Extra innings
The rules of the game, including the batting order, availability of substitute players and pitchers, etc., remain intact in extra innings.
The East Asian professional leagues, NPB, KBO, and CPBL have a 12-inning limit before the game is declared a draw.
Additionally, NPB games have a total time limit of 210 minutes during the regular season before being counted as a tie.
For the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the rule was modified to use extra runners for the first time in the 11th inning, and it would see its first use in a second-round game between Japan and the Netherlands at the Tokyo Dome.
Other methods include the following:[citation needed] In international softball, a special extra innings rule starts immediately after regulation.
As with the earlier WBSC rule, the objective is to increase scoring opportunities and shorten extra inning games.
As was the custom, the first pitch was thrown at 3:00 p.m., home plate umpire Barry McCormick called the game as lights began appearing in the windows of buildings across the Charles River, just before 7:00 p.m.
[11] On September 12, 1974, baseball's St. Louis Cardinals won a marathon night game that had started the evening before, defeating the host New York Mets, 4 to 3, in the 25th inning after 7 hours and 4 minutes.
Two Mets errors led to the Cardinals' winning run, starting with an errant pickoff throw that allowed Bake McBride to scamper all the way around from first.
The 6-hour, 6-minute contest, which ended with the Astros' Bob Aspromonte hitting a grounder through the legs of Mets shortstop Al Weis in the bottom of the 24th, remains the longest shutout game in major league history.
[16] The longest American League game to end in a tie was a 24-inning contest between the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics on July 21, 1945.
The longest game to end in a scoreless tie was a National League contest between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers on September 11, 1946.
This feat would later be accomplished by the 1971 Oakland Athletics who had games of 21 and 20 innings and the 1989 Los Angeles Dodgers who played two 22-inning contests.
The score remained deadlocked at 6–6 until the 18th, when the Astros' Chris Burke (who entered the game in the 9th inning as a pinch runner) hit a walk-off home run to left to win it, sending Houston to the NLCS.
Roger Clemens, who was brought in to pinch-hit in the 15th and pitched the last three innings in relief, was credited as the winning pitcher in the 5-hour, 50-minute contest.
Following a decision by manager Matt Williams to remove Zimmermann with two out after he walked Joe Panik, Washington closer Drew Storen gave up a single to Giants catcher Buster Posey and an RBI double to Pablo Sandoval, scoring Panik to tie the game 1–1.
The Red Sox tied the game in the top of the 8th when Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a solo home run off of Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen.
The game remained deadlocked at 1 until the 13th inning when Brock Holt scored on a throwing error by Dodgers reliever Scott Alexander.
The Mariners went 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the 18th, allowing a 3-game sweep by the Astros to advance to the American League Championship Series, and it took 6 hours, 22 minutes to finish the longest shutout game in postseason history.
The Red Sox scored 2 runs in the top of the 10th inning to take a 5–3 lead and then got two quick outs with no one on base in the bottom of the 10th.
Red Sox manager John McNamara replaced Schiraldi with Bob Stanley, who then threw a two-strike wild pitch to Mookie Wilson to allow Mitchell to score the tying run and move Knight to second base.
The wild pitch was particularly notable in that it completely turned the tables on the Red Sox from what they had done while facing the Angels weeks earlier, as they themselves had now blown a situation in which they were one strike away from winning the series.
The 1980 National League Championship Series, played between the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies, had four of its five games go to extra innings.
The 2012 American League Division Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees had back-to-back extra-inning games, going 12 and 13 innings respectively.
The longest Game 7 in postseason history was during the 1924 World Series where the Washington Senators beat the New York Giants 4–3 in 12 innings to claim the title.
The All-Star Game of July 11, 1967, at Anaheim Stadium also lasted 15 innings, but was considerably shorter in terms of elapsed time.
The All-Star Game of July 9, 2002, at Miller Park was controversially declared a 7–7 tie after 11 innings, when both teams ran out of available pitchers.
The Brother Elephants defeated the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 5 to 4 and tied the series 3–3 after 17 innings that totals 6 hours 14 minutes.
[46][47] The convention of the visiting team batting first means that there is no limit to the possible margin of victory for the visitors in extra innings.
The MLB record is held by the 1983 Texas Rangers, who put up 12 unanswered runs in the top of the 15th inning to defeat the Oakland Athletics by a score of 16–4 on July 3.
