Elated Dodgers win longest game in World Series history
Los Angeles Dodgers won the longest ever World Series game yesterday, smashing the previous record by two hours and 20 minutes in a match that had double the usual number of innings.
The hosts beat Boston Red Sox 3-2 at Dodger Stadium after 18 innings of game three, a full seven hours and 21 minutes after it started. Only three previous World Series games had reached 14 innings – in 1916, 2005 and 2015 – with the longest of those lasting five hours and 41 minutes.
The Dodgers, who lost the first two games in pursuit of a first World Series title in 30 years, eventually triumphed only 16 hours before the sides were due to meet again.
Remarkably, the 56,000 sell-out crowd stayed on past midnight as Los Angeles turned unusually chilly. With fatigue setting in on the diamond, a conclusion was finally reached when Max Muncy’s walk-off home run to left field crept over the wall.
It ensured Dodgers avoided a clean sweep and kept the World Series alive at 2-1 heading into game four.
Dodgers’ pitcher Walker Buehler certainly deserved to finish the long night as a winner, having given Boston no respite, but Jackie Bradley Jr almost spoiled it when he homered off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen at the top of the eighth to level at 1-1, taking the game beyond the regular nine innings.
Joc Pederson had given LA a 1-0 advantage in the third inning with a stunning home run, the left-hander dispatching a delivery from Rick Porcello into the top-right corner on a night where getting on base for either side was hard work.
The Dodgers cracked in the 13th inning after an error by pitcher Scott Alexander allowed Eduardo Nunez to make first base and for Brock Holt to score what appeared to be the winner. But Ian Kinsler’s errant throw for the Red Sox allowed Muncy to score for LA and tie things up at 2-2.
Game three rolled into the 15th inning to become the longest World Series game in history, before Muncy struck the winner, sparking delirium on the field and around it.
“I don’t really know what to say,” Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger said. “I’m just glad Muncy hit the home run so we can go home and get some sleep.”
Bellinger’s relief at reaching a conclusion was not only down to fatigue. “I had to [go to the toilet] since the seventh inning. We had drug testers in there so we couldn’t go yet because we didn’t know who was getting tested. I’m glad [Muncy] hit the home run so I can finally see if I get tested or not.”