The Ghosts of Extra Innings Past

An untraditional plan for traditionalists

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For many fans, there’s no such thing as too much baseball. Safe to say none of those folks were at Citizens Bank Park on the evening of August 24, 2013.

On that day, the D-backs were in Philly. First pitch of the game was officially thrown at 7:06 pm, an otherwise insignificant detail had the game itself not lasted exactly 7:06. Seven hours and six minutes.

Arizona’s leadoff hitter Tony Campana went 1-for-5 with five walks. Right behind him, Adam Eaton went 4-for-10. Ten!

Over the span of 18 innings, six Diamondbacks hitters had 10 plate appearances. Twenty-two players on each side got into the game. Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley were in the starting lineup, as was Casper Wells, the Phillies’ starting right fielder and eventual losing pitcher.

Will Harris threw a scoreless seventh inning for the D-backs, preserving a four-run lead in what seemed like just another regular season game. I had visions of cold Yuengling in my future. The Phillies had other ideas.

The winning pitcher that night was Trevor Cahill, who entered the game in the 15th inning. At that point, the clubhouse and dugout were a blur of rally beers and bananas; players who were out of the game focused on the former, while those still in the lineup sought potassium.

The 2013 vintage of the Diamondbacks played a record 80 extra innings. That team set the pace with a 16-inning game on the third day of the season, a getaway day on which Josh Collmenter played hero with five innings of one-run ball in extras.

Collmenter became the Cy Young of free baseball that year. He appeared in 13 extra-inning games, logged 29 IP during those outings, and posted a 2.48 ERA. The biggest reason behind why the D-backs played so many extra innings is because Collmenter pitched effectively in so many extra innings.

This team ultimately finished the season at 81-81. Really, what’s more .500 than setting a record fueled by tied games?

I recently caught up with Matt Vasgersian, MLB Network studio host and play-by-play voice of the Angels. At one point, the conversation turned to the extra-inning format for the upcoming season.

“I don’t know how it became purist versus new-age guy,” he says, referring to the polarized views on the ghost runner. Vasgersian cites the “brilliant” extra-inning format from the World Baseball Classic, in which runners were placed on first and second beginning in the 10th inning.

“There was urgency there,” he says, “with the goal being preserving people’s health. We shouldn’t have taken our eye off that ball.”

Good news for Matty V. — the ghost runner is back.

I’m with Vasgersian on this issue, and not just because I once had to stay up until 3:30 in Philadelphia. Lord knows I’ve had later bed times in that fine city.

Traditionalists lament the demise of small ball. Well, in this very untraditional way, baseball is incentivizing the little things.

Runner on 2nd, nobody out: There are so many ways to score. Productive outs — isn’t that what we pine for? The art of bunting reborn in extras!

I like what this does for the game. We dare the offense to manufacture a run, while saving the pitchers, and preventing wholesale roster turnover the following day.

In 2019, without any modifications to the rules, only about 44% of extra-inning games ended in the 10th inning. Last year, 71% of such games needed only one extra frame. Similarly, in 2019 about 82% of extra-inning games wrapped up by the 12th inning; in 2021, it was more than 98%.

With a truncated Spring Training that followed an offseason in which team facilities were off limits to players, an opportunity to increase player safety is an obvious choice.

Instead of extra-inning games in which players try to end the game with one swing, now they can win it with a bunt and a fly ball.

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