Sunday, October 3, 2010

A marathon Game 162 ... again

Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER
Players congratulate each other after pulling out today's 14-inning win.
NEW YORK — Earlier this weekend, someone sitting on the Nationals bench brought up the finale from the 2009 season: a marathon, 15-inning game in Atlanta that finally ended with a 2-1 Washington victory.

Justin Maxwell, who played all 15 innings that day, turned and glared at his teammate for even bringing that up.

"I looked at them kind of funny," the outfielder said, "thinking hopefully it doesn't happen again."

Well, it happened again. Not the full 15 innings, but everything else was the same. In Game 162 of the 2010 season, the Nats needed 14 innings to beat the Mets by that familiar 2-1 score. Once again, Washington's longest game of the year was its final game of the year.

"It was funny because the guys were telling me it's kind of becoming tradition here," said Miguel Batista, who pitched for Seattle in 2009 but earned the save today with a scoreless 14th. "Last year they played like 20 innings against the Braves. My first question was: 'Did you guys win?' They said yes. 'OK, because I don't want to stay this long and lose.'"

Read the full story on CSNwashington.com.

7 comments:

joemktg said...

And you have to drive back to the DC area.

Sunshine_Bobby_Carpenter_Is_Too_Pessimistic_For_Me said...

Happy Offseason, everyone. Mark, you're our Most Valuable Player. Keep the insights and the good humor throughout the winter. Can anyone lend me their copy of "Viera, on $5 a Day?"

natsfan1a said...

I second Sunshine. Thanks for all your work and for the hospitable venue this season, Mark. Nice that you didn't have to rush to catch a plane after it went into extra innings. :-)

Traveler8 said...

Me too, Mark, thanks very much for a great season.

Anonymous said...

Mark, I think your hyperlink is broken.

Many thanks for terrific and engaging reporting all season long. I hope the blog will continue through the off-season and next season!

Mark Zuckerman said...

Anon: Link just worked for me. Give it a try again.

LoveDaNats said...

Just got back from Philly and seeing a Redskins win. But spent a long time on gameday until my phone battery died. What a game. When the bases were loaded and Justin came up........deja vu! But it was not to be. Happy off season everyone.

"There are two seasons. Baseball season and waiting for baseball season".

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