Eighteen Innings, Zero Runs, No Winner
Eighteen innings of nothing, a defection that split New York, a stadium born of three rivers, and two dozen runs in one night.
Ed. 07.16.26
Eighteen Innings, Zero Runs, No Winner (1909)
The first-place Tigers hosted the last-place Senators, and nobody scored for 18 innings. Detroit's Ed Summers pitched every frame, facing 63 batters and allowing just seven hits. When the umpire finally called it for darkness at 0 to 0, nobody was angrier than Summers, who had thrown the equivalent of two complete games for absolutely nothing. It remains the longest scoreless game in AL history, and modern suspended-game rules mean it always will be.
The Day Leo Switched Sides (1948)
Leo Durocher had been the snarling face of the Brooklyn Dodgers for nearly a decade. Then, in one July afternoon, he was let out of his contract and took over the New York Giants, replacing Mel Ott, the very man Durocher was talking about when he coined "nice guys finish last." Dodgers fans who had worshipped him woke up loathing him. Three years later he beat Brooklyn for the pennant on Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World. Baseball has never seen a betrayal pay off quite like it.
A Stadium Rises Where the Rivers Meet (1970)
Barely three weeks after saying goodbye to Forbes Field, the Pirates opened Three Rivers Stadium, the $55 million bowl where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio. Dock Ellis threw the first pitch before 48,846 fans, but Tony Perez homered and the Reds crashed the housewarming, 3 to 2. Glory came soon enough: the first World Series night game in 1971, a championship that October, and a right fielder so luminous they called it The House That Clemente Built.
Slam Diego Drops Two Dozen (2021)
The Padres hung a franchise-record 24 runs on the Nationals, and Jake Cronenworth hit for the cycle: double, triple, homer, then an infield single to finish it. Tommy Pham scored five runs and stole home on a double steal. San Diego piled up 22 hits and scored in every inning but the seventh. Some nights the box score reads like a typo.
