The St. Louis Cardinals tied the Major League Baseball record for most runs in a playoff inning on Thursday in their 13-1 triumph over the Atlanta Braves in game five of the National League Divisional Series. The Cardinals scored a remarkable 10 runs in the first inning en route to their 12 run win. With the victory, the Cardinals beat the Braves three games to two in their best out of five series.
The Cardinals tied the record previously set by the Philadelphia Athletics on October 12, 1929. In game four of the 1929 World Series, the Chicago Cubs were leading the Athletics 8-0 in the seventh inning, when the Athletics scored 10 runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take a 10-8 lead. It was simply one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history.
The 1929 World Series championship was the fourth of five titles the Athletics won while in Philadelphia. They also won in 1910, 1911, 1913 and 1930.
In the Cardinals’ first inning against the Braves at SunTrust Park on Wednesday, they scored their 10 runs on only five hits, four walks, a Braves wild pitch and a Braves error. None of the five hits were home runs, with three of the hits being doubles and two of them being singles. The three Cardinals with an extra base first inning hit were right fielder Tommy Edman of San Diego, CA, center fielder Dexter Fowler of Atlanta, GA and second baseman Kolten Wong of Hilo, HI.
The fact that the Cardinals decided to still go with starting pitcher Jack Flaherty for six innings when St. Louis had a 10 run lead before Flaherty even threw his first pitch may have come as a surprise to many. The Cardinals could have been better off using the opener approach for the game, have Flaherty pitch one or two innings, and save him for game one of the National League Championship Series against the Washington Nationals on Friday.
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