The Athletics overcame a five-run deficit against the New York Mets on Thursday at Citi Field, earning a 7-6 win and series victory after the longest regular-season nine-inning game of the MLB pitch-clock era.
The matinee took three hours and 45 minutes and required 425 total pitches -- the highest of any nine-inning game during the 2024 MLB season.
“It felt like the longest game of the pitch-clock era,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay told reporters postgame. “It’s an incredible team win today. It took basically the whole roster. That was a grind in every way.”
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Oakland’s win was powered by JJ Bleday’s first career grand slam, Mason Miller’s first career two-inning save and Shea Langeliers reaching base five times for the second time in three games.
The comeback aspect comes from A’s right-handed starter, Mitch Spence, who was chased after throwing 89 pitches and allowing five earned runs in 2 2/3 innings, leaving Oakland in a hole.
Oakland Athletics
Bleday’s homer came in the fourth to bring Oakland within one, but even he thought the A’s were running out of time -- fortunately for the road team, the center fielder was incorrect.
“I looked up and it was like the fifth inning or something,” Bleday told reporters postgame. “Like, ‘Holy crap, man. We still got four innings left to go.’ That definitely felt like the longest game of the year.
“It’s great [to win it]. It just shows our toughness, our mentality, our focus. We stuck with it through all nine innings.”
Langaliers went 3-for-4 -- with a hit-by-pitch and walk -- and reached base five times for the second time since Tuesday. But a fifth-inning wild pitch by Mets reliever Huascar Brazobán and a sixth-inning rally spearheaded by Tyler Nevin and Seth Brown gave the A’s the lead and the eventual win.
All that was left was “Miller Time.”
Miller toed the rubber needing six outs, and the 25-year-old got the job done unscathed.
“[It] felt good,” Miller said on NBC Sports California's “A’s Postgame Live” shortly after the win. “Get the boys in there with a win. Let’s get out of here with a series win, too.”
It was the first six-out save in Miller’s career.
The A’s flight back to the East Bay from New York is six hours. Miller is glad his team pulled out the win and their seventh series in nine tries and was excited to board the team jet.
“I got to stay up with the boys for this flight, maybe put the feet up for a little bit,” Miller added. “We earned this flight, it’s going to be a good time coming home.”
The A’s now are 52-70 and 5-2 in their last seven.
Only time will tell if the A’s have more history that rivals Thursday’s classic during their 57th and final season as Oakland residents.