JJ Bleday hit his first career grand slam, and Shea Langeliers reached base five times for the second time in three games as the Oakland Athletics came back to beat the New York Mets 7-6 on Thursday. This game was the longest nine-inning game since the pitch clock was introduced last season.
“It felt like the longest game in the pitch clock era,” said Athletics manager Mark Kotsay with a smile.
The game, played on a hot afternoon with the first pitch at 85 degrees, lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes. This was one minute longer than the previous record set by the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants in Mexico City on April 29, 2023.
The Athletics and Mets threw a combined 425 pitches, the most in a nine-inning game this season.
Bleday said he was surprised to see on the scoreboard in the fifth inning that the game was nearly two hours old. “That definitely felt like the longest game of the year,” Bleday said.
Langeliers, who went 4 for 4 and was hit by a pitch in Tuesday’s 9-4 win, was 3 for 4 with a walk and another hit-by-pitch on Thursday as the A’s won two of three games against the Mets.
Langeliers reached base 11 times in 15 plate appearances during the series, with an on-base percentage of .733.
“It’s a lot of fun getting on base,” Langeliers said with a grin. “Just trying to keep things as simple as I can, not try to go up there and do too much. Just get a good pitch and put a good swing on it. I’m finding that just keeping it that simple, you’re capable of stacking good days on top of each other.”
The Athletics, who were down 5-0 in the third inning, won despite leaving a season-high 16 runners on base, which is tied for the third-most runners left on base in a nine-inning win in franchise history.
Oakland left the bases loaded twice in the first three innings against Jose Quintana before Bleday’s grand slam in the fourth.
“One of the biggest at-bats was obviously the Bleday grand slam,” Kotsay said. “It jumpstarted the offense, got us right back in the game.”
Tyler Nevin tied the game with an RBI groundout in the sixth inning against Reed Garrett (7-4), just two batters before Shea Langeliers scored on a single by Seth Brown.
Tyler Ferguson (1-1) threw 44 pitches, which is tied for his second-most this season, over two scoreless innings.
Scott Alexander worked through two hits in an 18-pitch seventh inning before Mason Miller threw a season-high 39 pitches to get the first six-out save of his career and his 18th save this year.
Miller got Francisco Alvarez out with a liner to center on an 87 mph slider, leaving two runners stranded in the ninth inning.
“I was grinding out there, for sure,” Miller said. “I didn’t have my slider really towards the end there, hand was sweating like crazy, kept slipping out. To get that out, it’s almost like a sigh of relief.”
Mark Vientos hit two home runs, and Luis Torrens had a two-run single for the Mets, who have lost five of their last six games. New York is two games behind the Atlanta Braves for the third NL wild-card spot.
Jeff McNeil had an 11-pitch at-bat and a 10-pitch at-bat, while Francisco Lindor also had a 10-pitch at-bat. This is only the fourth time since 1988, when pitch counts started being tracked, that the Mets have had at least three 10-pitch at-bats in a game.
The Mets walked 11 batters, their most since issuing 11 walks against Washington on September 27, 2020. On Thursday, manager Carlos Mendoza and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner ran out of mound visits in the sixth inning.
The Mets lead the NL with 468 walks.
“It’s hard to win a baseball game when we give up (11) walks,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to go back and make some adjustments quickly here so we can stop that.”
Mitch Spence allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings for the Athletics. Quintana gave up four runs in four innings. “When you get that support and you miss that ‘W,’ it’s hard,” Quintana said.
