Longest Baseball Game

Determining the longest baseball game in history is a bit more difficult than one would think, depending on what factors are attributed to the word "long." This page details the longest baseball games by time, number of innings, and across professional leagues.

The longest professional game ever played was a minor league baseball game on April 18, 1981 that featured two men who went on to become Hall of Famers, Cal Ripken Jr and Wade Boggs. The Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings met to play a triple-A International League game at the Red Sox's McCoy Staidum. The game went 32 innings before it was suspended at 4:07am the next morning, when it was decided the remainder of the game was to be played at a later date. One June 23 the game was resumed, and it took only 1 inning of play before the Red Sox scored the game winning run. The final score was Red Sox 3, Red Wings 2 in 33 total innings played over 3 days. Ripken and Boggs combined for a total of 6 hits in 25 at batshttp://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/index.jsp.

The Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers played the longest major league baseball game in the modern era on May 9, 1984. The game lasted for eight hours and six minutes and was a marathon of a baseball game. The game was tied 1-1 going into the top of the 9th when the Brewers scored 2 runs to go ahead 3-1. Then, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, the White Sox would tie the game back up. After 12 scoreless innings, in the top of the 21st the Brewers would score another 3 runs and build a comfortable 6-3 lead, however the White Sox would once again rally in the bottom of the inning and tie the game up. Another 3.5 scoreless innings would go by before the ageless Harold Baines (who himself would play 21 years in the big leagueshttp://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baineha01.shtml) hit a walk-off solo Home Run to win the game 7-6 in the bottom of the 25th. Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver who pitched only one inning would get the credit for the win.http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA198405080.shtml.

On April 17, 2010, a game between the New York Mets and St Louis Cardinals lasted for 19 innings before a team would put anything but a 0 on the scoreboard. Shortstop Jose Reyes of the Mets eventually scored a single run at the top of the 19th, however Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols scored at the bottom of the 19th to knot the game right back up 1-1. The Mets took the lead again at the top of the 20th when a Reyes sacrifice fly allowed Angel Pagan to score the eventual game winning run.

On April 17, 2008, the San Diego Padres hosted the Colorado Rockies in a game that lasted six hours and 16 minutes, the longest game in almost 15 years. The Rockies beat the Padres 2-1 in the 22nd inning, at 1:21 AM.

May 1, 1920: A game between the Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves lasted 26 innings, but was called before it could be completed due to lack of light. The official score was a 1-1 tie. No other Major League Baseball game has seen a 26th inning. The Brooklyn Robins, who 12 years later would be renamed to the Dodgers, would wind up winning the National League Pennant that year. They would however lose to the Cleveland Indians 5 games to 2http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BRO/1920.shtml.

May 8, 1984: The Chicago White Sox defeat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 after 25 innings of baseball. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=198405080CHA

September 11, 1974: In the longest game in either franchises history, the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals played 25 innings where the Cardinals emerged victorious by a score of 4-3. The winning run would be scored by CF Bake McBride on an error in the top of the 25th.

April 15, 1968: The Houston Astros played the New York Mets in what still stands as the longest shutout of all time. The Astros won 1-0 in the 24th inning. This game also stands as the longest single-game streak without any scoring.

May 31, 1964: The San Francisco Giants defeat the New York Mets 8-6 in 23 innings. The game lasted seven hours and 32 minutes, one of the longest games of the 1960s

June 5, 1989: The Houston Astros defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers with a score of 5-4 in 22 innings. The game lasted seven hours and 14 minutes. After it ended at 2:50 AM, Astros first basemen Glenn Davis slept at the Astrodome and was ready to play for the 1:30 afternoon game the next day.

April 17, 2008: The Colorado Rockies defeated the San Diego Padres in 22 innings, after playing for over six hours.