Thanks to a pair of run-scoring errors in a wild 13th inning, the Dodgers and Red Sox played the longest game in World Series history Friday night. It was the longest game in World Series history and it's not even close. Max Muncy hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th to keep the Dodgers alive in this series.
Game 3 was the 12th World Series game to go 12 innings and the fourth World Series Game to go 14 innings. It is the only World Series game to go 18 innings. Here are the longest World Series games in history by innings played:
- 2018 Game 3: Dodgers beat Red Sox 3-2 in 18 innings.
- 1916 Game 2: (Brooklyn) Dodgers beat Red Sox 2-1 in 14 innings.
- 2005 Game 3: White Sox beat Astros 7-5 in 14 innings.
- 2015 Game 1: Royals beat Mets 5-4 in 14 innings.
- Several 12-inning games, most recently 2015 Game 5 (Royals beat Mets 7-2)
Furthermore, Game 3 is also the longest World Series game by time of game and again, it's not close. Here are the longest World Series games in history by time of game:
- 2018 Game 3: Red Sox vs. Dodgers in seven hours and 20 minutes.
- 2005 Game 3: White Sox vs. Astros in five hours and 41 minutes.
- 2017 Game 5: Dodgers vs. Astros in five hours and 17 minutes.
- 2015 Game 1: Royals vs. Mets in five hours and nine minutes.
- 2000 Game 1: Yankees vs. Mets in four hours and 51 minutes.
LOS ANGELES -- With a Cody Bellinger throw and a Max Muncy blow, the Los Angeles Dodgers have crawled back into the World Series. It only took the longest game in the history of the Fall Classic to do it.
Muncy's dramatic opposite-field home run in the 18th inning off Boston's Nathan Eovaldi lifted the Dodgers to a will-testing 3-2 win in Game 3 of the World Series, which started Friday but ended Saturday, cutting the Red Sox's lead in the World Series to 2-1.
It was L.A.'s first walk-off Series win since Kirk Gibson's Game 1 homer against the Oakland A's in 1988, which sparked the Dodgers to their last title. Muncy became the first player to hit a game-ending homer in a World Series game since former Cardinal and current Dodger David Freese in 2011.
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It also was an act of mercy for everyone on hand at Dodger Stadium and watching on TV. The homer ended a game that lasted 7 hours, 20 minutes and ended at 3:20 a.m. in Boston. The time of game would have been long for a doubleheader. It also was the longest World Series contest by innings.
According to Stats, Inc., the game took longer than the entire 1939 World Series, when the Yankees swept the Reds in a combined 7 hours, 5 minutes. A record 46 players appeared in the game -- 23 for each team. There were two stadium-wide renditions of "Take Out to the Ballgame," in the middle of the seventh and 14th innings. One fan in the left-field bleachers might or might not have read all 1,225 pages of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace."
The game endured despite several near-misses at ending it in a more reasonable time.
One game-extending moment happened in the 13th, when the Dodgers tied it on an error. With Muncy on second base and the Red Sox one out away from seizing a 3-0 lead in the series, Yasiel Puig hit a ground ball up the middle. Boston second baseman Ian Kinsler stumbled while making the play and threw wide of first baseman Christian Vazquez, allowing Muncy to race home with a season-saving run.
The stunning turnaround came minutes after Boston had taken a 2-1 lead when Brock Holt scored from second base on a throwing error by Dodgers reliever Scott Alexander. If the game had ended that way, it would have been the first game-winning run to score on an error in a World Series game since Game 6 in 1986 -- the Bill Buckner Game that lives in infamy in Red Sox lore.
Instead of exorcising that particular demon, the Red Sox now have to wonder if some new ones have been stirred up.
NEW YORK -- You could feel the takeover coming. There were about nine minutes left in the fourth quarter on Friday, and Kevin Durant was galloping down the court in transition. The Golden State Warriors had, in coach Steve Kerr's words, been "totally out-competed" for three quarters by the vastly inferior New York Knicks, and the superteam trailed by five points.
Enes Kanter, Durant's former Thunder teammate who has become his most prominent trash-talking troll, stood no chance as the last line of defense. Durant went at the big man, full speed, initiating contact and drawing a whistle before lofting the ball off the glass and in.
Durant had already scored five points that quarter on a 3 and a dunk, but this aggressive move -- and the brief glance toward Kanter afterward -- suggested more was coming. Less than a minute later, Durant made another driving layup in transition; this time, Knicks guard Mario Hezonja was the helpless victim. Then, in seemingly no time at all: a sky-high floater over rookie Mitchell Robinson, a pull-up 3 off a Draymond Green screen, yet another coast-to-coast layup and a standstill 20-foot jumper that put the Warriors up 10 points with five minutes to go.
In four minutes and 13 seconds, Durant scored 16 points. Before the game was over, he hit two more deep 3s, earning cheers at Madison Square Garden. He finished with 41 on 17-for-24 shooting, outscoring New York 25-16 by himself in the final frame. Stephen Curry, one of the few people on the planet who knows what this is like, said in this sort of zone you feel like you're invincible and have to ride the wave as long as you can.
"You know when you catch every green light when you're trying to get somewhere?" Durant said after Golden State's 128-100 victory. "Exactly what it feels like."
The Brooklyn Nets were about to earn a signature win over the undefeated New Orleans Pelicans on the road, but then all hell broke loose. First, leading 115-114 in the closing seconds, all the Nets had to do was hold the ball and wait to get fouled. Instead they played a game of hot potato with the basketball, which worked -- until D'Angelo Russell threw the ball directly out of bounds.
The miscue was immediately followed by an ice-cold Jrue Holiday jumper that put the Pelicans up one with two seconds left in the game.
Bleacher Report ✔@BleacherReportWYD Nets?
…Jrue ices the game for the Pelicans
Then things got even stranger. As the Nets huddled to draw up a potential game-winning play, Pelicans forward Solomon Hill walked toward Brooklyn's bench, either to get a sense of what they were planning or just to mess with them. Either way, Nets center Ed Davis didn't appreciate it, so he put his forearm into Hill's chest to get him away.
That's when Hill displayed his Oscar-worthy acting chops, falling to the floor as if he'd just caught a right hook from Mike Tyson.
Def Pen Hoops@DefPenHoopsSolomon Hill approaches the #Nets bench...
Ed Davis isn't having it
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