You've almost certainly never heard of it -- in fact, it very nearly never happened at all. And yet, not a single professional pitcher -- on any field, in any town -- has managed to match Fred Toney's start on May 10, 1909: 17 innings pitched, one walk, 19 strikeouts, no hits.
It was no ordinary no-hitter. It went 17 innings, a feat still unchallenged as the longest no-hit game in professional baseball history. third. He needed everything to outlast Lexington's starter, a newcomer named Baker, making his first effort for the Colts.
The 6-hour, 6-minute contest, which ended with the Astros' Bob Aspromonte hitting a grounder through the legs of Mets shortstop Al Weis in the bottom of the 24th, remains the longest shutout game in major league history. It also had the most scoreless innings (23) in a major-league game.
Longest professional baseball game ever
The Pawtucket Red Sox played the Rochester Red Wings on April 18, 1981, in a 33-inning game that spanned two days. After eight straight hours, the league president instructed umpires to suspend the game in the 32nd inning.
The Mets, it seems, have a penchant for playing in historically long games. Six years before they played 25 innings in Flushing, they played 24 against the Astros in Houston. Incredibly, the game was scoreless until the bottom of the 24th, the longest any Major League game has ever stayed scoreless.
No matter how many rules Major League Baseball adds to speed up play, it is safe to say that no two teams will ever be able to beat the record for the fastest nine-inning game in big-league history: 51 minutes.
Official Stance. There is currently no official mercy rule in place for Major League Baseball (MLB) games. While some voices in the baseball world have spoken in favor of adopting a mercy rule, it is not a part of the league's regular-season or postseason regulations.
2. Chicago White Sox 7, Milwaukee Brewers 6 on May 8, 1984 – 25 innings. There is a tie for the second-longest game in MLB history and both occurred just a decade apart. The Chicago White Sox faced the Milwaukee Brewers in an early 1984 season matchup.
The longest rain delay in MLB history appears to be 7 hours and 23 minutes. White Sox and Rangers in Chicago on Aug. 12, 1990. The game was ultimately postponed.
4-2-2 The game ends when the team behind in score has completed its turn at bat in the seventh inning, or any inning thereafter if extra innings are necessary. If the home team scores a go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh inning, or in any extra inning, the game is terminated at that point.
During the 1988 Major League Baseball season, pitcher Orel Hershiser of the Los Angeles Dodgers set the MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Over 59 consecutive innings, opposing hitters did not score a run against Hershiser.
The 1968 Chicago Cubs and 1906 Philadelphia Athletics share the record at 48 innings.
Valenzuela nonetheless went the distance, finishing with 10 strikeouts. Valenzuela's streak has since been bested by multiple pitchers, including Orel Hershiser who holds the MLB record with 59 scoreless innings from Aug. 30-Sept. 28, 1988.
On April 23, 1964, Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt . 45s became the only pitcher to lose a complete game no-hitter in nine innings when he was beaten, 1–0, by the Cincinnati Reds. The winning run was scored by Pete Rose in the top of the ninth inning via an error, groundout, and another error.
Baseball is sometimes called the timeless game. Unlike football, basketball or soccer, there's no clock. The teams keep playing until there's a winner. Theoretically, the game could go on and on forever.
Of the 230 no-hitters thrown starting in 1900, only 17 included runs scored by the team without hits. The last time the hitless team scored a run in a no hitter was September 8, 1993 when Darryl Kile and the Houston Astros beat the New York Mets 7-1.
1. Tim Keefe, Troy Trojans (0.86 ERA in 1880)
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders own the worst single-season record of all time (minimum 120 games) and for all eras, finishing at 20–134 (.
The longest all time World Series drought belongs to the Chicago Cubs, who went 107 seasons without winning the World Series between 1909 and 2016.
There are nine innings split into two halve in a regulation baseball game—a top of an inning where the visiting team hits first. After three outs, it then changes to the bottom of the inning, where the home team comes up, and again, they have three releases to score as many runs as possible.
The Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, two teams from the Triple-A International League, played the longest game in professional baseball history. It lasted 33 innings, with 8 hours and 25 minutes of playing time.
The pitchers' duel added some remarkable new statistics to baseball history. Cadore had 13 assists, Oeschger 11. Boston's Holke made 43 put-outs, Brooklyn's Konetchy 30. And the whole incredible 26 innings had taken only three hours and 50 minutes.
MLB records show a game in 1922 stands as the highest-scoring game of all time. That day, the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 26-23.
A mercy rule, slaughter rule, knockout rule, or skunk rule ends a two-competitor sports competition earlier than the scheduled endpoint if one competitor has a very large and presumably insurmountable scoring lead over the other. It is called the mercy rule because it spares further humiliation for the loser.
Mercy rules usually start later in a game, like in the second half or the last few innings. When one team is winning by many runs early in the game, the other team still has time to catch up. But, if there are only one or two innings left, the chances of them coming back from a large deficit are small.