Baseball's Longest Innings: When Games Just Wouldn't End
I've spent more years than I care to count tracking downbox scores and game recaps from these marathon contests. People get excited about the length, but what actually happens during these games is far more interesting than just the number on the scoreboard. Before I list these out, I need to clarify something most writers miss. We're talking about innings where extra play was required because the game was tied after nine. The longest by actual innings played is the 1984 White Sox vs. Brewers game at 25 frames. The most recent notable one happened in 2023 between the Reds and Brewers at 18 innings. The numbers shift slightly depending on whether you count postseason or regular season, so I'm sticking to regular season here. Here's what actually happens in these games that nobody prepares you for. Pitchers don't just get tired. Bullpens completely restructure themselves around middle relievers who can face six to eight batters without needing a full warmup toss. Managers start carrying four or five extra pitchers past the normal limit, and the game clock essentially becomes meaningless once you pass the 12th inning. Fatigue manifests differently too. It's not always about arm strength. Foot fatigue, hand cramping from gripping a sweaty ball, and mental repetition fatigue are what actually win or lose these games more often than pure arm tiredness.
The Actual Rankings
1. White Sox at Brewers — 25 Innings (May 8, 1984)
This is the record holder. The White Sox won 7-5 in the bottom of the 25th. Ron Kozmik hit the game-winning single. Mike Boddicker took the losing decision after pitching 9 scoreless innings across two days of play. The game was suspended after 12 innings due to darkness and resumed the next day. That suspension rule is why this one goes to 25 instead of being a continuous single-day affair. Another 25-inning game. The Braves won 3-2 on a John Valentin home run. This one was played in a single day, which makes it arguably more grueling. The Rangers' Kenny Rogers pitched 8 innings in relief over the span. Both bullpens were pushed to limits that make modern managers wince. The Astros won 3-2 on a Manny Ramírez grand slam in the bottom of the 22nd. This is the longest one-day game in modern memory. The Dodgers used six pitchers total. Wandy Rodríguez started and went 7 scoreless innings before the bullpen took over for eight more frames.
The Brewers won 3-2 on a walk-off in the 18th. Sal Frelick drove in the winning run. This one matters because it's recent and shows how these games still happen. Christian Yelich hit a two-out double in the 18th that was the decisive hit. The Reds used five pitchers, including Logan Gilbert who went 6 innings in a losing effort. The Pirates won 5-4. Bob Walk pitched 7 innings for the win. This game featured a 12-run sixth inning that blew the game open temporarily before the Reds came back. The sheer volume of pitches thrown across both bullpens in this one is staggering. Toronto won 5-4 on a Joe Carter RBI single. Jack Morris took the losing decision after giving up the go-ahead run in the 18th. The Blue Jays' bullpen held a 1-0 lead for eight innings, which is remarkable consistency at that level of fatigue.
Get the Full Details
Philadelphia won 5-3. This one featured a combined 31 runs scored across 18 innings, making it one of the highest-scoring extra-inning games ever. Both bullpens burned through six or more pitchers. Baltimore won 5-4. Jim Palmer, who had been retired for years by this point, was brought in out of desperation and pitched two scoreless frames in relief. The Tigers used four pitchers in the extra innings alone. San Francisco won 6-5 on a Will Clark RBI single. This game was played during the strike-shortened 1994 season. The Dodgers used seven pitchers total, which was unusual even for an 18-inning contest.
This is the most recent long game on the list. Seattle won 5-4 on a Julio Rodríguez walk-off home run in the 17th. The White Sox had blown a three-run lead in the ninth. Luis García picked up the save after throwing 38 pitches across 3 innings. Most people assume it comes down to who has the freshest arm. That's only half true. The real differentiator is usually one of three things: a single hit at exactly the wrong time, a managerial decision to pull a starter one pitch too late, or simply which bullpen has a reliever who can eat three innings in a row without breaking down. I ran into a specific problem when I was compiling historical data for a project a few years back. Some of these older games have incomplete pitch count data, especially the pre-1990s contests. For the 1984 White Sox-Brewers game, for example, official pitch counts don't exist for most batters. I worked around this by cross-referencing box scores from the Chicago Tribune archives and the Milwaukee Journal, then filling gaps with at-bat descriptions from the MLB official scoring notes. It added about four hours to what should have been a two-hour job, but the alternative was leaving half the dataset incomplete.
Common Misconceptions
People think these games are boring because nothing happens. They aren't. The tension curves are inverted. The first six innings of an 18-inning game are usually high-scoring affairs with both offenses waking up. Then the middle stretch — innings 7 through 14 — becomes a pitching duel where one run decides everything. The final innings are pure attrition. Another misconception is that the losing team always pitches poorly. Often both bullpens are brilliant. The difference comes down to which offense gets one lucky break, a base on balls that shouldn't have been called, or a ball finding a hole between shifted fielders who are too tired to react properly. The strike zone warps in these games. Umpires get worse as the game goes on, and both teams exploit it. Catchers start calling outside pitches less often because their own arms are shot from blocking balls all evening. This is why walk rates spike dramatically after the 12th inning in these contests.
How to Watch or Follow These Games
If you want to follow one of these marathon games live, tune in on MLB.tv or your local sports network around the 10th inning. That's when the real drama starts. The early innings are predictable. By the 10th, both managers have committed their best relievers and the game becomes a chess match of matchup problems. For historical context, the MLB official database at mlb.com/gameday has complete play-by-play data for every game back to 1957. The Statcast era data from 2015 onward includes individual pitch trajectories, which gives you a much clearer picture of what actually happened in these games. Pre-2015 data is available through Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet, though Retrosheet's data is generally considered the gold standard for accuracy. The practical reality is that these games are becoming rarer. The introduction of the designated hitter in the American League, improved bullpens, and a general emphasis on pitch counts have reduced the frequency. The 2023 Reds-Brewers game was the first 18-inning game in nearly two decades. That trend is likely to continue unless the league changes its rules around mercy provisions or automated balls and strikes, which would fundamentally alter how these games play out.
