It was exhausting and exhilarating, maddening and delirious and by the end of it, Game 5 of the American League Division Series was the longest, by innings, winner-take-all game in Major League Baseball history.
Such drama – capped when Jorge Polanco’s bases-loaded single scored J.P. Crawford in the bottom of the 15th inning to break a stalemate and send the Seattle Mariners into the AL Championship Series – comes with no shortage of statistical absurdities.
The Detroit Tigers were shut out for an entire game – the final nine innings – yet still hung around long enough to rue the many missed opportunities all winter. Meanwhile, the Mariners will sleep off their celebration and jet to Toronto for Game 1 of the ALCS on Sunday, Oct. 12.
Before moving onward, let’s explore nine of the most important and absurd numbers from the 15-inning epic.
Strikeouts by both teams, a tribute both to the excellent pitching but also the tightness with which players clutched the bats in the late going.
