Prior to the White Sox's 7-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins Wednesday night, the Baltimore Orioles piled it on the Detroit Tigers, tagging their vulnerable bullpen for seven runs over the final three innings en route to a 13-3 victory.
Before that rout, the Orioles' previous best offensive output this season was 10 runs. Now that they smacked around Detroit's ragged relief corps, that leaves the White Sox with the lowest single-game high this year.
Pardon my ongoing fascination with this subject, but the White Sox offense's inability to give its pitchers the slightest bit of a break is unreal. Here's the list of American League teams in order of their single-game high in runs scored in 2013, along with an old favorite, games with eight or more runs.
Team | Game high | 10+ runs | 8+ runs |
Indians | 19 | 7 | 11 |
Red Sox | 17 | 7 | 15 |
Tigers | 17 | 8 | 13 |
Astros | 16 | 4 | 7 |
Twins | 15 | 3 | 8 |
Yankees | 14 | 3 | 5 |
Athletics | 13 | 8 | 16 |
Orioles | 13 | 6 |
12 |
Royals | 13 | 3 | 9 |
Rays | 12 | 6 | 18 |
Blue Jays | 12 | 6 | 14 |
Rangers | 12 | 6 | 11 |
Mariners | 12 | 4 | 9 |
Angels | 12 | 1 | 7 |
White Sox | 10 | 1 | 3 |
Average | 13.8 | 4.8 | 10.4 |
In defense of the offense, 11 runs is harder to come by than it seems, and we already know it's not easy. There's actually a pretty big difference between scoring eight and scoring 11. The eight-run barrier was a big deal, because only the 1968 White Sox went longer without scoring that many runs in a game to start a season.
But a number of other White Sox teams since the Dead Ball Era -- including a couple this century -- have taken a lot longer to turn it up to 11.
- 1922 White Sox, 105 games
- 1947 White Sox, 99 games
- 2001 White Sox, 95 games
- 2007 White Sox, 81 games
- 1968 White Sox, 70 games
- 2013 White Sox, 69 games
You can count on 1968 being included in any list of dismal offensive performances, given that it was the Year of the Pitcher. 2007 is the most-recent embodiment of putrid White Sox baseball, and any team between the Black Sox and Go-Go Sox wouldn't surprise either.
The 2001 team? Now that's an eye-opener, because those Sox had a middle-of-the-road offense in a hitter-friendly era. They just happened to backload their production, scoring 5.5 runs per game in the second half, as opposed to 4.5 runs in the first. Royce Clayton's post-break resurgence played a significant part, and there are a few guys this year who could use a 300-point boost in OPS.
Or they could just add Jose Canseco again. He seems to need work.