Monday night’s Blue Jays-White Sox game was a remarkable 1 hour, 54 minutes long, the shortest major-league game in four years.

But what is the fastest nine-inning in MLB history?

That would be the Sept. 28, 1919, game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies in the Polo Grounds. Behind pitcher Jesse Barnes, the Giants won 6-1. Barnes threw a complete game, striking out two and walking none. Phillies pitcher Lee Meadows also threw a complete game and took the loss. George “High Pockets” Kelly had three hits for the Giants and scored once.

Time of the game: 51 minutes.


But the fastest game in professional baseball history was three years earlier, on Aug. 30, 1916, in Asheville, N.C., between the Asheville Tourists and the Winston-Salem Twins.

“It was one of the last games of the 1916 Class D regular season, and the Twins had a three o’clock train to catch out of Asheville,” according to a CBSsports.com story. “The problem? The game was scheduled to start at 2 o’clock.”

So the two teams agreed to start more than a half-hour early and to play as quickly as possible, the pitchers lobbed the ball and the batters swung at the first pitch.

Time of the game: 31 minutes. The game ended before it was officially scheduled to begin. Twins won 2-1.


Sources: Baseball-reference.com, CBSsports.com