Historic Mariners-White Sox Extra-Inning Thriller Reminds Us Why We Love MLB

We're still buzzing about Wednesday's Chicago White Sox-Seattle Mariners thriller because of its countless, memorable twists.

The five-hour, 42-minute, 16-inning nail-biter was baseball at its best. And if you didn't love it, you don't love America.

The final result—the White Sox won 7-5—gets pushed to the back burner. Both enter June 6 as fourth-place teams in their respective divisions, and given their anemic offenses, playoff berths are pipe dreams.

Impotent bats kept the scoreboard empty most of the afternoon. The White Sox and Mariners combined for two extra-base hits over the first eight innings.

Seattle's run-scoring drought was particularly infuriating given the 11 baserunners put on against Dylan Axelrod and the right-hander's inability to throw first-pitch strikes. But the defense bailed him out by turning four double plays with him on the mound and six for the pitching staff as a whole, including one of the 9-2 variety.

Hisashi Iwakuma, meanwhile, wasn't in the mood to give Chicago hope. He fired eight scoreless frames and retired the last 16 batters he faced.

That's just the way Iwakuma's season has been going: If he's in a good mood, the opposition won't be. In the first year of a modest $14 million contract, the 32-year-old has a 1.94 ERA and AL-best 0.83 WHIP.

Talk about an unlikely success story—as recently as April 2012, he was a mop-up guy viewed as the weakest link of Seattle's entire staff.

Extraordinary pitching lines like his, of course, aren't possible without great glove work. Enter Kendrys Morales, certainly not who you'd expect to range into foul territory for this bit of awesomeness.

So anyway, this contest spills into extra innings—still scoreless—and the White Sox are desperate to get out of town. They need to be back in the Windy City (more than 2,000 miles away) to host the Oakland Athletics the following night.

But they continue stranding baserunners. One in the ninth against Yoervis Medina, then Alex Rios at third base in the 10th against Charlie Furbush and another in the 11th with Carter Capps pitching. It's Chinese water torture for their fans, great entertainment for everybody else.

Fast forward to the 14th inning. Seattle goes to Danny Farquhar, its sixth different pitcher, and he can't continue the trend. Four straight Chicagoans reach base, with Alejandro De Aza crossing the plate to put the visitors ahead, 1-0.

Hector Noesi enters in relief, providing anything but. He lets the flood gates open. The M's faced a five-run deficit when the third out was recorded.

Insurmountable, right? Just ask Kyle Seager.

With his team still trailing by four runs and down to its final strike, the third baseman is being stared down by Addison Reed. A likely All-Star prior to this game, Reed was 17-for-18 in save opportunities, thanks in large part to an improved slider (via Daryl van Schouwen, Chicago Sun-Times).

Seager squares it up. A homer fit for one of Homer's epics:

His blast made MLB history, via Buster Olney on Twitter:

"

Elias: White Sox-SEA game is first EVER in which both teams scored at least 5 runs after first nine innings were scoreless.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 6, 2013"

Noesi and Reed come out again for the 15th inning. Both sides rally, both sides fall short. There's maybe 1,000 people still in attendance, but most of those who left probably noticed the Twitter reaction and rushed to find a television/radio broadcast.

"

No one cares (locally), but White Sox/Mariners game is ridiculous. 0-0 going into the 14th, now 5-5 in the 15th after a crazy inning.

— Justin Rogers (@Justin_Rogers) June 6, 2013"

"

15th inning. Cell battery getting low. I'm not! #mariners

— Dennis Bounds (@DennisBoundsK5) June 6, 2013"

OK, we're actually building toward the conclusion now.

Gordon Beckham's leadoff single in the 16th allows him to steal his way into scoring position for the fourth time. Teammates had deserted him there each of the previous three.

De Aza answers the bell with a single, Alex Rios pads the lead with one of his own and Reed strikes out Brendan Ryan, Endy Chavez and Jason Bay. All swinging. That's all she wrote.

Imagine that: Reed rebounded from the most embarrassing inning of his major league career (one strike away) to hurl two other scoreless ones. He fired 55 pitches, annihilating his previous career high.

That's what beautifies baseball: the perpetual opportunities for redemption (so long as the manager trusts you).

Speaking of managers, Seattle's Eric Wedge must be close to plucking out his impressive facial hair. Following a series of big-name demotions, his lineup is still maddeningly inconsistent. Wedge gave his regular players every chance to succeed by keeping all nine—even geezer Raul Ibanez—in the game for its entirety.

He can't blame sabermetrics this time.

All video links and embedded clips courtesy of MLB.com.

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