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A look at the 3 longest games the Colorado Rockies have ever played

That game was long. Let's talk about the ones that were even longer.

By Ryan Freemyer
Harry How/Getty Images

Well, that was an interesting game. Late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, the Colorado Rockies finally won what was the fourth longest game in club history at 5 hours and 23 minutes by a final of 5-4. This is the swing that put them on top for good and it was beautiful:

As shocking as it might sound, that was only the fourth longest game in team history! Let's relive the three that were even longer.

3) July 4, 2010 - San Francisco Giants 3, Colorado Rockies 4 (5 hours 24 minutes)

This one just barely beat out Tuesday night's game by all of one minute and also holds the mark for the longest game in Coors Field history. Jason Hammel started for the Rockies against Matt Cain of the Giants and both pitchers threw seven strong innings before giving way to their respective bullpens. After Travis Ishikawa singled home Pablo Sandoval to tie the game in the top of the eighth, both teams were held scoreless for seven innings. The Rockies threatened in nearly every inning but were unable to come up with the big hit, which led to a whopping 15 runners being left on base between the eighth and 14th innings -- they left the bases loaded in the 10th, 13th, and 14th innings -- while unsung hero Esmil Rogers threw four scoreless innings in relief to keep the Giants at bay. Finally, after Dexter Fowler led off the 15th inning with a triple and Johnny Herrera and Carlos Gonzalez were intentionally walked to load the bases, Todd Helton stepped to the plate:

Game over. Rockies win. Randy Flores got the win, Guillermo Mota took the loss, and there was a crazy win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

2) April 17, 2008 - Colorado Rockies 2, San Diego Padres 1 (6 hours 16 minutes)

This is another memorable game, the 22-inning affair that is the longest game by innings in team history. When you get that deep into a game, some crazy stuff happens. Willy Taveras, for example, had 10 at-bats in the game. Matt Holliday reached base six times and there were a combined 11 different pitchers to throw at least two innings. Jeff Francis started and threw seven scoreless innings for the Rockies, who also got four shutout innings from Kip Wells (the eventual winning pitcher), three from Ryan Speier, and two apiece from Ryan Speier and Micah Bowie, two of the eight innings he would throw in a Rockies uniform. The Padres, on the other hand, got eight shutout innings from reigning Cy Young winner Jake Peavy along with five from Wil Ledezma, two from Heath Bell and Joe Thatcher, and three from Glendon Rusch -- though he allowed an unearned run in the 22nd and took the tough-luck loss.

In the 14th, the Rockies got a run on a single and three walks to take a 1-0 lead. It looked like it was all over, but not so fast! The Padres would answer back with two singles and two walks of their own, pushing the tying run across on an RBI single from catcher Josh Bard. So we played on. After seven more relatively uneventful innings -- the Rockies stranded six runners to the Padres' three -- the Rockies would score again. Taveras reached on an error from shortstop Khalil Greene in his 10th at-bat of the game and the next batter, Troy Tulowitzki, took care of the rest:

This time, the lead would hold up as the Rockies took home an exhausting 2-1 win. The win probability graph was another fun one:


Source: FanGraphs

1) July 29, 2014 - Colorado Rockies 3, Chicago Cubs 4 (6 hours 27 minutes)

This game from just last season takes the cake. In the grand scheme of things, it was a pretty unimportant game, but it's not often that you see a game go nearly 6½ hours. Jorge De La Rosa started this game for the Rockies opposite Edwin Jackson, who lasted only four innings. After Charlie Blackmon led off the game with a fly out, the Rockies got a single, double, walk, and double to jump out to an early 3-0 lead. In the game's remaining 15 innings, they scored no runs on just six hits. The Cubs chipped away with a run in the bottom of the first and two in the bottom of the fourth before there were 11 consecutive scoreless innings for both teams. By the time the 16th inning rolled around, both bullpens were out of pitchers. The Cubs went to catcher John Baker, and he worked a scoreless inning. The Rockies, on the other hand, called on starting pitcher Tyler Matzek to pitch in an uncomfortable position for him. It showed as he allowed a walk, a hit batsmen, and a single around a sacrifice bunt to load the bases with one out for Starlin Castro with none other than "pitcher," John Baker, on third base:

That would do it. No position player has been credited with a win since that game. Here's the win probability graph for that one:


Source: FanGraphs

One of the greatest things about baseball is that you never know when something really weird is going to happen, but it's always fun when it does.

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