(NEXSTAR) – There are many unexpected yet stunning events to experience at a baseball game – a no-hitter, a batter hitting the cycle, a blowout victory.
The latter is exactly what happened on June 24’s game between the Colorado Rockies and the visiting Los Angeles Angels. The score was 2-0 with the Angels in the lead at the start of the third inning, but the game quickly took a turn thanks to three consecutive home runs from Mike Trout, Brandon Drury, and Matt Thaiss.
By the end of the third inning, the score was 13-0. The Angels would maintain the lead the rest of the game, winning 25-1 over the Rockies.
The Angels not only set franchise records for runs, hits, and margin of victory, they joined the ranks of the highest margins of victory in MLB history.
According to data tracked by the MLB, the Angels’ 25-1 win is the third-largest margin since 1900. The Angels were six runs shy of the current record-holding game: a Texas Rangers 30-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in 2007.
It was actually the Orioles who were ahead 3-0 at the start of the fourth inning of that game, according to the MLB. They wouldn’t score again, though. Then, the Rangers scored five runs, moving the score to 5-3, before putting up nine in the sixth, 10 in the eighth, and six in the ninth.
In addition to being the largest margin in modern MLB history, the 30-run margin became the largest in professional baseball since the now-defunct Chicago Colts trampled the Louisville Colonels 36-7 in 1897.
Coming in behind the Rangers-Orioles game in the record books is a 1950 matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Browns (who later became the Orioles). The Red Sox beat the Browns 29-4, a 25-run differential.
Among those home-run hitters was Walt Dropo, who later helped the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City A’s 29-6 in 1955, according to the MLB.
Technically, the Angels’ rout of the Rockies is tied for the third-largest win margin with a game that happened 100 years ago: Cleveland’s 1923, 27-3 victory over the Red Sox. According to the MLB, Cleveland scored in every inning of that game, including a 13-run inning (like the Angels saw) in the sixth.
Three games with 23-run margins of victory come next. Among those is the aforementioned White Sox victory over the A’s; a 2022 game in which the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Red Sox, 28-5; and a Cleveland 26-3 victory over the Browns in 1948.
Only one of these record-setting teams, the 1948 Cleveland team, would go on to appear in and win the World Series in the respective seasons.
MLB records show a game in 1922 stands as the highest-scoring game of all time. That day, the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 26-23.