World Series 3: Dodgers 3, Red Sox 2 (18)

Red Sox - 000 000 010 000 100 000 - 2  7  1
Dodgers - 001 000 000 000 100 001 - 3 11  1

The clock on my desk read 3:30 AM when Max Muncy hit an opposite field home run to left-center in the bottom of the eighteenth inning, giving the Dodgers a 3-2 win over the Red Sox.

This was the longest World Series game of all-time, both by time (7:20) and by innings, smashing the previous record of 14, first set in 1916 when the Red Sox bested the Dodgers. According to a tweet from Stats by STATS, this game lasted 15 minutes longer than the entire 1939 World Series, when the Yankees swept the Reds in four games in a combined 7:05 [Times: 1:33, 1:27, 2:01, 2:04]

The blast - on the 561st pitch of the game - came off Ironman Nathan Eovaldi (6-3-2-1-5, 97), who entered the game in the twelfth as the Red Sox's ninth pitcher of the night (though it was well into morning by then). Eovaldi also pitched one inning in each of the first two games. The only two Boston players who did not see action in this game were Chris Sale and Drew Pomeranz, though Pomeranz was warming up when the game ended and probably would have pitched the nineteenth (and beyond?).

The Red Sox tied the game at 1-1 when Jackie Bradley homered off Kenley Jansen with two outs in the eighth. All 10 of JBJ's postseason RBI have come with two outs. Ian Kinsler was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a fly to center in the tenth.

Both teams scored in the thirteenth, aided by an opposing team error. The Red Sox left the bases loaded in their half. Eduardo Nunez nearly died in the inning. First, he was topped over by the Dodgers catcher on a loose ball and may have hurt his ankle. Then he slid headfirst into first base on an infield single. In the bottom half of the inning, he fell into the stands after running hard and catching a foul ball. Later, he caught a popup by the mound for the first out of the sixteenth and tumbled into the dirt.

Manager Alex Cora also moved his outfielders around in the eighth through the twelfth innings, depending on the batter, with Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley changing positions seven times.

Dodgers starter Walker Buehler (7-2-0-0-7, 108) is only the third pitcher in World Series history to throw seven or more scoreless innings while allowing two hits or fewer. The other two are Don Larsen (Game 5, 1956) and Fat Billy from Ohio (Game 2, 2000). Buehler retired the Red Sox in order in the first inning on 26 pitches, the most in any 1-2-3 inning in postseason history. He threw a career-high 108 pitches.

Three World Series games had gone 14 innings: 1916 Game 2 (Red Sox 2, Dodgers 1), 2005 Game 3 (White Sox 7, Astros 5), and 2015 Game 1 (Royals 5, Mets 4). ... The 1916 game was played in only 2:32!

(4:15 AM: More later ...)

(10:23 AM: Or maybe not.)

(2:35 PM: Nope.)

5:30 PM: Thousands of words could be written about last night's game. (And if they are, I want to read them.) I had hoped to comment on the horrendous pitch-calling of plate umpire Ted Barrett and the numerous calls that went against the Red Sox, especially in the later extra innings. I know Barrett blew calls that harmed the Dodgers, too, but for several innings, his strike zone suddenly tightened up when a Boston pitcher was on the mound. It's that sort of alternating strike zone that makes a serious fan s0mewhat paranoid about the honesty of the game.

But when a game ends at 3:30 and you finally go to bed around 4:15 and then get up around 8:15 and eventually head off to work a 12-hour day, there simply is no time. And it seems pointless to do that kind of examination several days after the game has been played.

Rick Porcello / Walter Buehler

Betts, RF
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Martinez, LF
Holt, 2B
Devers, 3B
Bradley, CF
Vázquez, C
Porcello, P

The Red Sox's bats are going to come out hard and kick ass. They are going to send the opposing pitcher to the showers so fast, everyone will think Friday is Walter Buehler's Day Off!

(A pop culture reference from more than 30 years ago! It's just what the big-time sportswriters do! Woo!)

Since 2004, the Red Sox are 14-2 in World Series games.

I am loathe to give Manny Machado credit for anything, but he certainly did his job at second base in the fourth inning of Game 2. The Red Sox said that Machado was stealing and relaying signs from second base to hitters. His work led to the Dodgers taking a 2-1 lead in the game.

Throughout Enrique Hernandez's nine-pitch battle with [David] Price, Machado appeared to be relaying signs and/or location to Hernandez through an exaggerated series of motions.

As Price was coming set, Machado, leading off from second, would place his hands on his hips. Then, just before each pitch, Machado would begin a series of motions: touching his helmet with either his right or left hand, sometimes then touching or pulling the script on his jersey afterward and other times grabbing or touching the thigh/groin area of his pants. ...

"Was it a little exaggerated? Yeah, maybe, but I saw the whole thing," [pitching coach Dana] LeVangie said of Machado's gyrations. "I had told [Boston manager] Alex [Cora] I wanted to go [to the mound] before the Puig at-bat because I wanted to talk about some things. But ... I didn't want to f--k with the momentum there because David got a huge strikeout."

Plus, catcher Christian Vazquez had taken a mound visit already in the inning ...

From second, Machado gestured again. Puig swung at the first pitch he saw, a 93 mph fastball, knocking an RBI single into center to give the Dodgers their first—and only—lead of the series. It was Machado who scored. ...

LeVangie went out after Puig's RBI single to talk with Price and Vazquez ...

"We had a conversation," LeVangie said. "I don't want to get into the depths of it, but I brought up exactly what you're talking about. I let it get in my way—because of the strikeout, I didn't go out there [earlier]. I was so pissed that I didn't."

LeVangie was adamant that Machado did absolutely nothing wrong. "If you're not hiding your stuff with a runner on second base and you're giving them a free view, that's on you, the pitcher and the catcher. It's up to the pitcher and catcher to manage that and to us to oversee it ... We see this all the time. Not just him, with everyone."