On October 26, 2018, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox began what would be the longest World Series game in MLB history.
The Dodgers, trailing 2-0 in the series, took an early lead in Game 3 on Joc Pederson’s solo home run in the second inning. That score would remain until Jackie Bradley Jr. tied the game with a solo homer of his own in the eighth inning.
The Red Sox took the lead in the 13th inning behind a leadoff walk and throwing error on an infield single by Eduardo Núñez. The Dodgers were three outs away from a daunting 3-0 series deficit, but the Red Sox then endured a disastrous inning of their own.
Yasiel Puig’s infield single tied the game and Max Muncy nearly hit a walk-off home run in the 15th inning that hooked just a few feet foul. Nathan Eovaldi proceeded to end the at-bat with a strikeout.
Three innings later, Muncy got just enough of a fastball to clear the fence in left-center field for a game-winning home run.
The blast capped off the longest game in World Series history, both by time (7 hours, 20 minutes) and number of innings played (18). The marathon spanned over parts of two separate days as Game 3 began at Dodger Stadium on October 26, only to finish in the early morning hours of Oct. 27.
The walk-off homer was only the second in Dodgers franchise history in the World Series, with the first being Kirk Gibson’s in Game 1 in 1988.
Max Muncy felt ‘pure joy’ after Dodgers postseason walk-off home run
After his historic home run, Muncy described the emotions he felt while rounding the bases. “He had really good stuff all night long and he wasn’t missing a spot,” Muncy said of facing Eovaldi.
“Next at-bat he tried to go backdoor cutter again, but he left this one a little over the plate. And thankfully for me he did that, because I was able to get my bat to it.
“It’s been a dream. This whole year has been a surreal experience that it’s hard to put into words,” he said. “But just getting a chance to play in the World Series has kind of capped it off.
“And then getting a chance to hit a walk-off home run, obviously there’s not many words I can use to describe that. The feeling was just pure joy and incredible excitement. That’s about all I can think of because it’s hard to describe how good a feeling it is.”
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