Dodgers Find New Life, Red Sox Miss Their Chance in World Series Game 3 Classic

LOS ANGELES — The ball dropped after midnight, and it was a new gear for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

For more than seven hours over 18 innings with the Boston Red Sox, there was no give. There was no take. There was only grunting and swinging, stretching and screaming. There was the longest World Series game ever played, both in innings and time, a duel that started in the late-afternoon sun when the first pitch was thrown at 5:10 p.m. local time and ended, finally, under the cover of darkness at 12:30 a.m.

Then after Walker Buehler's fire, Nathan Eovaldi's smoke, Rick Porcello's tears and Brian Dozier's bananas, the ball dropped. Bottom of the 18th, full-count, Max Muncy rifled an opposite-field shot that fell just over the left-center field fence and delivered the Dodgers a 3-2 Game 3 win that felt like so much more.

Two jewel franchises with a combined World Series-record $428 million payroll had just authored a classic.

But this also might have been the night the Dodgers flipped the script.

The effects of this hard day's night likely will reverberate through Games 4 and 5, if not longer. They have to. Two teams cannot play gut-wrenching ball with high leverage on every single pitch over a full seven hours and 20 minutes without repercussions. And when Boston manager Alex Cora summoned his announced Game 4 starter, Eovaldi, out of the bullpen to go for the jugular to start the 12th inning with the score 1-1, it was a bold move.

But 97 pitches later, as Muncy's game-winner disappeared over the fence, Red Sox pitching suddenly appears in danger of being trapped in a Los Angeles gridlock.

Cora ripped through nine pitchers while attempting to seize a 3-0 series lead, including his Game 2 starter David Price (13 pitches in the ninth) and his closer Craig Kimbrel (28 pitches in the ninth and 10th). Eovaldi has now worked in each of these three World Series games.

Without Eovaldi, Boston's Game 4 starter Saturday will be?

"How do you spell that, TBA," Cora said. "TBA."

The short answer: lefty Drew Pomeranz? He was the only available pitcher on the roster who did not throw in Game 3. Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez? He's been a swingman, and he only threw six pitches Friday night. Ace Chris Sale on short rest? Come on, after he missed significant time with a sore shoulder in the season's second half?

There appear to be no other options.

What a night. Fact: You could have been in Los Angeles when this game started and in Boston when it ended. Flying time on a nonstop between the cities is about five-and-a-half hours.

"This game was unbelievable," said Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who did not pitch. "It was an incredible experience."

Kershaw pinch-hit—yes, pinch-hit—for reliever Julio Urias in the 17th and banged a hard-hit fly ball to Mookie Betts in right field.

It wasn't exactly how he envisioned it. No, he thought he'd get a chance in the 16th.

"I had visions in my head before Freezer [David Freese] struck out [in the 16th]. What I saw was Freezer doubling, then them walking [Enrique Hernandez] to get to me, and me with the game-winning hit. But that didn't work out."

A lot of stuff didn't work out—before it finally did for the Dodgers.

Together, the Dodgers and Red Sox combined for 131 plate appearances, 18 pitchers used and 561 total pitches.

The top four spots in the Boston lineup—Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Mitch Moreland and J.D. Martinez—combined to go 0-for-23.

There was a 14th-inning stretch—yes, Dodgers organist Dieter Ruehle played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the second time. The crowd of 53,114—an impressive percentage of whom stuck it out until the end—roared when they displayed "12:00" on the Jumbotron scoreboard in the 17th inning. Then they blasted Wilson Pickett's classic "In the Midnight Hour" going into the 18th.

"We were all snacking," Kershaw said. "Tyrone [one of the clubbies] made us some peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches, so we were well-fueled."

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

The Dodgers started the night well-fueled thanks to Buehler, who fired seven impressive shutout innings in a game Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts called "must-win." The kid is 24 years old going on Legend. A year ago, he watched Game 2 of the World Series from an upper-deck seat in the left-field corner of Dodger Stadium. Friday night, he stared hard at his World Series debut...and the World Series blinked.

"Certain people can handle a moment like this and understand what was at stake tonight," Roberts said of Buehler. "And we needed his best effort. And we needed him to go deeper than their starter, log some innings. Some guys run from it. Some guys can't answer the bell."

The bell answered to Buehler. Whenever that day comes when Kershaw is finished in Los Angeles, it will be Buehler who eases the sting for Los Angeles fans.

"You can't say enough about Walker," Freese said. "He's a playoff stud. I don't know what to say about the guy. He's just a bulldog. He's had the ball in some very meaningful games."

He left with a 1-0 lead, but closer Kenley Jansen surrendered a game-tying home run to Jackie Bradley Jr. with two out in the eighth. Forced to play without a DH in the NL park, Cora opted to bench Andrew Benintendi instead of Bradley, and Bradley rewarded him.

In the moment, it appeared as if that dagger could have been fatal to the Dodgers. No team has ever come back to win a World Series after losing the first three games, and Boston appeared to be gaining momentum.

Also in the moment, nobody could know that they would be playing for, oh, another four hours or so.

"The seventh to ninth innings, I took a nap," quipped Freese, who, in pinch-hitting for reliever Dylan Floro, became the last position player to enter the game from either team as both Roberts and Cora emptied their benches.

"No," Freese continued. "I just stayed loose, man.

"This game was wild."

By the time Freese entered, Eovaldi was well into what should have been a heroic evening. After twice coming back from Tommy John surgery in his career, Eovaldi was acquired by Boston from Tampa Bay on July 25 and will be a free agent this winter. He's already made himself a lot of money this month by emerging as one of Boston's most dependable and dominant pitchers, but he outdid himself Friday.

Only three times in his 22 appearances this summer—21 of which were starts—did Eovaldi throw more than the 97 pitches he fired in Game 3. He hit 100 mph when he entered in the 12th and was still clocking in the high 90s five innings later.

"Effort-wise...that was one of the best performances, probably, in World Series history," Cora said.

 Eovaldi nearly left with a smile, and much earlier. Boston scored a run in the 13th inning when Brock Holt walked, was wild-pitched to second and then scored from there on Eduardo Nunez's infield single when pitcher Scott Alexander threw wild to first.

But in the bottom of the inning, with two out and Muncy on second, Yasiel Puig drove a ground ball up the middle that Ian Kinsler ranged over, scooped up...and then threw wild to first, tying the game at 2-2.

"I had the last out in my glove, and we ended up playing however many innings, 18 innings, 19 innings, whatever," a dejected Kinsler said. "I had an opportunity to end the game right there, and it didn't happen."

Kinsler's right foot slipped as he turned to make the throw, digging up a large divot in the Dodger Stadium turf. His mistake was in rushing, off-balance, rather than either setting himself to throw or simply deciding to hold the ball, which would have left runners at the corners with two out and Boston still leading.

He apologized to Eovaldi afterward, but the pitcher told him not to worry about it, that they are all in this together.

"We're a team," Eovaldi told Kinsler. "I know you've got my back."

And, he added, "I've got his."

It was such a gutty, gritty performance that Porcello, who started and surrendered one run and three hits in 4.2 innings, said it left him in tears.

"That was the most incredible pitching performance I've ever seen," Porcello said.

"Everybody definitely had my back...tonight," Eovaldi said. "That means a lot to me. As a player, that's pretty much all you can ask for, your teammates to have your back and things like that."

If not for Muncy, who drove another ball into the seats but foul in the 15th, Boston may well be on deck to sweep this series, and we'd be talking about Eovaldi the rest of the winter.

Instead, Muncy in the 18th whacked the first walk-off World Series home run since...Freese, for St. Louis, in the 11th inning of Game 6 of the 2011 World Series against Texas.

"That's cool," said Freese, who didn't know that until a reporter informed him after the game. "I'm just happy to be part of it."

Not that he—or any other Dodger—could remember many of the details.

"The 13th?" Kershaw repeated when asked about the clubs trading one run each in that inning to play even deeper into the night. "What happened in the 13th?"

"You know, to be honest, as the game kept going, you look up and see the 18th inning, and you're like, 'Holy cow, where did the game go?'" Muncy said. "But those last nine innings or so just kind of blended together."

As the last several Dodgers batted, Dozier swung three bananas tied together by long shoelaces like a pendulum over the dugout railing in an apparent throwback to Hernandez's rally banana days from 2015.

It was a bananas night. Long. Wacky. Tense. Surreal.

"Especially when you're on the outside looking in, kind of like a fan," Freese said. "Then you get in a handful of hours later…."

As he sat in the dugout waiting to be called, Freese continued to be amazed by what he watched around him, especially as Boston came so close to taking a 3-0 series lead and placing the Dodgers on the endangered species list.

"These guys are so relaxed," Freese said. "I haven't been around this group very long ... every now and then, they'll flip helmets or flip words, but man, they do a good job of turning the page."

"Gut-wrenching game for both sides," Muncy said. "This is one of those games that whoever came out on top is going to have a lot of momentum going into tomorrow."

A lot of momentum, but precious little sleep.

"Most people thought it was over when [Boston] scored their second run," Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger said. "I don't even know what inning that was."

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.