Mets vs. Cardinals: Score and Twitter Reaction from 18-Inning Game

What do you get when you combine the team owning the most anemic offense in MLB with the team ranked first in earned run average? The New York Mets' 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, which needed 18 innings to determine a winner.

According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, the game took just a little under six hours from start to finish.

The Mets and Cardinals fell one inning short of matching the longest game in 2015. The Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, 6-5, in 19 innings back in April. Sunday's game did, however, last so long that SportsNet New York's feed stopped abruptly deep into extra innings, per Hardball Talk's D.J. Short:

Neither New York nor St. Louis scored through the first 12 innings. A single from Kevin Plawecki in the top of the 13th plated Curtis Granderson, which put the Mets on top 1-0:

Seemingly on cue, Kolten Wong delivered a solo home run in the bottom of the 13th to bring the Cardinals level:

Carlos Martinez then came on in relief for St. Louis, and he did well until the 18th. Granderson and Wilmer Flores hit back-to-back singles, and an error by Martinez loaded the bases with nobody out. A sacrifice fly from Ruben Tejada put New York ahead 2-1, and Granderson subsequently scored on a sacrifice bunt by Eric Campbell.

That ability to manufacture runs was sorely lacking for the Mets throughout the evening. They should consider themselves a bit lucky, or this stat from ESPNNewYork.com's Adam Rubin would look even worse:

Robert Wheel had a little fun with the Mets' offensive futility:

"

The only player getting paid by the Mets who didn't leave a man on base today is Bobby Bonilla

— Bobby Big Wheel (@BobbyBigWheel) July 19, 2015"

Mets manager Terry Collins commented on his team's offensive woes with runners in scoring position throughout the series, via ESPN.com news services: "That's not good. We aren't happy about that. Neither are some of the guys that left them on. I've never seen more flying helmets in my life."

A nearly six-hour game can be a serious struggle to watch if you followed every single pitch. It was particularly infuriating if you were in the same boat as Sports Illustrated's Joe Sheehan:

Once you become invested in something like this, you can't leave before you see the final pitch. Otherwise, all of your time was completely wasted.

ESPN's Keith Law added that the game wasn't so long that the Mets could actually go back in time and rectify one of their more disastrous offseason moves:

Imagine being one of the few Cardinals fans who stuck around, though. Quite a few remained even late into the evening, and all they got for their troubles was a defeat, per NJ.com's Mike Vorkunov:

At least St. Louis still owns a 4.5-game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Central. The team also has a day off Monday before a two-game series with the White Sox in Chicago. That should allow plenty of time to rest from Sunday's marathon affair.

With the win, the Mets move to two games behind the Washington Nationals. They have a great chance to close that gap even further as they head to the nation's capital for three games against the Nats.