philosophy, but it’s not mentioned in “Weaver on Strategy.” ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/9 "2017-07-17T16:10:06Z")
[This article](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-09-19/sports/8603100341_1_homer-big-bang-theory-oldies-but-goodies) from 1986 indicates someone was apparently tracking baseball’s “Big Bang Theory” at the time and found the occurrence to be 45.2%. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/10 "2017-07-17T16:14:48Z")
> [@journeyman\_southpaw](#): > > Old article is old, but David W. Smith (the founder of Retrosheet) [tackled this question in 1991](https://web.archive.org/web/20010210042119/http://diamond-mind.com:80/articles/bigbang.htm) and found the saying to hold true about 46-47% of the time. In the intro to the article he says the notion was “popularized by sports writer Tom Boswell – with a big assist from Earl Weaver.” And at the bottom, links to three more articles. Princess Grace`s Fatal Crash: Her Daughter`s Account When one partner in a marriage doesn’t want sex, what are options? Life Skill #201: Washing a baseball cap [Arson, Murder and Jaywalking.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArsonMurderAndJaywalking) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/11 "2017-07-17T16:41:40Z")
So all the stats seem to show that “usually” is not (quite) true, technically. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/12 "2017-07-17T18:01:26Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > So all the stats seem to show that “usually” is not (quite) true, technically. In my experience usually is any amount greater than 50% so it’s not so much technically not quite true, it’s just wrong. The accurate thing to say is that it’s usually **not** the case. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/13 "2017-07-17T19:37:50Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > “…more runs in one inning than the other team scores the whole game.” Pretty sure I read it in George Will’s “Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball” It was part of a discussion about Weaver’s “pitching, defense, and the three-run home run” philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-baseball-the-winning-team-usually-scores/791439/14 "2017-07-17T19:52:47Z")
I’m curious about the (sorta) inverse. Are there stats that show that a team that scores X amount of runs in one inning wins Y% of the time?