Carlos Santana's solo home run off Darwin Barney in the top of the 19th inning helped end this season's longest Major League Baseball game to date, with the Cleveland Indians extending their winning streak to a team-record 14 games in a 2-1 marathon victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday.
The Indians came into the game as the hottest team in baseball, owning the longest winning streak in the American League since the Oakland Athletics won 20 straight in 2002.
After the win, they celebrated with an appropriate GIF on Twitter:
The Blue Jays have rebounded nicely after a slow start, posting a 15-12 record in June, to enter Friday's contest 5.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East.
Josh Tomlin and Marcus Stroman were the starting pitchers, combining to allow just two runs on 12 hits with 14 strikeouts over 12.2 innings. Both teams combined to use 19 pitchers in the contest.
Toronto was short-handed from the start, as star Edwin Encarnacion and manager John Gibbons were both ejected in the first inning for arguing with the home plate umpire.
Both teams squandered their opportunities to end the game earlier. The Blue Jays had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the 14th, but Josh Donaldson grounded out to first base.
The Indians had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the 18th against Ryan Goins, a position player, but Chris Gimenez grounded into a double play that killed the rally. Santana eventually put Cleveland ahead with a solo shot to lead off the 19th inning.
Following Gimenez's play, Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles humorously noted what his future may hold:
Usually, asking a position player to pitch is a recipe for disaster, but Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star noted Goins has history on the mound:
Per MLB.com's Jordan Bastian, this was Cleveland's longest game in 23 years:
This game started at 1:07 p.m. ET, which led Eric Alper of SiriusXM to list a multitude of things that happened around the world by the time it finally and mercifully came to an end after 7 p.m. ET:
In total, the Indians and Blue Jays went 2-for-22 with runners in scoring position. Both of Cleveland's extra-base hits came off the bat of Santana, who also doubled in the third inning and scored on Jason Kipnis' RBI single.
This was an exciting game to watch, but both teams will feel the lingering effects when they turn around and play again Saturday afternoon.
Yet the most important thing was getting the win. Cleveland was able to persevere, somehow. Toronto has one of the best lineups in baseball, so don't expect the offense to be held down much longer, especially against a potentially unknown or untested pitcher tomorrow.
Post-Game Reaction
Cleveland manager Terry Francona had some fun with his original starting pitcher when the game finally ended, per Bastian:
The Indians' pitcher of record offered his take on the way things wound up playing out, per Bastian:
Per Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Francona was able to get serious in praise of Bauer and the rest of his team for their effort over 19 innings:
What Trevor did was above and beyond. We're pretty fortunate that he can do it and that he's willing to do it. Because one slip up and we go home.
You get so invested in a game like that. It shocked everybody. It feels good to win. It's the kind of game you wish you were playing at home because one bad pitch or slip up from going home with a loss after a long day.
On the losing side, per Mark Zwolinski of the Toronto Star, Barney described his mindset going to the mound: “All I was trying to do is not hurt anyone, you don’t want to see anyone get hurt in a situation like that.”
Toronto catcher Russell Martin, who was one of three Blue Jays ejected, told Zwolinski about the problems he was having with home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza:
I told him the first curveball (of his at bat in the 13th inning), I had that pitch being away. And then he said, ‘I don’t want to hear it.’ Then I was like, ‘It’s still away.’ As I’m walking away, he threw me out of the game. I wasn’t being aggressive, didn’t tell him that he sucked personally, I didn’t tell him that he was bad. I didn’t do anything like that. All the things that everybody in the ballpark were thinking, I didn’t say that.
Stroman simply told Zwolinski "no comment" when he was asked about Carapazza, which is probably a good way for him to ensure MLB doesn't fine him.
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