Few Runs, Nine Innings, Lots of Minutes

While staying up until 1:41 AM this morning to watch the Mets drop yet another game at Petco Park, I noticed this question being asked on Twitter by a good friend of the Studious Metsimus posse, Jason Bornstein (you may follow him on Twitter by clicking on his handle, @DyHrdMET).  Mr. Bornstein was wondering...

hey @greg_prince, any idea what the current longest (feeling) 1-0 #Mets game ever was? if anyone would, it'd be you. https://t.co/5sIex21GH0

— Jason Bornstein (@DyHrdMET) May 7, 2016

As you know, @greg_prince, otherwise known as Greg Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing fame and the author of the recently released book, "Amazin' Again", is a noted Mets historian and one of the go-to guys when it comes to obscure Mets facts.

Being the buttinski that I am, I joined the conversation and suggested a game that oddly enough is not an SNY classic - a 1-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies in 2012 that ended three hours and ten minutes after the first pitch was thrown.  And after doing some extra research, I can confirm that this is indeed the longest nine-inning, 1-0 game in Mets history.  It's also one of only four 1-0 nine-inning contests the Mets have participated in that made it to the three-hour mark.

But of course, last night the Mets did not lose by a 1-0 score.  After Mr. Bornstein's question made the rounds on Twitter, the Mets allowed a second and final run in their 2-0 defeat at the hands of the San Diego Padres.  Despite the low score, the game took exactly three hours to complete.  So I did more research (because like everyone else, that's how I spend my Saturday mornings and afternoons) and determined that it was just the 13th time in team history that the Mets needed three or more hours to play a nine-inning game in which they and their opponent combined for no more than two runs (i.e. a 1-0 or 2-0 final score).  The Mets have won five of the 13 games, taking two 1-0 decisions and three 2-0 affairs.  They've also lost two 1-0 games that lasted 3+ hours and dropped six others - including last night's contest - by a score of 2-0.

Here is a complete list of all the 3+ hour, nine-inning games involving the Mets in which the hours outnumbered the runs scored.  (You may click on the links in the final score column to see the full boxscores of each game.)

Opponent	Date	Final Score	Time of Game
vs. Philadelphia	Sept. 8, 2000	Mets lose, 2-0	3:13
vs. Washington	Sept. 12, 2012	Mets lose, 2-0	3:12
@ Florida	July 3, 2000	Mets lose, 2-0	3:11
vs. NY Yankees	July 9, 2000	Mets win, 2-0	3:11
vs. Colorado	Aug. 23, 2012	Mets lose, 1-0	3:10
@ Milwaukee	July 27, 2014	Mets win, 2-0	3:10
@ San Diego	May 17, 1988	Mets win, 1-0	3:07
vs. Montreal	May 3, 1987	Mets lose, 2-0	3:06
vs. NY Yankees	May 15, 2014	Mets lose, 1-0	3:04
vs. Tampa Bay	June 3, 2000	Mets win, 1-0	3:01
@ NY Yankees	June 15, 2007	Mets win, 2-0	3:01
vs. San Francisco	May 4, 2011	Mets lose, 2-0	3:00
@ San Diego	May 6, 2016	Mets lose, 2-0	3:00

It should be noted that the Mets' 2-0 victory over the Yankees on July 9, 2000 would have been the longest game on this list had the Mets needed to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, which they didn't because the game was played at Shea Stadium.

Also of note, three of the 13 games were Subway Series matchups.  Those are the only interleague games on the list.  In addition, the Mets only played two low-run, nine-inning games in their first 38 seasons (from 1962 to 1999) that took a minimum of three hours to complete, but in their last 17 campaigns (from 2000 to 2016), a total of 11 such games have taken place, including last night's affair against the Padres.

Usually, Mets games that have been seemingly interminable have also been accompanied by tons of runs.  But in some rare instances, pitchers' duels have also taken their sweet time to complete.  Last night was the 13th time in club annals that the Mets participated in a game that featured no more than two runs and took at least three hours to complete.  And for viewers in the Eastern Time Zone, the game didn't end until 1:41 AM.

It was certainly a case where lots of zeroes on the scoreboard led to lots of zzzzzzz's in New York.

The Longest Nine

This afternoon, the Mets completed their 11-game homestand with a 2-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants.  The low-scoring game took a tidy two hours and 37 minutes to complete.  Today's game was an aberration of sorts, as it was one of only 21 games this year to be played to its completion in under two hours and 40 minutes.

If it seems like the Mets are playing more three-hour games than ever before, you're absolutely right.  In fact, 86 of their 152 games have lasted over three hours.  And of those 86 affairs, 69 of them lasted only nine innings.  Incredibly, a dozen of those nine-inning games have lasted 3:30 or more.  Only one other time in Mets history has the team played more than 86 three-hour contests, more than 69 nine-inning games and more than 12 games that lasted three-and-a-half hours or longer.  That occurred in 2000, when the Mets played 87 three-hour games, 70 nine-inning games of three-plus hours and 13 three-and-a-half hour nine-inning games.  And the 2013 Mets still have ten games left on their schedule to pass the 2000 team.

Wake me up for the seventh inning stretch in about two-and-a-half hours or so.

During the Mets' first quarter century in the league, games did not take an obscene amount of time to complete, especially nine-inning games.  In fact, after playing nine games that took three-and-a-half hours to complete in 1962, the Mets played a total of ten such games from 1963 to 1986.

On September 13, 1972, the Mets defeated the Phillies, 11-6, in a nine-inning game that took three hours and 35 minutes to complete.  Incredibly, the Mets did not play another 3½-hour, nine-inning game for nearly 13 years!  When the Mets lost to the Expos, 5-4, on June 14, 1985, it marked the first time in almost 2,000 regular season games that a nine-inning game took at least three-and-a-half hours to complete, and it just barely made it, lasting exactly three hours and 30 minutes.

With the advent of ESPN nationally televised games (more commercials) and specialized relievers (more pitching changes) in the 1990s, the Mets have played in far more long nine-inning games over the years.  After never having played a four-hour nine-inning contest prior to the new millennium, the Mets have played five such games since 2000.  And since 1999, the Mets have played a whopping 104 nine-inning games that took at least three hours and 30 minutes to complete.  In the 37 seasons the Mets played before that, they managed to crack the 3½-hour mark in a nine-inning contest just 66 times.

On Tuesday night, the Mets lost an 8-5 decision to the Giants.  It took three hours and 55 minutes for the final verdict to be handed down in the bottom of the ninth.  Prior to 1999, the Mets had never played in a nine-inning game that needed as much as three hours and 55 minutes to complete.  Less than two weeks ago, the Mets and Indians played a low-scoring, 2-1 game.  You would think that game would have sped right along.  The time of the game was three hours and 43 minutes.

This isn't the type of baseball your parents grew up watching.  And if games continue to drag because of television and the over-managing of the bullpen, your children will find something more exciting to do to pass the time, preferably something that takes less time to complete than a nine-inning baseball game.