SAN FRANCISCO – What a weird game.
It took the better part of five and a half hours but the San Francisco Giants defeated the Colorado Rockies in the wee hours on Saturday morning. The Giants used nine pitchers on the mound to notch the win. They only used one catcher.
38-year-old Erik Kratz was behind the plate for the Giants Friday with Buster Posey out for a scheduled day off. He caught all 18-innings in a game that tied a record for most amount of innings played in one game at (now) Oracle Park.
But after the game Kratz told reporters that this wasn’t the first time he’d caught 18 innings. And a current teammate was to blame.
“July of 2016,” Kratz said immediately when asked about the longest game he ever caught. “We had a shutout going until the 9th inning, two outs. Mark Melancon shook off five pitches, threw a cutter in. Daniel Murphy hit a home run. We were tied 1-1 until the 18th when Starling Marte hit a home run off of Óliver Pérez.”
Talk about good recall. That game happened when both Melancon and Kratz were both in Pittsburgh. Seems like when it takes 18 innings to win a baseball game the players of the game don’t soon forget the outcome.
We’re guessing Kratz will remember this one for a while as well. He hit a walk-of fielder’s choice in the bottom of the 18th inning to score Brandon Belt and send everyone home.
We know we’re not forgetting it any time soon.
18 INNINGS LATER GIANTS WIN!!!! pic.twitter.com/4rC6TIvARy
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 13, 2019