Josh Donaldson of the Twins scored the milestone on a brace from Nelson Cruz. He loses the distinction when the statistics of the Negro leagues become official.
In its 146th official season, Major League Baseball hit two million runs on Saturday when Josh Donaldson of the Minnesota Twins came home for the milestone.
Ahead of Saturday’s games, there were just 13 points left to hit two million, and with several afternoon games, the competition was on for who would get their name added to the record books (at least temporarily).
That honor went to Donaldson, who scored on a rule-field doubled by Nelson Cruz in the first inning of his team’s game against the Kansa s City Royals at Target Field. Donaldson hit the plate moments before players from other cities, including Tim Anderson of the White Sox, who played in Chicago, and Odubel Herrera of the Philadelphia Phillies, who played in Tampa.
“I don’t know what to think, I’ll be honest with you,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said in a post-match video conference. “But I know JD only does great things, so I’m not surprised to learn that he scored the two millionth run of all time.”
The Sports Elias Bureau confirmed that Donaldson was the lucky guy, although his achievement received relatively little attention compared to the millionth race, which took place in the midst of a nationwide promotional campaign in 1975.
The millionth race was supposedly marked by Bob Watson of the Houston Astros, but it was later concluded that the milestone had been set much earlier because some major league records had not been factored into the total. Likewise, Donaldson’s name will not be associated for long with the two millionth inning, as baseball will incorporate statistics from some black leagues in the near future.
As the milestone approached, there was even some debate as to when it would be reached, as another respected record holder, Baseball Reference, had a slightly higher number than Elias s – by 97 runs – entering the season. The variance was the result of statistical accounting anomalies such as forfeits, contested games and protested games and the volume of over 221,000 games over a century and a half. Elias’s total is considered official number by MLB
The very first run in MLB history was marked on April 22, 1876 by Tim McGinley, a receiver for the Boston Red Stockings, the background of the present-day Atlanta Braves. He scored early in the second inning in Philadelphia, as Boston beat Athletics (unrelated to modern club), 6-5, in Game 1 of the first season (as recognized by MLB).
