Josh Donaldson scored major league baseball's 2,000,00th run on Saturday when he came around on a first-inning double by Nelson Cruz in the Twins' 6-5 win over Kansas City at Target Field.
The Elias Sports Bureau came up with the run tally, announcing that the total going into Saturday's games was 13 short of the two million mark.
Baseball recognized its 1,000,000th run in 1975, scored by Houston's Bob Watson on May 4 in San Francisco.
That was before statistics from the old Union League and Federal League were included in the official records.
Also, during the past off-season, baseball announced it would start including statistics from Negro League games as official major-league numbers.
Because of all that, some no longer recognize Watson's achievement while pointing out that the two-millionth run likely scored several years ago.
Still, it's a number worth noting for Donaldson, according to Twins manager Rocco Baldelli.
“I don’t know what to think. I’ll be honest with you,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But I know J.D. only does big things, so I’m not surprised to hear that he scored the 2 millionth run of all time.”
One thing baseball historians are fairly certain of: the first run scored was by Tim McGinley of the Boston Red Stockings against the Philadelphia Athletics on April 22, 1876 in a National League game.
That Red Stockings club is the same franchise that is now the Atlanta Braves, while that version of the Philadelphia A's lasted one season.
