Muncy Is Hero Of Record 18-Inning World Series Game

LOS ANGELES, CA — Max Muncy hit a homerun at the bottom of the 18th inning early Saturday morning to give the Dodgers a 3-2 victory over the Red Sox in the longest World Series game ever played.

After an exhausting game that ran almost seven and a half hours, the two teams will meet again at Dodger Stadium in mere hours for Game 4 Saturday with Boston holding a 2-1 lead in the series. But for now, Muncy, who started the season in the minors, is the unexpected hero for the Dodgers, having scored both the tying and winning runs for his team.

Joc Pederson started off the scoring for the Dodgers in the third inning with a homerun. Los Angeles held the lead until Boston tied it in the eighth inning with a homer to right field by Jackie Bradley Jr. off closer Kenley Jansen. A scoreless ninth sent the game into overtime, and both teams ran through pitchers in a series of scoreless innings until the top of the 13th when the Red Sox took the lead by capitalizing on pitcher errors.

Dodgers pitcher Scott Alexander sent Brock Holt to first on a walk. He quickly stole second base. Eduardo Nunez drove Holt home with a ground hit to Alexander, who lobbed the ball wildy past first base, giving Holt a chance to run home.

With their backs to the wall, the Dodgers managed to stay in the game at the bottom of the 13th inning with an RBI by Yasiel Puig. Pitcher Nathan Eovaldi walked Muncy, who managed to touch-up and get to second after a flyball by Cody Bellinger. With two outs, a ground hit to second by Puig seemed like the end of the game, but a wild throw went past the first baseman, sending Muncy home to tie the game.

But Muncy wasn't done. His homerun over the wall in left field at the bottom of the 18th inning etched his name into the record books, ending the longest World Series game in history.

There had been 14-inning games in the 1916, 2005 and 2015 Series, the previous record. Friday's game took a record seven hours and 20 minutes to play. The previous longest World Series game by time was Game 3 of the 2005 Series, which took five hours and 41 minutes to play.

City News Service contributed to this report. LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 26: Max Muncy #13 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates his eighteenth inning walk-off home run to defeat the the Boston Red Sox 3-2 in Game Three of the 2018 World Series at Dodger Stadium on October 26, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images). (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)