Angels plate 23 runs in first 4 innings during historic drubbing of Rockies

Someone turn the humidors back on.

The Los Angeles Angels' bats exploded in Denver on Saturday, crushing Colorado Rockies pitching for an astounding 23 runs in the first four innings at Coors Field en route to a historic 25-1 win.

The 24-run margin of victory is tied for the third-largest in the modern era (since 1901) and the biggest ever in an interleague game, per Stathead.

Los Angeles plated its first two runs in the second inning off Rockies starter Chase Anderson, but the fireworks really began in the top of the third. Anderson's first three pitches of the third were crushed to the stands by Mike Trout, Brandon Drury, and Matt Thaiss for back-to-back-to-back home runs.

All told, the Angels sent 16 batters to the plate in the third while scoring 13 runs to tie a franchise single-inning record. Mickey Moniak's two-run homer, their fourth long ball of the inning, put the frame into the record books.

But the Angels were hardly done. They went on to score another eight runs in the fourth while sending 11 batters to the plate. Light-hitting infielder David Fletcher, who was called up from Triple-A earlier Saturday, put the exclamation point on the inning with a three-run homer that made the score 23-0 before the second out of the fourth.

The 23-run outburst was the most runs scored through the first four innings of a game by any team in the last 50 years and two shy of the overall mark that's stood since 1922, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

In addition to breaking their franchise record for runs scored that had stood since 1979, the Halos also set a new high-water mark with 28 hits, eclipsing the previous franchise record of 26, which had been done twice.

Every Angels starter had at least one hit, one RBI, and one run scored on Saturday. Moniak and Hunter Renfroe each went 5-for-5, becoming the fifth set of teammates to do so in the same game, according to Langs. Moniak, Renfroe, and Drury each drove in four, and Moniak's four extra-base hits tied a franchise record.

Ironically, Shohei Ohtani had the worst line of any Angels hitter, going just 1-for-7 with two strikeouts.

On the Rockies' side, it was the largest margin of defeat in franchise history and the second-biggest home loss of the modern era. The 13 runs allowed in the third inning also set a new dubious franchise single-inning mark.

Anderson, the Rockies' hard-luck starter, was charged with nine earned runs on 10 hits in 2.2 innings of work. He allowed three homers on three consecutive pitches for the second time in his career, having also done so while with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2020.

Rockies center fielder Brenton Doyle's eighth-inning homer accounted for their lone run of the night. His blast helped the Rockies avoid suffering what would've been the worst shutout loss of baseball's modern era and the largest since 1887, per Langs.

The modern MLB record for runs scored in a game is 30, set by the Texas Rangers at Baltimore in 2007. The record for all eras remains the 36 runs scored by the Chicago Colts (now Cubs) against the Louisville Colonels on June 29, 1897.