As far as statistics go, baseball quite literally is in a league of its own.
In no other major North American professional sport does each team play 162 games in a regular season, meaning Major League Baseball has an incredibly large statistical sample size from which to draw. It also means, despite the sport being around for almost 150 years, we can witness history on any given night.
That certainly was the case Tuesday at Fenway Park, where the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays duked it out for an unfathomable 19 innings. Hanley Ramirez finally sent the Red Sox home happy with a 3-2, walk-off win, but not before the contest gave us a pair of stellar web gems, some timely hitting and a whole heaping of eye-opening stats.
Here are our eight favorite stats from Tuesday night’s marathon, with a hat tip to the Red Sox’s media relations staff:
— Not only was Tuesday’s contest the longest game in MLB this season, it also was the second-longest game in Fenway Park’s 106-year history.
— The Red Sox used 12 pitchers, setting a new franchise record and tying the American League record set just this Monday by the Los Angeles Angels.
— They used 28 total players (16 positional players, 12 pitchers) and combined with Toronto to utilize 51 total players. That’s tied for third-most in MLB history and just seven short of the all-time record of 58 set in 2015 by the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers.
— The Red Sox’s bullpen threw 13 scoreless innings, marking their longest scoreless performance since 1913. Boston’s 11 relief pitchers combined to allow just six hits over those 13 frames while striking out 15.
— Boston pitchers tallied 23 strikeouts on the night, tying a franchise record and becoming just the eighth team since 1913 to notch 23 strikeouts in a single game.
— Tuesday marked Boston’s 10th walk-off win of the season, its most in a single campaign since 2013. The Red Sox are 12-3 in extra-inning games and 7-1 at home in such contests.
— Boston now has played three games of 15 innings or more this season, the first time it’s done so in 41 years.
— Mitch Moreland aged a whole lot Tuesday night, as he celebrated his 32nd birthday as the calendar turned to Wednesday.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
