In pictures: West Ham's London Stadium plays host to thrilling Major League Baseball clash

West Ham's home in east London has undergone quite a transformation over the past five weeks and it all came to fruition last night when the first Major League Baseball (MLB) London Series game was played on Saturday evening.

In baking temparatures, nearly 60,000 fans packed the London Stadium to see an absolute thriller of a game between two old rivals the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox lock horns and it was the team from the Big Apple who came out on top.

The Yankees eventually prevailed 17-13 in east London in a game that produced the most amount of runs in a nine-inning game this season.

Yankees batter Aaron Hicks had the honour of hitting the first home run in the arena as the Yankees were 6-0 up by the end of the first inning but Boston roared back to level the scores at 6-6.

However, the Yankees didn't let up and smacked their way to a 17-6 advantage by the end of the fifth inning and although the Red Sox recovered, they could quite get close enough.

The game featured 16 pitchers in total, throwing 422 pitches and 37 hits. It was a long game as well that lasted more than four and a half hours with the first inning totalling nearly an hour in itself.

A general view is pictured during the first of a two-game series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox at London Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, east London on June 29, 2019. - As Major League Baseball prepares to make history in London, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone and Boston Red Sox coach Alex Cora are united in their desire to make the ground-breaking trip memorable on and off the field. (TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images)

There was royalty in attendance ahead of the game as Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, attended the game and met the players before the game got underway.

The Hammers home has now played host to four different sports, with baseball joining football, athletics and rugby union.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 29: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits a home run in the fourth inning of game one of the London Series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox at London Stadium on Saturday, June 29, 2019 in London, England. (Chris Trotman/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

More than 141,900 square feet of artificial turf from France has been installed on top of West Ham’s grass playing surface.

Eighteen metre tall foul poles and over 400 metres of fencing have all been installed. Materials such as clay for the pitcher's mound and home plate area, and 345 tonnes of dirt for the infield diamond have been shipped from the US, while the fence padding for the field's perimeter has been brought in from Toronto and shipped out of Montreal, Canada.

Click through our gallery below to see some of the best photos from the game.

And best of all? There is another game later this afternoon (Sunday) where the two sides will do it all over again, though probably don't expect such a wild game as the one on Saturday.

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