It's a rare baseball game that ends on a different day than it started -- and only one postseason matchup in Major League history has lasted twice as long as a regulation game.
That would be Saturday night-Sunday morning's epic game 2 between the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants, which stretched to 18 innings before the Giants' Brandon Belt delivered a crucial solo home run.
The 6 hour, 24-minute matchup tested the patience of fans in the stadium -- many of whom left as many as 9 innings before the end -- as well as testing the limits of many DVR devices.
On Twitter, where #SFvsWAS, #NatsvGiants and #18innings became three of the top trending hashtags in the U.S., viewers offered increasingly outrageous estimations of how long the game had lasted.
#SFvsWAS game took 6 hours 23 mins... a flight from Washington to San Francisco takes 5 hours 39 mins.— SportingCharts (@sportingcharts) October 5, 2014
Hope the exit traffic from #SFvsWAS doesn't interfere with Hillary Clinton's inaugural parade.— Dan Ewen (@VaguelyFunnyDan) October 5, 2014
#SFvsWAS game took some Viagra after all these commercials. They might want to call their physician as it won't go down after 17 innings.— David Lagana (@Lagana) October 5, 2014
The #SFvsWAS game is now old enough to vote.— Ryan Parker (@TheRyanParker) October 5, 2014
How long is this #SFvsWAS #NLDS Game? This is Jayson Werth at the start of it and now. pic.twitter.com/iQJGc0XjLa— Gregg Greene (@RealGregg) October 5, 2014
Wanna feel old? Tonight's #SFvsWAS game started before you were born. pic.twitter.com/OEVJ8cWjxL— Diane N. Sevenay (@Diane_7A) October 5, 2014
The fans are loving this Giants-Nationals game. #SFvsWAS pic.twitter.com/XGsEDqKWmx— JRehling (@JRehling) October 5, 2014
Well, now I think this is the Waiting for Godot production of the MLB playoffs. #SFvsWAS— Jane McGonigal (@avantgame) October 5, 2014
Just remember the real horror here: beer sales ended ten innings ago. #SFvsWAS #NLDS #fb— Douglas Berry (@gridlore) October 5, 2014
Even Senator Rand Paul chimed in with a parliamentary analogy:
I didn't realize you could filibuster a baseball game.— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) October 5, 2014
Still, the Giants and the Nationals had a long way to go before they hit the all-time professional baseball record of 33 innings, or the MLB record of 26 innings, set in 1920.