Every final score posted during the 1887 Major League Baseball season, tabulated by winning-team runs and losing-team runs.
Baseball games end with a final score, like 8–6. The number across the top is how many runs the winning team scored; the number down the side is how many runs the losing team scored. Where a column and row meet, that square shows how many 1887 games ended with that score — click it to see them.
The 1887 season produced 1,058 games between 16 clubs, running from April 16, 1887 to October 10, 1887. Those games ended in 183 different final scores, 56 of which occurred exactly once all season. The most common result was 5–4, posted 37 times — 3.5% of the season's games. The season also produced 30 tie games, which sit on the board's diagonal.
Teams combined for 12.66 runs per game in 1887, 3.21 runs above the all-time average of 9.45. Shutouts accounted for 71 games (6.7% of the total), and 213 of the 1,028 decided games were settled by a single run (20.7%).
The highest-scoring game of the season came on August 27, 1887, when the Boston Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 28–14 — 42 combined runs. The widest margin was 28 runs: the New York Giants over the Philadelphia Phillies 29–1 on June 15, 1887.
Seven final scores appeared for the first time in major league history during 1887: 15–14, 22–14, 26–2, 27–9, 28–11, 28–14, 29–1. Each one is a scorigami — a combination of winning and losing runs that no game had produced before.
Rules unique to this season inflated offense sharply: batters were allowed four strikes, and bases on balls were briefly scored as hits. Both changes were reversed the following year.