Friday June 12/09 3:36 AM ET
It's one of baseball's ideal scenarios, and you know you've seen a good ballgame every time it arises: the one-run game.
Whether it's a closer shutting the door in the ninth or a two-run rally to flip the score or even the occasional walk-off single off a seagull's wing, there isn't a tighter outcome possible than that one thin run.
Multiply that scenario by 10, and you've got Thursday's slate of games in the Major Leagues.
Including the seagull-aided walk-off win for the Indians, there were 10 one-run games in Major League Baseball, falling one shy of the single-day record of 11. That mark was set July 4, 1918, and matched April 14, 2001, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The 10 one-run affairs marked the most on one day since Aug. 9, 2002.
Thursday's 10-spot included a 1-0 shutout of the Blue Jays by Kevin Millwood and the Rangers, keeping Texas atop the AL West.
It included a three-run comeback in the eighth to give the Red Sox a 4-3 win over the Yankees, making Boston 8-0 in the season series now and expanding its lead to two games.
And it featured three walk-off wins of different varieties: Geoff Blum contributing game-ending heroics for a second consecutive day for the Astros against the Cubs, the White Sox picking up closer Bobby Jenks after a blown save and the Indians ... well, the Indians scoring in the bottom of the 10th with the benefit of Shin Soo Choo's single clipping a seagull's wing. That was one of two extra-inning affairs.
The team that leads the Majors in one-run games -- the Mariners, with 27 -- was not one of the 20 teams involved in one Thursday. The all-time team record for one-run games was set by the Astros in 1971, with 75. They went 32-43 in those games.
The last time 10 one-run games took place on one day, in August 2002, there were three that went extra innings, including a 16-inning affair won by the A's over the Yankees.
But the biggest event that Aug. 9, and it took place in a one-run game, came in the sixth inning, when Barry Bonds became only the fourth member of the 600 Homer Club at San Francisco. He hit the shot off Kip Wells, and the Pirates wound up winning the game, 4-3.
During the 2001 explosion of games, there was a tight Red Sox-Yanks affair, but this one was won by New York on a run in the top of the ninth. It also included a pair of 1-0 shutouts -- Tigers knuckleballer Steve Sparks winning a complete-game duel with the Indians' Chuck Finley, and Chris Reitsma and Danny Graves combining on the Reds' blanking of the Mets, who had Al Leiter and John Franco on the mound.
Thursday's one-run games
St. Louis 6, Florida 5
Houston 2, Cubs 1 (13)
Colorado 5, Milwaukee 4
Arizona 2, San Francisco 1
Washington 3, Cincinnati 2
White Sox 4, Detroit 3
Oakland 4, Minnesota 3
Cleveland 4, Kansas City 3 (10)
Boston 4, Yankees 3
Texas 1, Toronto 0
MLB.com
It's one of baseball's ideal scenarios, and you know you've seen a good ballgame every time it arises: the one-run game.
Whether it's a closer shutting the door in the ninth or a two-run rally to flip the score or even the occasional walk-off single off a seagull's wing, there isn't a tighter outcome possible than that one thin run.
Multiply that scenario by 10, and you've got Thursday's slate of games in the Major Leagues.
Including the seagull-aided walk-off win for the Indians, there were 10 one-run games in Major League Baseball, falling one shy of the single-day record of 11. That mark was set July 4, 1918, and matched April 14, 2001, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The 10 one-run affairs marked the most on one day since Aug. 9, 2002.
Thursday's 10-spot included a 1-0 shutout of the Blue Jays by Kevin Millwood and the Rangers, keeping Texas atop the AL West.
It included a three-run comeback in the eighth to give the Red Sox a 4-3 win over the Yankees, making Boston 8-0 in the season series now and expanding its lead to two games.
And it featured three walk-off wins of different varieties: Geoff Blum contributing game-ending heroics for a second consecutive day for the Astros against the Cubs, the White Sox picking up closer Bobby Jenks after a blown save and the Indians ... well, the Indians scoring in the bottom of the 10th with the benefit of Shin Soo Choo's single clipping a seagull's wing. That was one of two extra-inning affairs.
The team that leads the Majors in one-run games -- the Mariners, with 27 -- was not one of the 20 teams involved in one Thursday. The all-time team record for one-run games was set by the Astros in 1971, with 75. They went 32-43 in those games.
The last time 10 one-run games took place on one day, in August 2002, there were three that went extra innings, including a 16-inning affair won by the A's over the Yankees.
But the biggest event that Aug. 9, and it took place in a one-run game, came in the sixth inning, when Barry Bonds became only the fourth member of the 600 Homer Club at San Francisco. He hit the shot off Kip Wells, and the Pirates wound up winning the game, 4-3.
During the 2001 explosion of games, there was a tight Red Sox-Yanks affair, but this one was won by New York on a run in the top of the ninth. It also included a pair of 1-0 shutouts -- Tigers knuckleballer Steve Sparks winning a complete-game duel with the Indians' Chuck Finley, and Chris Reitsma and Danny Graves combining on the Reds' blanking of the Mets, who had Al Leiter and John Franco on the mound.
Thursday's one-run games
St. Louis 6, Florida 5
Houston 2, Cubs 1 (13)
Colorado 5, Milwaukee 4
Arizona 2, San Francisco 1
Washington 3, Cincinnati 2
White Sox 4, Detroit 3
Oakland 4, Minnesota 3
Cleveland 4, Kansas City 3 (10)
Boston 4, Yankees 3
Texas 1, Toronto 0
MLB.com
