Who says that September bonus baseball is a bad product? Furthermore, who was awake when the 19-inning donnybrook ended between the St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks?
While most at the water cooler this morning will say the game went seven hours, officially it went into the books at six hours, 53 minutes. Equally important, here’s how it ended; when a guy named Ildemaro Vargas picked up his fourth hit of the night to walk off St. Louis:
https://twitter.com/Dbacks/status/1176778198819852288?s=20
First off, props to Arizona for playing this hard when they have nothing but pride to play for. How many teams throw in the towel at some point in a 19-inning game and decide to get ready for the next day. However, Arizona realized they were already into the next day (excuse the pun); and a crazy baseball game broke out.
This included but was not limited to:
- Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning.
- The only two St. Louis runs came on solo homers in 73 plate appearances.
- Had the game reached a 20th inning, Arizona pitcher Robbie Ray was going to play outfield.
- The Diamondbacks used a franchise record 30 position players (thank you September rosters).
- In all, 53 players were used in the game; including 24 pitchers combining for 576 pitches.
- St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina caught all 19 innings, 273 total pitches received.
Which brings us to our next point – Molina is a monster. Moreover, his brother Bengie Molina happened to be in the stands. Indeed, a quote from Bengie Molina sums things up well:
“I remember he looked at me in the stands in the 16th inning,’’ said Bengie Molina, 45, his brother, who retired nine years ago. “He motioned to me, and said, ‘Hey, can you take over?’ It was such a long night. I worry about him.’’
Finally the game wrapped up at 3:43 AM ET, and it’s unlikely that anyone reading this was up watching it. Whether or not you were, the longest game in Chase Field history proves that baseball can decide to get weird at any point. Even late in the season when teams are out of contention.
That’s up to baseball.
