KC Royals: 6 great and unbreakable franchise records

Bad as they were, the 2004 KC Royals established a pretty good team record.

Kansas City was horrible in 2004. The Royals lost 104 games, just two short of the club record 106 the 2005 team dropped, and finished dead last in the American League Central, 34 games behind Central champ Minnesota. Their run differential was -185.

So it was that what the futility-wracked Royals did in the first game of a Sept. 9 doubleheader shocked Detroit.

Kansas City scored 26 runs, almost 22 above their 162-game average of 4.4, to beat the Tigers 26-5.

The contest, if it can even be characterized as one, was essentially over after the Royals scored four in the first inning and two in the second. They added five in the sixth and one each in the eighth and ninth.

But the biggest single frame was the third. Sixteen Kansas City batters combined for 10 hits (nine singles and a double), Abraham Núñez and Alberto Castillo drove in two runs apiece, and the club battered three Detroit pitchers for 11 runs. By the time Franklyn Germán retired Rubén Gotay and David DeJesus in order for the final two outs, Kansas City led 17-2.

For the day, Ángel Berroa went 4-for-5 with five RBIs, Joe Randa had six hits and Dee Brown four, and Castillo had four RBIs.

The 26 runs seem like a safe record.