Cubs - Nationals NLDS Game 5 Was the Longest 9-Inning Postseason Game Ever

The Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals played a very good baseball game on Thursday night – and Friday morning. The Cubs beat the Nationals, 9-8, in a Game 5 to advance to the NLCS. It was good stuff. Hope you didn’t have to go to work this morning.

The game sprinted past the D.C. Metro’s usual last train on Thursday and slowly and intentionally walked into the early hours of Friday morning thanks to – among other basic baseball things – so damn many pitching changes. The official time of the game is listed at an astounding 4-hours and 37-minutes. For a 9-inning game. On a weeknight.

Baseball is good. 277 minutes of baseball in a single evening is bad. According to our records, this was the longest game in postseason history that didn’t go into extra innings. The fact that this specifies postseason makes me think there was a regular season baseball game that lasted longer than 4 hours and 37 minutes and only went 9 innings. Can you imagine?

(The previous record belonged to the Red Sox and Yankees in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS the Nationals and Dodgers almost exactly one year ago.)

14 total pitchers were used. There were only mid-inning pitching changes.

The Nationals used seven of those pitchers including Max Scherzer who gave up 4 runs (2 earned) on 3 hits in 1-inning of work on short rest out of the bullpen. The Cubs also used 7 pitchers, including three in the 7th inning.

The 12 pitchers who worked in relief last night threw an average of 17.5 pitches each. Wade Davis threw 44 pitches and earned a 2.1 inning save. Carl Edwards Jr. threw 5 pitches.

Feel free to debate ways to fix baseball for the next year and we’ll meet back here when the Nationals lose at home to a different team in a 5-hour 9-inning Game 5 in a year.