What's the record for most runs scored in a single day in MLB?

Cafe Society
1

Tonight has to be close.

We have a 20-14 game. (MN-CHI)
12-0
14-9
9-2
8-4
6-2
8-6
8-1
4-0
4-3
6-5
4-3
6-5 (8th inning)
7-2 (7th)
1-1 (6th, losers)
3-0 (6th)

2

My bet 2 July 2002 with 197 runs, 62 homers, 4 grand slams:

BAL @ANA 3-0
TOR @BOS 1-2
TOR @BOS 4-6
DET @CHW 9-17
CLE @NYY 5-10
MIN @OAK 3-4
KCR @SEA 7-5
TBD @TEX 1-3
LAD @ARI 8-0
MON @ATL 5-2
HOU @CIN 6-5 (10)
SFG @COL 18-5
CHC @FLA 7-9
NYM @PHI 12-6
MIL @PIT 12-6
SDP @STL 5-11

3

To be meaningful, you’d have to divide the record into eras. The 16 team era, 20 team era, 24 team era, and so forth, up to today’s 30 MLB teams. Otherwise, recent run totals are naturally going to eclipse one-day totals from, let’s say, 50 years ago, since almost twice as many games would be played on a given day.

4

Interesting that the first reply comes from Australia. Are you an expat American or just a baseball fan? I ask because I played in the Australian National Championships at U-15 and U-17 way back when for the ACT. One guy I played against was signed by the Dodgers and had a nice career in the majors. He was a shortstop and I think was from Victoria. I can’t recall his name at the moment.

5

Just a baseball fan since I read Roth’s The Great American Novel. I love that, like cricket, they have stats for everything. And I liked the fact that no-one seems to keep this record - most runs in a day, so maybe we can find out.

Maybe the guy you played against was Craig Shipley. He went to the Dodgers in 1986 as SS.

6

That’s the guy. He was really good.

We’re up to 195 runs tonight, and the last game is in the 9th inning.

7

Yea, I think the best measure would be the highest single day average of runs per game, with every team playing that day.

8

Not necessarily, since double-headers were common in earlier eras. In fact, there were many Sundays and holidays up through the 1960’s when almost every team played a double-header, and there were Sundays until about 1980 when many teams still played double-headers. So the maximum number of games in a day has been surprisingly consistent from era to era.

Of course, nowadays you get the larger number of games every day (save for Mondays and Thursdays, when many teams are idle), whereas before the maximum occurred only on Sundays and holidays. So today you have more chances for big-run days.