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This Day In Sports…September 9, 2020, five years ago today:
One night after being shut out by Miami, the Atlanta Braves break the all-time National League record for runs in a 29-9 romp over the Marlins. The Braves fell one run short of the mind-blowing major league record of 30 set by the Texas Rangers in 2007. Atlanta topped its old team mark by six runs—it had scored 23 during a 1957 game when the club was in Milwaukee. Eighteen of the Braves’ 29 runs came via home runs. The 20-run loss was also the largest margin of defeat in Miami history.
The floodgates opened in the second inning when Atlanta plated 11 runs, helped by homers from Travis d’Arnaud, Adam Duvall and Ozzie Albies. Duvall led the way for the Braves, slugging three homers and knocking in nine runs. Research declared that he was the first player in major league history to homer with one man on, two men on and the bases loaded, in that order, in a game.
It was quite a stretch for Duvall, who had also clubbed three home runs in a game eight days earlier at Boston’s Fenway Park. He was the first player in franchise history to accomplish the feat twice. It was one of the best periods of Duvall’s career—he is currently a free agent after batting just .182 last season for Atlanta. (He once came through Boise to play the Hawks with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes as a San Francisco Giants draft pick in 2010.)
Freddie Freeman was still an Atlanta Brave at the time—he wouldn’t land in Los Angeles until the 2022 season. Freeman drove in a career-high six runs in the romp over the Marlins, including a two-run homer that put him at 1,500 career hits. It was part of the Braves’ outburst that saw them score 22 runs over the first five innings.
Unfortunately, the Braves’ record-setting night happened in front of zero fans. Cardboard cutouts were placed in the seats of Truist Park in Atlanta at the height of COVID. It’s only been five years, but it’s bizarre looking back on it. The 2020 season didn’t start until July 23 and lasted only 60 games, with regular season games and the first round of the playoffs held in empty home ballparks. (The rest of the playoffs and the World Series were played at neutral sites.)
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
