Highlights from last night's seven hour, eighteen inning extravaganza.
- David DeJesus had four hits in lead off, and was the only player on either team to reach base that many times. Ben Zobrist had three hits batting second, Jennings had two hits and a walk pinch hitting for Jose Molina (who scored a crucial run), and Escobar had one hits and two bases on balls. That was the Rays offense on the evening.
- Longoria was 1-for-8, Myers was 0-for-8.
- David Price had allowed 9 hits over 5.0 IP, but only two runs. Maddon lifted him there in favor of two clean outs from Jamey Wright, and then called on Jake McGee to strike out the recently acquired Michael Morse, swinging on a pitch inside on a full count.
- McGee wouldn't be so effective in the seventh: He walked Brian Roberts after a ten-pitch at bat, dialing up to a shade from 100 MPH and missing badly.
The next at bat featured four foul balls before McGee nailed Manny Machado high and inside. - Maddon didn't like what he saw, and did what the twittersphere probably wanted and brought in a new reliever. Alex Torres got a singing strike from Adam Jones before the center fielder doubled to score a run. Torres got Chris Davis swinging, but then allowed a sac fly to tie the ball game, and Maddon turned to another reliever...
- Brandon Gomes stopped the bleeding by intentionally walking Matt Wieters, and then worked a ground ball from J.J. Hardy for the fielder's choice.
- Joel Peralta pitched a clean frame in the eighth, haters -- including a foul out, a fly out, and a ground out.
- Fernando Rodney pitched two innings in the ninth and tenth, without earning a strikeout and allowing a single baserunner in a walk to Chris Davis.
- Jake Odorizzi did his part, starting in the 11th inning: 3.2 IP, two base runners (hit, walk), two strikeouts (both of Adam Jones). Odorizzi had some amped speed out of the 'pen, but it faded to his average 92 mph by his third inning of relief:
- Cesar Ramos (1.1) and Wesley Wright (0.2) took the next six outs, with a lone walk by Ramos. Then with one out remaining in the 16th, Maddon made the interesting call of reaching in to his quiver and bringing out...
- Jeremy Hellickson, Sunday's presumed starter. He allowed one base runner, and struck out two over 2.1 IP. It won't be Helloween on Sunday, so the likely scenario is the Roberto Hernandez, who pitched in relief on Sept. 17, 18, and 19.
- Hellickson saw the same, brief velocity bump as Odorizzi.
If either pitcher were to start being used out of the pen, it appears that neither would flash a better fastball for more than an inning. - The win came at the hands of David DeJesus, who had the most success at the plate on the evening. With Bud Norris on the mound, Jennings doubled to left field and Escobar walked to put two men on and one out for DDJ. Norris offered a slider with almost no movement to the center of the strikezone, and DeJesus singled up the middle to begin the exhausted celebration.
- It was the longest game in franchise history, and the 21 pitchers used marked (a Major League record!).
If I'm being honest, I only made it through sixteen innings. Kudos to those of you that stayed awake for the whole thing.