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LOS ANGELES -- A few minutes after exiting the field in the Dodgers' 10-7 win over the Phillies on Monday night at Dodger Stadium, manager Don Mattingly walked into a relatively crowded media room and joked to reporters.
"You guys stayed for that?"
At four hours, 13 minutes long, Monday's game was three minutes shy of the longest nine-inning game in the majors this season, three minutes shorter than the Tigers and Indians' tilt in Cleveland on April 11.
It was the second-longest Dodgers game of the season, longer than six of their seven extra-inning affairs, trailing only the June 14 comeback to beat the Padres in 12 innings in San Diego, a game that took four hours, 16 minutes.
It was the second-longest Phillies game of the season, longer than seven of their eight extra-inning games, trailing only the 13-inning game on June 12 at Pittsburgh that lasted four hours, 34 minutes.
The game was five minutes shy of the longest nine-inning home game in Dodgers history, set Oct. 2, 1962 against San Francisco.
It was the fourth-longest nine-inning game in Dodgers history.
It was the longest nine-inning game in Phillies history, per The Good Phight.
As one quite vociferous fan said from the stands, "Speed it up, I've got things to do."
The game saw 10 pitchers throw a combined 367 pitches (186 by the Dodgers, 181 by the Phillies). J.P. Howell threw six pitches, the only pitcher in the game to toss fewer than 17 pitches. He struck out his only batter faced, and got the win.
It was Howell's second straight game striking out the only batter he faced. He did the same thing on Saturday to get the save against New York. Howell has seven such games (one batter faced, one strikeout) as a Dodger; only eight Dodgers pitchers have more such games in the last 102 years.
The game saw four mid-inning pitching changes.
"The pace was bad tonight. Using a lot of pitchers, throwing a lot of pitches. To me those are the kinds of games where people don't want to come to the game," Mattingly said. "It's something you really work on, because it's hard to play defense in games like that."
Up next
Brett Anderson takes the mound for the Dodgers on Tuesday night in the second game of the series, with old friend Chad Billingsley on the hill for the Phillies, making just his fifth start of the season.