HOUSTON -- It was one of those epic World Series games that fans will never forget.
Assuming, of course, that fans stayed up after midnight Tuesday night to watch the 14th-inning dramatics, which gave the Chicago White Sox a 7-5 win over the Houston Astros yesterday morning and a 3-0 Series lead.
It didn't end until 2:20 a.m. EDT - 26 minutes after little-used White Sox infielder Geoff Blum homered against Houston's Ezequiel Astacio to break the 14th-inning tie.
The 5-hour, 41-minute marathon was the longest in terms of time in the history of the World Series, crushing the old record (Game 1 of 2000) by 50 minutes.
Blum's homer provided the third lead change of the night, and it was the second consecutive game in which the White Sox hit a winning homer in the ninth inning or later - the only time that has happened twice in one World Series.
After Houston's Jason Lane tied the game with a run-scoring double in the eighth inning, the sides exchanged zeroes for five innings before Blum's heroics.
The Astros got no hits in the final six innings, but they had the bases loaded in the ninth and runners in scoring position again in the 10th, 11th and 14th and couldn't score.
The 14 innings played were tied for the most ever in a World Series and tied for fifth most in postseason history - falling short of the 18-inning NL Division Series contest between the Astros and Atlanta Braves earlier this month.
Here were some other World Series records set:
Most players used by two teams: 43.
Most pitchers used by two teams: 17.
Most pitchers used by one team: 9, Chicago.
Most combined walks: 21.
Most walks by one team: 12, Houston.
Most combined runners left on base: 30.
Most at-bats by an individual player: 8, Chicago's Scott Podsednik.
The two teams also threw a combined 482 pitches in 100 total at-bats, one shy of the record.
Blum's moment
Blum's homer came in his first World Series at-bat, becoming the 30th player to achieve that feat. It was just his second postseason at-bat.
He also became the first player to hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning or later against a former team. Blum played for the Astros in 2002 and 2003. He donated his bat to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bad blood
Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said he didn't think Roy Oswalt purposely plunked Joe Crede in the fifth inning Tuesday night. Angry words were exhanged, with Crede apparently yelling at Oswalt, Garner yelling at Crede and the White Sox's Carl Everett yelling at Garner.
