Close ones: Major league teams play 10 1-run games, 1 away from record

Thursday night features 10 1-run games

Ten major league baseball games were decided by one run Thursday night, the most since a record 11 early in the 2001 season.

Thursday night was the 10th time that many teams all won by the smallest possible margin. The record of 11 has happened twice — April 14, 2001, and July 4, 1918, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Aug. 9, 2002, also had 10 teams winning by the minimum.

There were 14 games Thursday night, one of which alone featured a 10-run margin, when the Rays beat the Angels 10-1.

The one-run games were: St. Louis 6, Florida 5; Houston 2, the Chicago Cubs 1, in 13 innings; Colorado 5, Milwaukee 4; Arizona 2, San Francisco 1; Washington 3, Cincinnati 2; the Chicago White Sox 4, Detroit 3; Oakland 4, Minnesota 3; Cleveland 4, Kansas City 3, in 10 innings; Boston 4, New York Yankees 3 and, in the night’s only minimum score contest, Texas beat Toronto 1-0.