Sixty-six major league games have ended in a 0-0 tie since 1901.
0-0 Ties By Decade
1901-10: 25
1911-20: 21
1921-30: 7
1931-40: 1
1941-50: 5
1951-60: 5
1961-70: 1
1971-80: 0
1981-90: 1
1991-00: 0
2001-10: 0
2011-21: 0
More than 9 innings: 32 games
Fewer than 9 innings: 24 games
Exactly 9 innings: 10 games
There are many factors why there were more 0-0 ties in the distant past. Teams played far more doubleheaders and games were often called because of darkness (or because a team needed to catch a certain train to another city).
The last game to end in a 0-0 tie was played on September 13, 1989, when the Pirates-Cardinals contest was called in the top of the sixth because of rain. The last 0-0 tie of at least nine innings was 66 years ago, on August 12, 1956 at Wrigley Field, the second game of a Cardinals-Cubs doubleheader.
The first 0-0 tie of the modern era was on May 1, 1902, at Chicago's West Side Grounds. The Reds and Colts (one of the old nicknames of the future Cubs) played 12 innings in two hours without a run crossing the plate. Each team's pitcher threw a complete game. Reds: Frank "Noodles" Hahn (12-8-0-2-7, 44 Batters Faced); Orphans: Jack Taylor (12-5-0-0-3, 41 BF)
In 1904, the Senators and Tigers played two 0-0 ties (both in Washington) in a span of two months. On May 21, they played 11 innings (there were 10 errors in that game, seven by Washington) and on July 22, they played 13 innings (before 500 fans). BRef's page states the July 22 game took 1:25, which would mean there were 87 batters in 85 minutes (!), but the box score in the Detroit Free Press gives a more logical time of 2:25.
The 1904 season saw a record seven 0-0 ties. There were four scoreless ties in 1906, 1907, 1910, 1915, and 1916. The last two seasons with more than one 0-0 tie were 1929 and 1942.
Boston's National League team holds the record for being involved in eight 0-0 ties (despite not existing after 1952). Between 1912 and 1916, they played in five scoreless ties. In the AL, the White Sox and Cleveland have each played in seven 0-0 games.
On August 13, 1906, the White Sox and Yankees tied 0-0 after nine innings. Exactly one month later, on September 13, the White Sox and Browns played 10 scoreless innings. And 10 days after that (September 23), the Browns tied the Athletics 0-0 after nine frames.
The longest 0-0 tie for many years was an 18-inning affair between the Senators and Tigers, on July 16, 1909, in Detroit. Tigers pitcher Ed Summers went the distance, facing 63 batters (seven times through the opposing lineup).
On September 11, 1946, the Reds and Dodgers set the current record, played 19 innings without a run. The Phillies and Mets played to an 18-inning 0-0 tie in the second game of an October 2, 1965 doubleheader.
There are also many games that remained scoreless for a long time before one team finally scored. On August 23, 1989, the Dodgers and Expos were scoreless for 21 innings before Los Angeles scored in the top of the 22nd. It was LA's second 22-inning game of the season; they lost 4-3 to the Astros on June 3. (Laura and I were two of the 21,742 fans in Stade Olympique. Our attendance that evening happened purely by chance. We were in Vermont visiting friends and family; driving to Montreal was penciled in for Monday, August 21. For reasons I cannot recall, our plans changed and we went on Wednesday, August 23. So instead of seeing a relatively boring 6-1 win by the Dodgers, we walked up to the ticket window and bought two seats for the second-longest 1-0 game in baseball history.)
But that was not the most innings a game remained 0-0, however. On April 15, 1968 (the sixth game of the season), the game between the Mets and Astros was scoreless until the bottom of the 24th inning. Houston scored on a leadoff single, a balk, two intentional walks, and an infield error. Not the way you want to lose a game after 24 innings (which is not to say there's a specific way you would prefer to lose after 24 innings).
Night Games
The first major league night game took place at Cincinnati's Crosley Field on May 24, 1935 (Reds 2, Phillies 1). More than three years passed before another park had lights. Brooklyn's Ebbets Field had its first night game on June 15, 1938, and it was a historic night: Johnny Vander Meer pitched his second consecutive no-hitter! BRef's box score states the game began at 9:20 PM. (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said 8:30.)
The American League's first night game was in Philadelphia on May 16, 1939 (Cleveland 8, A's 3 (10)). Three additional teams got lights in 1939 and four more teams joined the list in 1940. There were holdouts. The Yankees and Red Sox were holdouts for 11 or 12 years after the Reds; they seemed to want to play night games at home about as much as they wanted to sign black players (Yankees (May 28, 1946), Red Sox (June 13, 1947)).
Seven of the eight NL teams had lights by May 1946 and all eight AL teams were playing night games by June 1948. The Cubs, famously, would not have lights until August 1988.
By June 1948, 59 of the MLB's 66 scoreless ties had been played. Of course, teams played far fewer nights games back then than they do now. In 1935, for example, the Reds played only seven night games in 1935, one game against each NL opponent. The 1939 Athletics did the same in the AL (they also played two night games on the road). In 1947, the Red Sox played 14 of their 79 home games at night.
Minor Leagues
The Fargo Red Stockings and Grand Forks Black Stockings of the Red River Valley League played 25 scoreless innings on July 18, 1891. It was still light when the game was called at 8:10 PM because the players had to catch a train.
William Gibbs of Grand Forks and George Raymer of Fargo both pitched 25 innings. The Sporting Life of July 25, 1891, reported the game was played in 3:50. There were 11 double plays in the game. Grand Forks second baseman Watson fielded 19 chances without an error and Fargo's third baseman McDonald handled 14 chances cleanly.
According to Tim Hagerty, the Grand Forks club "folded one game later because of financial trouble". GF had already moved the series to Devil's Lake, 90 miles away, because the team was not drawing any fans at home. Their ball park was dismantled and the lumber was sold to pay salaries and various bills.
22 Innings
Keokuk 0, Burlington 0
June 27, 1915, Central Association
Time: 3:50, Burlington, Iowa
20 Innings
Toronto 0, Jersey City 0
August 12, 1913, International League
Time: 3:20, Jersey City, New Jersey
Amateur
23 Innings
Cresent 0, Kingfisher 0
May 11, 1908, Oklahoma State League
I found this after I thought I had finished this post:
High School (Japan)
In August 2014, a semifinal game in the 59th National High School Nanshiki Baseball Tournament, between Chukyo of Gifu Prefecture and Sotoku from Hiroshima Prefecture, went 49 scoreless innings
over four days before Chukyo scored three runs in the top of the 50th and won 3-0. (How strange does it sound to hear yourself say "top of the 50th"?)
Nanshiki baseball is uses a rubber ball that does not travel as far as a typical baseball.
Both starting pitchers went the distance, throwing a total of 1,398 pitches. Taiga Matsui, of Chukyo, threw 709 pitches, an average of 14.2 per inning. Sotoku pitcher Jukiya Ishioka threw 689 pitches (13.8/IP). Matsui then threw 77 pitches
out of the bullpen in the championship game
later that same day, as Chukyo beat Miura Gakuen from Kanagawa 2-0. That's 786 pitches over four days. And he was the winning pitcher in both games . . . again, on the same day.
August 28: 0-0 after 15 innings; game suspended
August 29: 0-0 after 30 innings; game suspended
August 30: 0-0 after 45 innings; game suspended
August 31: 0-0 after 49 innings; Chukyo scored three runs in T50 to win 3-0.
Chukyo - 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 03 - 3 22 1
Sotoku - 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 00 - 0 26 5
If the game had been tied after 54 innings, the winner would have been decided in a drawing.
From a
wire service story: "Chukyo and Sotoku
began their slug-fest on Thursday . . ."
In the 31st inning, Chukyo got a runner to second, but a strikeout stranded the runner. In the bottom of the 34th inning, a Sotoku batter hit a triple with (I think) two outs. They tried a squeeze bunt, but the batter struck out and the runner was tagged out.
After three days, the game had gone 45 innings which tied the record for the longest game in Nanshiki baseball in terms of innings. On September 20, 1983, a game between the Raito Kyogo (Tokyo) and Tanaka Hospital (Miyazaki) went for 45 innings and lasted eight hours and 19 minutes.
In the lead up to the final game, both pitchers were feeling the pain of constant throwing. Matsui was experiencing back pain and receiving therapy between games. He said to his teammates that if they won through his pitching he'd prefer they lift the coach up in celebration instead because he probably wouldn't be able to take the pain. It was a sentiment that moved his coach to tears.
Through three days and 45 innings, the two pitchers had thrown 1,252 pitches to 225 batters.
The entire Sotoku team has been putting on a brave face after the tragic landslides that hit their prefecture earlier this month.
The score remained locked until the top of the 50th when Chukyo found themselves with bases loaded and no outs from an infield single and two walks. At that time, Goto hit a double and finally batted in the first two runs of this four-day game. Later on another point was scored off an infield grounder.
In the bottom of the 50th, those runs would go unanswered.
The entire 50th inning can be seen
here:
