On This Date In Sports History: The 1983 Texas Rangers Score An MLB Record 12 Runs In The 15th Inning To Knock Off The Oakland Athletics

By Jordan Long

On this date in sports history, the 1983 Texas Rangers faced the Oakland Athletics.  The Rangers came into the game 43-33 while the Athletics were 36-42.  This was the final of a 3 game set.  The Athletics tried to avoid the sweep.

                The starting pitchers for the game were Jeff Jones for Oakland and Charlie Hough for the Rangers.  They both wanted to keep their team in the game.  If they pitched well, it might be a low scoring game.

                It was a pitcher’s duel for the first three innings.  Neither team could score a run.  In the top of the 4^th inning, Texas pushed 2 runs across when Buddy Bell and Larry Parrish hit back to back home runs off Jones.  It remained 2-0 until the 7^th inning.  The Athletics cut the lead down to 1 when a passed ball allowed Dan Meyer to score.

                In the 8th inning, Texas regained a 2 run lead when Buddy Bell’s sacrifice fly permitted Mickey Rivers to come home from 3^rd.  In the bottom of the 8^th Oakland scored 1 run.  In the 9^th Texas put another run up.  The score heading into the bottom of the 9^th was 4-2.  It looked like the Rangers were well on their way to winning the game.

                Unfortunately, the bullpen let them down.  Wayne Gross singled allowing Rickey Henderson to cut the Rangers lead to 1.  Oakland wasn’t done.  They tied the game up on a Bill Almon single.  The game headed into extra innings.

                Neither team managed to score another run.  It took until the top of the 15th inning.  The Rangers exploded for 12 runs, which is an MLB record for runs in an extra inning.  The Athletics couldn’t match it and lost 16-4.

                The winning pitcher for the Rangers was reliever Odell Jones.  He pitched 3.2 innings and didn’t allow run while striking out 6.  For Oakland, the losing pitcher was Dave Beard.  He appeared in 2 innings giving up 5 runs, all of them were earned.

                After this matchup, Oakland ended up 74-88, missing the postseason by 25 games.  For the Rangers, they weren’t much better with a final record of 77-85.    Today though, we remember the Texas Rangers scoring a league record 12 runs in one extra inning to knock off Oakland 16-4.