Baseball is an unpredictable sport. We’ve seen shutouts, complete games, and even the highest-scoring game all in one season, as you never know what’s about to happen in the field. That’s one of the many reasons why we love it so much. MLB features nothing but the top-notch baseball players from all over the world, which means something amazing is always about to happen.
Major League Baseball has come a long way since it’s very beginnings. The league wants to make the game faster, more exciting for fans, which often translates to more runs being scored rather than the good-old pitching duels.
Well, then league officials would have been thrilled to attend Cubs Parks and watchthe legendary slugfest between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies in 1922, the highest-scoring game in MLB history.
Background
The Philadelphia Phillies packed their bags and traveled to the Windy City with a 40-71 record. They weren’t exactly the strongest team in the league back then and were struggling to put together a winning streak.
The Chicago Cubs, on the other hand, were one of baseball’s driving forces and held on to a 66-53 record at the time of the game. Also, they were heavily favored to win the game with Tony Kaufman taking the mound.
The Game
The Cubs jumped to an early lead on the bottom of the 2nd inning. Ray Grimes singled to the center field to bringCliff Heathcote home. However, the Phillies weren’t going to go down so easily.
Philadelphia turned the tables right away with a 3-run 3rd inning. Roy Leslie, Jimmy Ring, andRussWrightstone had RBI singles and it looked like the visiting team was ready to spoil the party.
Then, the Cubbies had a 10-run third inning to jump to an 11-3 lead. Even despite the beating, Jimmy Ring stayed on the mound for the Phillies to try and pull off a miracle comeback in the following innings.
The Phillies didn’t back down and score a couple of runs in the next inning to close the gap to an 11-5 score. It wasn’t going to be easy, but the possibility of an epic comeback was still right there.
Following a scoreless inning by the Cubs, Philadelphia added one more to their total thanks to a Johnny Mokan single. The game was 11-7 and it clearly wasn’t Tony Kaufman’s sharpest day.
Chicago Cubs players from 1922. (Getty)
Something must have been in the air that day, as the Cubs didn’t settle for that 10-run inning. They added 14 more runs in the bottom of the 4th. Jimmy Ring was sent back to the dugout after a couple of runs and the home teamcompletely demolishedLeftyWeinert out of the bullpen. They scored 14 runs on 11 hits and 2 errors.
Phillies fans were ready to call it a day after falling to a 25-6 hole. I mean, who could ever think that they could fight their way back from such a humiliating beating? Then again, they weren’t going to give up.
With Kaufman out of the game andGeorgeStueland now pitching for the Cubs, the Phillies added three more runs. The clock was ticking and the Cubs scored again in the bottom of the sixth, making it 26-9.
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The Late Push
It all changed once the top of the 8th came. The Phillies put together an incredible run streak by destroyingUelEubanks, scoring 8 runs on 4 hits, and 2 errors to make it 26-17. It was already an impressive slugfest and there was even more to come.
The Cubs failed to score in the 9th and the door was wide open for a comeback. I mean, we had already seen a team score 8+ runs three times that very afternoon, so there wasn’t a reason to think it couldn’t happen again.
The Phillies never stopped believing and grinding. They scored 6 more runs in the top of the 9th to make it 26-23. They fell short of the biggest comeback ever seen in baseball, but at least round up the highest-scoring game in MLB history.
