The Nats-Giants Game 2 was so long you could have flown from D.C. to SF before it was over

All you could have accomplished during NLDS Game 2

By Mike Bertha

October 5, 2014

If you somehow managed to miss all 18 innings of Saturday's NLDS Game 2 marathon between the Nationals and Giants, you done messed up.

The teams combined to use 17 pitchers who threw 485 pitches and earned 34 strikeouts, while batters left 35 runners on base. Eventually, Brandon Belt's 18th-inning home run stood up for the win.

The game -- which tied the record for longest posteason game EVER in terms of innings played -- set the record for longest postseason game by elapsed time. It went six hours and 23 minutes. If you watched from first pitch to final out you could have spent that time:

Running an actual marathon. The average time of last year's New York City Marathon finishers was four hours and 28 minutes. That's 10:16/mile. At that pace, you could have gone out for a 37.47-mile run.

Binge-watching the first seven and a half episodes of House of Cards. (Frank Underwood would have been in the middle of his drunken push-up contest in his alma mater's library during the epic eighth episode when the game ended.)

Flying from D.C. to SF. You could have been at Nationals Park in Washington's SE quadrant, hailed a cab to Dulles Airport in Virginia, flown to San Francisco International and been waiting at baggage claim to start your vacation for Game 3.

Listening to Tony Bennett's classic "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" more than 134 times.

Driving from AT&T Park to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. You'd have made it in plenty of time to catch Matt Kemp's game-winning home run in Game 2 of the NLDS with the Cardinals.

Point is, the game was L O N G. Given the option, we're pretty sure we'd rather re-watch that drama play out than sit in DMV traffic, anyway.