Marathon Between New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs Ends with MLB Record

The New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs battled it out for 17 innings Sunday night before the Yankees scored a run in the top of the 18th and held on in the bottom half for a 5-4 victory.

Over the course of the contest, 128 plate appearances resulted in an at-bat and an MLB-record 48 of those at-bats ended in a strikeout, per MLB.com. The previous record of 43 was set by the Los Angeles (then California) Angels and Oakland Athletics in a 20-inning affair on July 9, 1971.

The game fittingly ended with a strikeout, as Yankees pitcher Chasen Shreve set down Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks via the K to earn the victory in his third inning of work. The 26-year-old southpaw contributed five strikeouts of his own while throwing 44 pitches.

Just prior to the start of the regular season, 35 ESPN experts selected winners of divisions and wild-card spots. Of those who participated, only one—Steve Wolf—picked the Yankees to win the AL East. The Yankees only showed up as a playoff team on 10 of the 35 ballots.

It's certainly still early in the campaign, but the Yankees have displayed the ability to compete. Through the team's first 29 games, it owns the top spot in the AL East by 0.5 games over the Baltimore Orioles, sitting four clear of the favorite (according to the survey), the Boston Red Sox. 

The early-season success has come from some unexpected production in the batting order where 25-year-old right fielder Aaron Judge has led the way, owning a .317 batting average with 13 home runs following Sunday's contest.

On the other hand, all 35 of the experts selected the Cubs to win the NL Central. While they remain just a game back of the Cincinnati Reds, the club's 16-15 start to the season isn't ideal.

The Yankees swept the three-game series in Chicago over the weekend and will look to carry that momentum over into their series beginning Monday in Cincinnati, while the Cubs look to get back on track Monday as they begin a three-game set in Colorado.