In baseball, run differential is a cumulative team statistic that combines offensive and defensive scoring.
[2] The 1956 Claxton Shield tournament, held in Australia, included an instance of a team attempting to manipulate the run differential in order to advance.
[7] Run differential has a strong correlation to a team's winning percentage,[8][9][10] which is characterized by a formula known as the Pythagorean expectation, devised by Bill James.
[11] TQB functions the same as run differential except that it also factors in the number of innings played on offense and defense, which is not always the same.
[16][17] The biggest run differential in a shutout is 22, when the Cleveland Indians defeated the New York Yankees 22–0 on August 31, 2004.