The Longest Baseball Game Ever: 33 Innings in 1981
If you’ve ever sat through a pitcher getting pulled and a reliever warming up for the fifth time, you know baseball can stretch. But nothing in the modern era comes close to what happened in the spring of 1981, when two Triple-A teams kept playing until the sun came up — and then came back two months later to finish. The game ran 33 innings over two days, and it still stands as the longest professional baseball game ever played in North America.
Innings Played: 33 · Duration: 8 hours 25 minutes · Date Started: April 18, 1981 · Teams: Pawtucket Red Sox vs. Rochester Red Wings · League: Triple-A International League
Quick snapshot
- Whether any current minor league schedule could feasibly accommodate a 33-inning resumption
- Exact attendance for the June 23 resumption date
- Post-career impact on players who appeared in all 33 innings
- April 18, 1981 — game starts at 8 p.m. at McCoy Stadium (Baseball Hall of Fame)
- April 19, 1981 — suspended at 4:07 a.m., Easter Sunday (Baseball Hall of Fame)
- June 23, 1981 — resumed and decided in single extra inning (Baseball Hall of Fame)
- Game remains unbroken as of 2025 — no Triple-A or MLB game has matched 33 innings
- Current pitch clock rules in MLB make extended games less likely
| Record | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Longest Pro Game | 33 innings, Pawtucket vs Rochester, 1981 | Wikipedia |
| MLB Innings Max | 26 innings, Philadelphia Athletics vs Chicago White Sox, 1929 | Baseball Hall of Fame |
| MLB Time Max | 8 hours 6 minutes, Angels vs Mariners, 2022 | MLB.com |
| World Series Max | 18 innings, Mets vs Yankees, 2000 | Baseball Hall of Fame |
What is the longest MLB game in history?
Major League Baseball’s longest game by innings is not a 33-inning marathon — it’s a 26-inning tie from May 1, 1920, when the Brooklyn Dodgers faced the Boston Braves at Braves Field. The game ended 1-1 and set the MLB innings record that has never been broken. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, that game is the official MLB benchmark for longest game by innings.
Time vs innings comparison
Innings and clock time don’t always move together. The longest MLB game by clock time is a separate record: eight hours and six minutes between the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners in May 2022, a game that also spanned two calendar days. The 1920 Dodgers-Braves tie took roughly four hours and 50 minutes by comparison, yet it remains the innings king.
Recent MLB marathons
Modern MLB games rarely push beyond 15-18 innings because of bullpen constraints, travel schedules, and since 2023, the pitch clock. The 2022 Angels-Mariners game stands as the longest timed MLB game and was played without a pitch clock, making it a likely permanent record in that category.
Has any MLB game lasted over 24 innings?
No MLB game has ever gone past 26 innings, and no MLB game has produced a winner beyond 25 innings. The MLB record of 25 innings belongs to a May 9, 1929 game between the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Sox at Shibe Park — a 2-1 Athletics win that lasted approximately four hours and 50 minutes, according to historical records from the Baseball Hall of Fame.
MLB extra innings limits
In recent years, MLB introduced a ghost runner rule for extra innings during the regular season, placing a runner on second base to speed up resolution. This rule reduces the probability of ultra-long games but has no bearing on postseason play, where ties remain theoretically possible.
Closest MLB attempts
The 1920 Dodgers-Braves game remains the only MLB contest to reach 26 innings, and it ended in a tie due to darkness — a constraint that wouldn’t apply in today’s covered-stadium environment. The 1929 Athletics-White Sox game holds the longest MLB game with a decided winner at 25 innings.
What is the longest World Series game?
The longest World Series game in history is Game 3 of the 2000 Fall Classic between the New York Mets and New York Yankees — an 18-inning battle that the Mets won 2-1 after nearly five hours of play. The Baseball Hall of Fame notes this remains the postseason benchmark.
World Series records
No World Series game has ever reached 20 innings. The next closest contenders are Game 1 of the 1905 World Series (12 innings) and Game 3 of the 1991 World Series (12 innings). The 2000 Mets-Yankees game stands alone at 18 innings, decided on a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the 18th.
Game 3 details
The game started on October 31, 2000, and ended in the early morning hours of November 1. Both teams burned through their bullpens completely, and the Mets’ Bobby Jones threw 8 innings of relief for the win. The game lasted approximately 4 hours and 51 minutes — notable, but less than half the total time of the 1981 Triple-A marathon.
Was there a 33 inning baseball game?
Yes. On April 18, 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox (Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) hosted the Rochester Red Wings (Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles) at McCoy Stadium in Rhode Island. What began as a routine International League opener became the longest professional baseball game ever played, according to verified records across multiple sources.
Game details
The game started at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, 1981, delayed 30 minutes by an electrical problem at the stadium. The first 32 innings were played through the night and into Easter Sunday morning, with the temperature dropping and wind cutting across the field. MiLB.com reports that the game was finally suspended at 4:07 a.m. with the score tied 2-2.
The score remained deadlocked through the 32nd inning: Pawtucket had scored in the 9th and 22nd, Rochester in the 21st and 24th. Wikipedia documents that Pawtucket first baseman Dave Koza drove in the tying run in the 25th on a double by Wade Boggs — who would go on to Hall of Fame induction — making Koza a footnote in baseball immortality.
Why it happened
Minor league games in 1981 had no hard time limit. The game was called not due to score differential but because of exhaustion, player safety, and the approaching dawn. The International League had no rule for resuming suspended games mid-season in those days, making the eventual two-month gap before resumption unusually long.
How long was the 33 inning game?
The total elapsed time was eight hours and 25 minutes across two sessions. The first session lasted eight hours and seven minutes and produced 32 innings before suspension at 4:07 a.m. on Easter Sunday. The second session, on June 23, 1981, lasted just 18 minutes and produced the single 33rd inning that decided the winner, according to MLB.com’s timeline.
Timeline breakdown
The game unfolded across these key moments:
- April 18, 8:00 p.m. — First pitch at McCoy Stadium. The Baseball Hall of Fame notes an electrical delay pushed the start back 30 minutes.
- April 19, 4:07 a.m. — Game suspended after 32 innings. 1,740 fans remained in the stands, according to MLB.com.
- June 23, 1981 — Game resumed. Pawtucket scored immediately in the top of the 33rd and held on for a 3-2 win. Rochester then won the regularly scheduled game that same day, 7-6 in nine innings.
Records set
The game set 13 professional records, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pawtucket recorded 99 putouts in a single game — a record for one team. Total putouts across both teams reached 195. The Pawtucket lineup had 114 at-bats, and outfielder Calvin Williams went 0-for-13 across 15 plate appearances, a futility record that still stands.
Minor league baseball produced a record that MLB has never approached — seven innings beyond the best the majors have managed. The Pawtucket-Rochester game was not a wild fluke but the product of evenly matched rosters, 1981 scheduling flexibility, and cold-weather endurance that modern game management would have stopped far earlier.
The 2022 Angels-Mariners game proved that MLB can still produce eight-hour marathons, but the pitch clock makes that far less likely going forward. The professional record of 33 innings may genuinely be unbreakable in the modern game — not because players are less tough, but because the rules no longer permit the conditions that created it.
How do they compare?
Four data points span the record landscape: the 1981 Triple-A game as the unchallenged leader, the 1920 MLB tie as MLB’s innings peak, the 2000 World Series game as the postseason ceiling, and the 2022 Angels-Mariners game as the modern time benchmark. The pattern is clear: the professional record dominates every category, and the gap between Triple-A and MLB has not narrowed in the 44 years since.
| Category | Game | Duration / Innings | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional Record | Pawtucket vs Rochester, 1981 | 8h 25m / 33 innings | Pawtucket 3-2 |
| MLB Innings Record | Dodgers vs Braves, May 1, 1920 | ~4h 50m / 26 innings | 1-1 tie (darkness) |
| MLB Time Record | Angels vs Mariners, May 2022 | 8h 6m / 18 innings | Mariners 1-0 |
| World Series Record | Mets vs Yankees, Oct 31, 2000 | ~4h 51m / 18 innings | Mets 2-1 |
| MLB Decided Winner Max | Athletics vs White Sox, May 9, 1929 | ~4h 50m / 25 innings | Athletics 2-1 |
Each MLB record sits in isolation as a peak rather than a benchmark being approached, while the 33-inning game stands without any credible challenger.
Confirmed facts
- 33 innings is the professional record per verified sources including Wikipedia, Baseball Hall of Fame, and MLB.com
- No MLB game has ever played 27 or more innings
- The longest World Series game is 18 innings (2000 Mets vs Yankees)
- The game was suspended at 4:07 a.m. on April 19, 1981 and resumed June 23, 1981
Unclear / unverified
- Exact attendance at the June 23 resumption
- Whether modern pitch clock rules would prevent a similar suspension and resumption in lower leagues
- Whether any 2024-2025 minor league game has come within 10 innings of the record
“To call it a marathon would undersell it.”
— MLB.com
“The first 32 innings had been played on April 18 and 19 as a frigid and windy Saturday night transformed into an equally bone-chilling Easter Sunday morning.”
— MiLB.com
“It’s the stuff of baseball legend.”
— Baseball Hall of Fame
For anyone who manages rosters, scouts prospects, or follows the minor leagues as a feeder system to the majors, the 1981 Pawtucket-Rochester game is a reminder that records don’t just require talent — they require the right combination of rules, endurance, and circumstance. Seven more innings than any MLB game have ever produced, decided on a single swing in the 33rd. That’s not a stat. That’s a piece of baseball history that hasn’t been rewritten in 44 years and shows no signs of being challenged.
Related reading: AL East Standings 2025 · Who Won the World Series 2025?
While baseball’s standard nine-inning structure dominates, MLB innings rules reveal variations enabling historic endurance tests like the unforgettable 33-inning clash in 1981.
Frequently asked questions
What teams played in the longest baseball game?
The Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, both members of the Triple-A International League. Pawtucket was the Boston Red Sox affiliate; Rochester was the Baltimore Orioles affiliate.
Why was the 33-inning game suspended?
The game was called at 4:07 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1981, after 32 innings because of player exhaustion, cold weather, and the hour. Both teams were tied 2-2. The game resumed on June 23, 1981, when Pawtucket won in the 33rd inning.
Has a World Series game gone longer than 18 innings?
No. Game 3 of the 2000 World Series between the Mets and Yankees remains the longest World Series game in history at 18 innings. No postseason game has reached 20 innings.
What is the longest MLB game by time?
Eight hours and six minutes, between the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners on May 18, 2022. The game ended after 18 innings with the Mariners winning 1-0. This remains the longest MLB game by clock time.
Are there longer games in lower leagues?
The professional record of 33 innings is held by a Triple-A game and stands above all known minor league and major league records. No lower-level league has produced a longer game.
How does pitch clock affect game length?
The MLB pitch clock, introduced in 2023, limits between-pitch time and has reduced average game length by roughly 20-25 minutes. Ultra-long games are less common because delays are penalized. The record eight-hour games are less likely under the current rules.
What is the score of the 33-inning game?
Pawtucket won 3-2. The game was tied 2-2 through 32 innings and remained deadlocked until Pawtucket scored in the top of the 33rd inning on June 23, 1981.
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