While the offensive heroics last night will be remembered for the rest of our lives, the pitching staff did allow 7 runs. Those runs moved the Royals into a three-way tie with two great teams from yesteryear.
Most Runs Allowed, Single Season, All-Time
26. 1938 St. Louis Browns- 962
27t. 1987 Cleveland Indians- 957
27t. 1895 Phildelphia Phillies- 957 (133 games)
27t. 2006 KC Royals- 957
Those '87 Indians were a victim of the infamous SI Cover Jinx, as the "Indian Uprising" instead became a 61-101 (hmmm... seem familiar) meltdown. That staff featured Tom Candiotti, Ken Schrom, Greg Swindell and two old timers near the end of very long trails: Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro. Carlton posted a 5.37 ERA with the '87 Tribe, while Niekro managed 5.89 mark.
After 1987 the Indians didn't manage a winning record until 1994, the beginning of the early-Jacob's Field Monster Teams era.
The next recent team the Royals are "chasing" are the expansion 1993 Rockies, who allowed 967 runs while playing at Mile High Stadium, which played as a fairly big hitters park (shock) despite fairly deep dimensions.
As JoePo pointed out today "since 1998 -- so we're talking more than nine seasons -- the Royals team ERA is 5.29. Thats momentous".
Indeed.
Posnanski notes that the Royals have had 13 pitchers start 5 or more games. This is what I believe "JQ" called our totally random pitching staff. Starting to roll, Joe notes,
Every single one of those 13 pitchers has an ERA larger than 5.00.Its been a fun year.Get that? Every single one. Doesn't matter if it's Jorge de la Rosa, Brandon Duckworth, Joe Mays or Bobby Keppel. It could be Scott Elarton, Mike Wood, Jimmy Gobble or Runelvys Hernandez. To finish out the quaker's dozen: Mark Redman, Luke Hudson, Odalis Perez, Jeremy Affeldt and Denny Bautista.