Throwback Thursday: Longest Games In Mariners History

Friday night the Mariners played one of the longest games in their history and didn’t come out on top. So, during a 16 inning marathon, it reminded me of another extra inning game that had a lot of drama, but how bout for this week’s Throwback Thursday, I just go down the top 5 longest games the M’s have ever played, shall I?

First off I’m going to start with a game that happened on June 23, 1993, the first official year that the Mariners and other teams had a uniform change. This game went 14 innings and lasted 4 hours and 37 minutes. This game is also really famous because Jay Buhner became the first Mariner in the franchise history to hit for the cycle.

In that game the Mariners put up 5 runs in the bottom of the first inning but the Oakland A’s came back after scoring 1 in the first and put up 3 in the third and 3 in the eighth.

Down 7-6 in the bottom of the 8th with 2 outs, Bill Hasselman came up to pinch hit for Dave Valle and hit a game tying home run. In the bottom of the 14th, Buhner who already had a homer, single and a double under his belt, hit a shot into right center field and was able to slide in safely to third to complete the cycle.

With Mike Blowers up with 1 out, Shawn Hilegas threw a wild pitch that allowed Buhner to score and the Mariners walked it off……literally.

The next game, the Mariners did lose but it was still a fun game to watch. In September of 2012 the Mariners and the Orioles went 18 innings with the M’s falling 4-2. Mike Zunino and Kyle Seager may have each gone 0 for 7 in Friday night’s 16 inning contest but Jesus Montero went 0 for 8 in this contest. Either way the M’s lost.

In 2001 the Mariners were involved in 13 extra inning games and came out on top in 9 of those games, one of them went 14 innings at Safeco against the Toronto Blue Jays. Roy Halladay started that game for Toronto and went 7.1 before being taken out of the game. This contest lasted 4 hours and 37 minutes before Matt DeWitt of the Jays walked Mike Cameron with the bases loaded to end the game.

In 1994 the Mariners were on the road for this 13 inning contest against the Texas Rangers. It was a back and forth game with the most runs scored in an inning being 2 for both teams. Then in the top of the 13th Ken Griffey, Jr., stepped up and drilled his 2nd home run of the game into the seats and that was all she wrote. Jr went 4 for 7 in that game with 2 home runs.

Finally we reach my favorite extra inning game in the team’s history……..the 19 inning game in 2000 against the Boston Red Sox. This was a game that I attended and for being 10 years old at the time my mom wanted to go home after the 11th but both me and my grandmother were like “are you crazy”?

The game last 5 hours and 34 minutes until former Mariners pitcher Jeff Fassero came into the ballgame. Mike Cameron looked at 11 pitches, then on the 12th pitch sent what was left of 37,391 fans home happy.

This is my list for the top longest games in Mariners history. Frankly we should have won Friday, but at least we won Saturday’s shorter 12-inning affair.

Go Mariners!!!!