A sacrifice fly by Jose Reyes in the 20th inning scored the winning run to give the New York Mets a 2-1 victory over St. Louis in the longest Major League Baseball game since 2008.
The game was scoreless for 18 innings, the equivalent of two regulation-length games, before each team scored in the 19th to extend the marathon yet again.
New York's Jeff Francoeur broke the deadlock with a sacrifice fly to score a run in the 19th inning but the Cardinals equalized when Yadier Molina hit a two-out single to bring home Albert Pujols in the bottom of the 19th.
Francisco Rodriguez was the winner despite giving up the equalizer on Molina's hit. Mike Pelfrey, a starter, earned his first career save in a game that lasted six hours and 53 minutes and saw 19 pitchers take the mound.
Exactly two years earlier, Colorado beat San Diego 2-1 in 22 innings.
The 18 scoreless innings were the most since the Los Angeles Dodgers and Montreal went 21 innings without scoring in 1989, a game won 1-0 by the Dodgers on Rick Dempsey's home run in the 22nd inning.
The Mets' Joe Mather took the loss, becoming the rare position player to lose a game as a pitcher.
The Mets had not played so long a game since losing 4-3 to St. Louis in 25 innings in 1974.
Copyright 2010  AFP Global Edition
