2025 World Series
| 2025 World Series | ||
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| Los Angeles Dodgers 93 - 69 in the NL |
4 - 3 Series Summary |
Toronto Blue Jays 94 - 68 in the AL |
Overview[edit]
The 2025 World Series featured an unprecedented match-up with the Los Angeles Dodgers facing the Toronto Blue Jays. The Dodgers were playing in their 23rd Fall Classic (including their time as the Brooklyn Dodgers) and were looking to become the first team to repeat as champions since the New York Yankees did so three consecutive times from 1998 to 2000. They had been favorites to return since spring training, but a string of injuries during the season, especially to their starting rotation, had depressed their record, forcing them to go through the Division Series and losing home field advantage to the Blue Jays. Toronto's presence was more of a surprise, as very few people gave them a chance tom even make the postseason before the season started. However, they got hot in June and then went on a great run before almost losing the division title to the New York Yankees in late September. Canadian baseball fans had waited over 30 years for a team from the Great White North to make it back to the Fall Classic (and the Montreal Expos had disappeared in the interim), so the Jays' unexpected run had created a huge amount of interest in the country.
the series went the distance, and more, as extra innings were needed in Game 7 before the Dodgers could claim their second consecutive championship, after an epic late-game comeback. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who received credit for three of the Dodgers' four wins, including the clinching game on no rest after having completed a full starting pitching assignment to win Game 6, was named the World Series MVP. But plenty of other stars emerged during the series, including three Blue Jays hitters who proved to be a constant thorn in the side for the Dodgers in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ernie Clement and Addison Barger, while Trey Yesavage had a pitching performance for the ages. The first two tied the all-time record for most hits in a postseason, while for the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani added to his growing legend with an epic performance in Game 3, which went 18 innings, Freddie Freeman added a second walk-off homer in World Series play to his résumé, and Will Smith had a number of big hits, including the homer that decided Game 7 in the 11th inning.
The Teams[edit]
- Managers: : Blue Jays: John Schneider | Dodgers: Dave Roberts
Blue Jays As mentioned, the Blue Jays had not been expected to be contenders before the season, because the 2024 edition of the team had played poorly and there was a large amount of turnover on its roster. Still, taken in a longer perspective, this was the latest edition of a team that had made it to the postseason three other times since 2020, even if they had made quick exits all three times. This was a team with one outsized personality - 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had been granted a long-term contract extension early in the season, just before the team got hot - and a number of very good players who were not superstars. They were known for their propensity to avoid the strikeout, an ability that confounded a lot of opponents whose pitching strategy was based on getting opponents to swing and miss, and a line-up that was dangerous from top to bottom. They did not have any pitcher who could be considered an ace, but a lot who could be excellent on any given day, from 41-year-old Max Scherzer to 21-year-old raw rookie Trey Yesavage, both of whom had gotten key wins in the postseason thus far.
On offence, Guerrero had not had a great year by his standards, hitting .292 with 23 homers and 84 RBIs, but had been on fire ever since his first at-bat of the postseason, when he homered off Luis Gil, except for the first two games of the ALCS. A hot Guerrero was as dangerous as any hitter alive, and so was DH George Springer, author of the home run that had decided Game 7 of the ALCS and already the owner of one of the most impressive postseason résumés of anyone, dating back to his years with the Houston Astros. At 35, he had had a bounce-back season, hitting .309 with 32 homers and 84 RBIs, mainly out of the lead-off spot, while scoring 106 runs. He had the highest OPS+ on the team. The other great hitter on the team, SS Bo Bichette, had missed all of the postseason after a September knee injury, but was slated to return for the World Series. He had hit .311 and was leading the AL in hits and doubles when he had gone down. The question was whether he would be back at full strength. Other offensive contributors included C Alejandro Kirk (.282, 15 HR, 76 RBI), CF Daulton Varsho (20 homers in just 71 games), 3B/RF Addison Barger (21 HR and 71 RBIs) and IF Ernie Clement (.277 with 83 runs). The Jays did not steal many bases - Springer led the team with 18 and only two other players were in double figures -, but they played outstanding defense, with Varsho and Myles Straw two of the best defensive outfielders in the game, Kirk an excellent defensive catcher, and Gold Glove contenders at every infield position.
The Blue Jays' pitching was unimpressive on paper. Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt were the only two pitchers to win in double figures, with 10 and 11 wins respectively, and Bassitt had pitched out of the bullpen thus far. The Jays had given starts in the postseason to Scherzer (5-5, 5.19), Yesavage (1-0, 3.21 in just 3 starts in his first professional season after starting the year in Class A), and Shane Bieber (4-2, 3.57 in 7 starts). However, Scherzer and Bieber were both former Cy Young Award winners, Gausman had once finished second in the voting, and Yesavage looked like a future contender for the honor, so any of these could pull off a great start at any time. The bullpen was even more problematic: closer Jeff Hoffman had picked up 7 losses and given up 15 homers in 68 innings with an ERA of 4.37, but had also saved 33 games and shown an overpowering fastball at times - including in the ALCS. The two set-up men were Yariel Rodriguez (3-2, 3.08) and Seranthony Dominguez (2-1, 3.00), but both had struggled at times in the postseason, as had main lefty Brendon Little, the AL leader in games pitched with 79. Manager John Schneider had come to rely on trade deadline acquisition Louis Varland in all sorts of situations of late. Two rookies, Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty, had greatly exceeded expectations during the regular season, but if they were to be used in high-leverage situations, it would be because the other relievers had failed along the way. Finally, Eric Lauer had perhaps been the team's most valuable pitcher during the season, going 9-2, 3.18 as a swingman, but he had seen only limited action so far in the postseason; he and Bassitt were the pitchers Schneider would turn to if one of his starters was knocked out early, but maybe he would be more creative in their usage, given the two were veterans with a lot of major league time under their belt and a record of success.
Dodgers The Dodgers were a dynasty. Their appearance in the World Series was their fifth since 2017 and the last time they had missed the postseason was in 2012. They had the highest payroll in the majors, had a roster chock-full of superstars, were the defending World Series champions, and their manager Dave Roberts already had a plaque waiting for him in Cooperstown. They were the favorites for the series based on name recognition alone, but their season had been good but not great, and they did have a few weaknesses even if they had breezed through the postseason thus far, winning 9 of 10 games.
The Dodgers' offense revolved around the greatest player on the planet, DH Shohei Ohtani, owner of two 50-home run seasons in his two years in Dodger blue, who had led the majors with 146 runs scored, one of the highest figures in recent times, and had managed to drive in 102 runs from the lead-off spot (granted, over half of these were driving himself in with a long ball). He had cut down on his stolen bases this season, but one had the feeling that he could steal a base almost at will if the situation were to dictate it. There were two other former MVP's hitting behind him, with SS Mookie Betts (.258, 20 HR, 95 R, 83 RBI) and 1B Freddie Freeman (.295, 24 HR, 90 RBI). Betts had had a very poor first half, but was looking like the player of old for the past two months. C Will Smith (.296, 17 HR, 61 RBI) and RF Teoscar Hernandez (25 HR and 89 RBI) were both dangerous hitters, and LF Kiké Hernandez had a knack from turning into Superman in the postseason, although he was normally a useful utility player, but not much of a hitter. In fact the entire second half of the batting order, including the streaky Max Muncy, could go into deep collective slumps at times, while there was not much help on the bench either. The Dodgers would need their big guns to come through, or hope for some unheralded player, like 2B Tommy Edman the previous year, to come out of nowhere to drive in runs. And in marked contrast to the Blue Jays, the team's defense was not a strength, between most of their starters being on the wrong side of 30 and some of them never having been great defensive players to begin with.
The Dodgers had pitching though. Did we mention that Ohtani was also their best pitcher? Working his way back from Tommy John surgery, he had gone only 1-1 in 14 regular season starts, but with excellent strikeout numbers, and had been outstanding in his first two postseason starts, winning both. But then, Blake Snell (5-4, 2.35) had also won all of his postseason starts while completely dominating his opponents, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8, 2.49) had pitched the first postseason complete game in almost a decade in the NLCS. Tyler Glasnow (4-3, 3.19) also looked like he was back to his old form in the postseason, and there was veteran Clayton Kershaw (11-2, 3.36), who had already announced his retirement, available in case of emergency. All of these pitchers, except for Yamamoto, had battled health issues during the season, but were now at their best. Their return meant that two pitchers who had mainly been starters during the season, Roki Sasaki (1-1, 4.46) and Emmet Sheehan (6-3, 2.82) were now being used in relief, with Sasaki putting up some tremendous numbers as the newly-minted closer. This was fortunate, because their relievers in the regular season had been awful, with Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott, pricey acquisitions both, not making the roster, while Blake Treinen (2-7, 5.40) always looked like a disaster about to happen. They did have two reliable lefty specialists in Alex Vesia (4-2, 3.02) and Anthony Banda (5-1, 3.18), but the bullpen was still an area of concern. To avoid trouble, they needed to have their starting pitchers pitch deep into games - which they had done so far in the postseason.
Umpires[edit]
- Will Little, Mark Wegner (crew chief), John Tumpane, Alan Porter, Adam Hamari and Jordan Baker; Adrian Johnson entered the rotation as home plate umpire in Game 2.
Series results[edit]
| Game | Score | Date | Starters | Time (ET) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles Dodgers 4 Toronto Blue Jays 11 | October 24 | Blake Snell (0-1) Trey Yesavage (0-0) | 8:00 |
| 2 | Los Angeles Dodgers 5 Toronto Blue Jays 1 | October 25 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-0) Kevin Gausman (0-1) | 8:00 |
| 3 | Toronto Blue Jays 5 Los Angeles Dodgers 6 | October 27 | Max Scherzer (0-0) Tyler Glasnow (0-0) | 8:00 |
| 4 | Toronto Blue Jays 6 Los Angeles Dodgers 2 | October 28 | Shane Bieber (1-0) Shohei Ohtani (0-1) | 8:00 |
| 5 | Toronto Blue Jays 6 Los Angeles Dodgers 1 | October 29 | Trey Yesavage (1-0) Blake Snell (0-2) | 8:00 |
| 6 | Los Angeles Dodgers 3 Toronto Blue Jays 1 | October 31 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-0) Kevin Gausman (0-2) | 8:00 |
| 7 | Los Angeles Dodgers 5 Toronto Blue Jays 4 | November 1 | Shohei Ohtani (0-1) Max Scherzer (0-0) | 8:00 |
Results[edit]
Game 1 @ Rogers Centre[edit]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodgers | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 | |
| Blue Jays | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | x | 11 | 14 | 0 | |
| WP: Seranthony Dominguez (1-0); LP: Blake Snell (0-1) | |||||||||||||
| Home Runs: TOR - Daulton Varsho (1), Addison Barger (1), Alejandro Kirk (1); LA - Shohei Ohtani (1) | |||||||||||||
- Attendance: 44,353
There was a fervor across Canada before Game 1, with the subject of the World Series and the Jays' return after three decades dominating the news cycle everywhere for the three days that preceded the game. A lot of the coverage was about the insane prices that tickets were fetching on the resale market, as, clearly, the Jays could have sold twice the seating capacity of the Rogers Centre without difficulty. In any case, the place was packed, with two-time World Series-winning manager Cito Gaston throwing the ceremonial first pitch. On the mound, Trey Yesavage, at 22, was the second-youngest pitcher to make a Game 1 start, only older than Ralph Branca in 1947, facing veteran Blake Snell, who was on a great run this postseason. With a lefty on the mound, Jays manager John Schneider had replaced two of his outfielders, Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger, with right-handed batters in Davis Schneider and Myles Straw, but his biggest move was to put Bo Bichette back in the starting line-up after missing six weeks of action - but at second base, a position with which he was unfamiliar. The Dodgers, who were the clear favorites, used their regular line-up, and the Jays' strategy was simple: force Snell to throw a lot of pitches in order to get to their opponents' biggest weakness, their middle relievers, and pound them relentlessly. This approach worked to perfection.
Yesavage had an excellent 1st inning, retiring the Dodgers in order, but Snell had to work hard in the bottom of the inning, especially after walking Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with two outs. Bichette followed with a single, reassuring the hometown crowd that he was not rusty in spite of the long lay-off, and Snell walked Alejandro Kirk to load the bases. He got out of the jam by getting Daulton Varsho to fly out, but he had expended a lot of pitches. In the 2nd, it was Yesavage's turn to have to work hard. He began the inning by walking Will Smith - he would struggle with commanding his pitches over that inning and the next - but got Teoscar Hernandez to hit into a force out. The next two batters, Max Muncy and Kiké Hernandez, both singled, and Teoscar scored the first run. No ball had been hit hard yet, but the situation was difficult, and it became critical when Tommy Edman hit a ball a few feet in front of home plate towards third base. Ernie Clement fielded it, but thought better than making a desperate throw to first base. The bases were now loaded, but Yesavage struck out Andy Pages and then got Shohei Ohtani to ground out to Guerrero at first base. He was lucky to escape with giving up just one run. The Blue Jays then threatened in turn, as Clement led off the bottom of the inning with a single and after two outs, George Springer hit a soft grounder to 1B Freddie Freeman's right. He had to move a long way from his position and his throw to Snell covering first base was not in time, but Clement decided to press his luck, resulting in his being thrown out at third base by Snell, ending the inning. In the 3rd, the Dodgers scored another run after Yesavage walked the first two batters, Mookie Betts and Freeman, and Smith followed with a single. However, RF Straw caught Freeman between second and third base and he was tagged out, in what would turn out to be a very important play, as it prevented the Dodgers from having a big inning. Yesavage got Teoscar Hernandez to ground out and then struck out Muncy, stranding Smith on third base.
It was now 2-0 for the Dodgers and the large crowd had been quieted down as it looked like the Dodgers were going to dominate the game, especially as Snell had a relatively easy 3rd inning, giving up a single to Guerrero, but then erasing him on a double play by Bichette. When Yesavage started the 4th inning, Mason Fluharty was warming up in the bullpen, getting ready to face Ohtani, who was the fourth batter scheduled to hit that inning. It never got to that, though, as Yesavage managed to find his bearings again and got two strikeouts and a fly out for a 1-2-3 inning. A lesser pitcher doubtless would have cracked under the pressure put on him in the 2nd or the 3rd, but he had been able to limit the damage; the cost however was that he had needed 80 pitches to get through four innings and his night was over. But that is when the Blue Jays began stirring. Kirk led off with a ball hit to the right field corner, which would have resulted in a double for most batters, but knowing his own lack of speed, the rotund catcher stopped at first base. It did not matter as the next batter, Varsho, absolutely crushed a pitch by Snell, sending it to deep center, some 20 feet above the wall on the batter's eye, for a game-tying homer. This brought the crowd back into the game, and there would not be a moment of quiet after that even if Snell retired the next three batters in order.
Fluharty faced three batters in the top of the 5th and retired the two lefties, striking out Ohtani and getting Freeman to fly out; between the two, Betts hit a single, but Seranthony Dominguez then came out and retired Smith for another scoreless inning. Snell was helped by another double play in the bottom of the 5th, but his pitch count was climbing steadily, and Dominguez had another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 6th. And then came an inning that had the Blue Jays' signature all over it: their hitters were patient, taking anything the Dodgers pitchers would give then, and then capitalizing on any mistake with booming hits. When things were done, they had scored nine runs, the most by any team in an inning in a World Series game since 1968, and the game was basically over. It began with Bichette working a walk from Snell. John Schneider replaced him with pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa, as this was still a close, low-scoring game, and the move also improved the Jays' defence going forward. Kirk followed with a single and with his 100th pitch of the evening, Snell hit Varsho on the right shoulder, loading the bases with nobody out. Emmet Sheehan inherited the sticky situation, and he made it worse by giving up a single to Clement, with everyone advancing 90 feet. The Blue Jays now had their first lead. With a right-hander now on the mound, Lukes pinch-hit for Straw, and he drew a walk, forcing in a second run. Andres Gimenez also singled, and it was 5-2, and the bases were still loaded with no one out. Sheehan got Springer to hit a grounder to SS Betts, who threw out Clement at the plate, but John Schneider called on another pinch-hitter, this time Addison Barger to hit for Davis Schneider. Dave Roberts replied by bringing in lefty Anthony Banda, but even without the platoon advantage, Barger managed to crush a pitch to right center for a grand slam, the first-ever by a pinch-hitter in World Series history. That made the score 9-2, and the game was over... but not the inning. Guerrero followed with a single and after Kiner-Falefa made the second out, it was Kirk's turn to hit the ball out, a two-run homer that made it 11-2.
There was no way for the Dodgers to get back up from such an inning. John Schneider changed his pitching strategy at this point, going to a lower-level reliever (he had had Louis Varland warming up before the Jays had started piling on the runs), instead calling on rookie Braydon Fisher. He walked Edman and gave up a two-run homer to Ohtani, but got through the inning, and the two runs mattered little. The final two innings were handled by the two veteran starters working out of the bullpen, Chris Bassitt and Eric Lauer, who both gave up a walk and nothing else. Roberts also called on two low-level relievers to finish the game, Justin Wrobleski and Will Klein, but the Jays were only interested in getting to the end of the game by then, as the outcome was no longer in doubt. They had made a big statement. One statistic that stood out was that their batters had only struck out four times all game - and hit three homers - while the Dodgers had gone down on strikes 13 times against six pitchers, with every hurler picking up at least one K.
Game 2 @ Rogers Centre[edit]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodgers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 0 | |
| Blue Jays | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |
| WP: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-0); LP: Kevin Gausman (0-1) | |||||||||||||
| Home Runs: LA - Will Smith (1), Max Muncy (1) | |||||||||||||
- Attendance: 44,607
Their lopsided loss in Game 1 had been a shock to the Dodgers, but looking back in sober second thought, they realized things had not been that bad, as they had only allowed the Blue Jays to score in two innings. The problem was that they had scored multiple runs those two times, but if they could limit the Jays to single runs, they were in a good position. This is exactly what they did in Game 2, although it helped that they had their best starting pitcher during the regular season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, on the mound. He was coming off an unheard of complete game in the NLCS, and obviously the objective was to have him pitch as deep into the game as possible, in order to avoid the use of any reliever apart from closer Roki Sasaki. The Blue Jays also had their best starting pitcher on the mound in Kevin Gausman, but they had found it hard to give him any run support during the season and during the postseason thus far - and that would again be his demise. He managed to hang on with Yamamoto for a while, even pitching brilliantly for a few innings, but once he cracked, it was game over. The Jays were back to using their regular line-up with a righthander on the mound, with Bo Bichette taking a rest but available to pinch-hit if necessary. The author of the immortal walk-off homer that ended the 1993 World Series, Joe Carter, threw the ceremonial first pitch.
Gausman started the game by retiring the Dodgers' first two batters, both on fly balls, before Freddie Freeman doubled to right field. Will Smith followed with a single and the Dodgers were in a familiar position, leading early, and the Blue Jays were in an equally familiar position - trailing early. In the bottom of the inning, George Springer led off with a double to left and Nathan Lukes followed with a single, placing runners on the corners with no out. However, Yamamoto then found his bearings and a master class in pitching began with his striking out Vladimir Guerrero Jr., then getting Alejandro Kirk to hit a soft liner to first base, and Daulton Varsho to strike out as well. That was a warning of things to come for the Blue Jays: they would be able to get a few men on base - at least in the early innings - but Yamamoto would prevent them from causing any damage after that. In the 2nd, Ernie Clement hit a weak pop up to the right of the mound. Three players converged on it before 1B Freeman took charge, but as he charged in to catch it, he overran the ball, and it fell behind him untouched. In a feat of great generosity, the official scorer awarded Clement a base hit, but that did not change the outcome: Yamamoto retired the next three batters in order, and that was that. In the 3rd, the Blue Jays did manage to put a run across. It started when Yamamoto hit lead-off hitter George Springer with a pitch. He then struck out Lukes, but Guerrero followed with the hardest-hit ball by any Jays batter on the night, a screaming line drive that banged against the fence in left on the fly, but that was hit so hard that the ball bounced back into LF Kiké Hernandez's glove in an instant. Springer made it to third base, but Guerrero had to stop at first base. Kirk followed with a deep fly ball on which Springer scored easily, but Varsho grounded out. The Blue Jays would not get another baserunner all night.
The game was tied, and after the two 1st-inning hits, Gausman was having a great night. Between getting the final out in the 1st until the end of the 6th inning, he retired 16 straight batters, and even made it to 17 when he got Freeman to fly out to center to start the 7th inning. That kept the Jays in the game in spite of Yamamoto being dominant. Both pitchers had a low pitch count but the difference was that Yamamoto was no stranger to going deep into games, whereas Gausman was not one to normally pitch into the 7th or later. Something was bound to give, and that happened when Smith, with a full count, swung at a pitch on the outside corner and drove it high and deep to left field, into the upper deck, for a long home run. The question was now whether to leave Gausman to pitch any longer, now that he had become human again. John Schneider decided to let him complete the inning, and it resulted in Max Muncy hitting a second solo homer, this one with two outs. It was nowhere near as long as Smith's, but it did the job. Schneider now called on Louis Varland who needed just one pitch to complete the inning. But before critics claim that Schneider left his starter in too long, one should remember that Varland had proved to be eminently fallible during the postseason thus far, and would in fact do so again in the next inning: there is no certainty that he would have completed the inning without giving up more runs. In any case, the game was already lost after Smith had homered, as the Jays' only hope of victory had been to force Yamamoto out of the game while it was still tied, and this was no longer possible.
With a 3-1 lead, the Dodgers were now completely in control and could look forward to going back to Los Angeles and winning the final three games at home without much opposition. They then ensured that this scenario would play out by demonstrating to anyone who was still watching that the Blue Jays bullpen was not a good one, and likely much worse than their own. Varland proceeded to self-destruct in the 8th when with one out he gave up a single to Andy Pages, who was stuck in the deepest of slumps. Shohei Ohtani followed with a single to right on which RF Addison Barger almost caught Pages straying too far from the second base bag - the Blue Jays expended a challenge to have the play reviewed, but in vain - and then Varland walked Mookie Betts to load the bases. That led to his replacement by closer Jeff Hoffman, who quickly uncorked a wild pitch for a fourth run, then after an intentional walk to Freeman, Smith continued his demolition work on the Jays by grounding into a force out for a 5-1 lead. And then to make it clear who was the boss now, Yamamoto struck out the side in the bottom of the inning. He came back in the 9th and humiliated the Jays some more, retiring them in order to make it 20 straight outs since Guerrero's 3rd-inning hit. It was his second straight complete game in the postseason, putting him in almost unchartered territory among 21st century pitchers: Curt Schilling had been the last to throw consecutive complete games in the 2001 Postseason, and Madison Bumgarner the only other pitcher to throw two such games in a single postseason, having done so in 2014. He had put the Dodgers back in the driver's seat after their Game 1 road bump.
Game 3 @ Dodger Stadium[edit]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Jays | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 0 | |
| Dodgers | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 16 | 2 | |
| WP: Will Klein (1-0); LP: Brendon Little (0-1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home Runs: LA - Teoscar Hernandez (1), Shohei Ohtani 2 (3), Freddie Freeman (1); TOR - Alejandro Kirk (2) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
- Attendance: 52,654
Before Game 3 started, both teams knew this was going to be an important game, because it would give one team control of the series. Both managers voiced their concern before the game about overusing their bullpen, knowing that they would need to play on three consecutive days and that their pitchers would be heavily solicited as a result. The game turned out to be record-setting in a number of ways, tying the record set by Game 3 of the 2018 World Series by going 18 innings. It took six hours and 39 minutes of baseball for the game to be decided on a walk-off home run by Freddie Freeman. The two bullpens were indeed heavily taxed, as both starting pitchers - Tyler Glasnow for the Dodgers and Max Scherzer for the Blue Jays - left during the 5th inning. As a result, there were 17 relief pitchers used in all - 9 by the Dodgers and 8 by the Blue Jays, two of them going four innings or longer - before the game settled into a stressful string of zeros in extra innings. It was a very entertaining affair, with a number of lead changes, another magnificent performance by Shohei Ohtani, who hit two doubles and two homers before the Blue Jays decided they would not pitch to him again, walking him five times - four of them intentionally -, a number of wasted chances in extras, and two superlative defensive plays by Toronto.
The game started with Glasnow retiring the Blue Jays in order in the 1st, and Scherzer giving up a lead-off double to Ohtani but then retiring the next three batters to strand him there. In the 2nd, Glasnow showed that he would not pull off another masterful performance like Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, as he faced some trouble. He first allowed a lead-off single to Bo Bichette, then it looked to everyone like he had in turn walked Daulton Varsho on a pitch clearly above the strike zone, before home plate umpire Mark Wegner made a delayed strike two call. The problem was that Bichette had assumed it was ball four, and he was casually walking towards second base and was easily picked off. This turned out to be very costly as Glasnow then did walk Varsho three pitches later, and Alejandro Kirk followed with a single on which Bichette would have scored easily had he been on second base. Glasnow escaped further trouble by retiring the next two batters, but he had started to use a lot of pitches, and that would eventually result in a short outing. Meanwhile though, it was the Dodgers who broke the ice. In the bottom of the 2nd, Teoscar Hernandez homered to left with one out, and in the 3rd, it was Ohtani's turn to go deep, doing so to right field, making the lead 2-0. Scherzer's problem had always been the gopher ball, and it was haunting him again tonight. The inning continued when Freeman drew a walk with two outs, then surprised everyone by stealing second base. Kirk's throw was on the money, enough that the Blue Jays asked for a video review, but the call stood as the play was as close as could be. Will Smith followed with a single to right field and it looked like a certain third run - except that RF Addison Barger could boast of one of the best arms of any outfielder in the majors, and threw out Freeman at home by a comfortable margin, on a bullet that went straight into Kirk's mitt from deep right field - as good an outfield throw as one could ever hope to see.
Buoyed by that great defensive play, the Blue Jays went to work on Glasnow in the 4th, and got to him with a lead-off walk by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Bichette followed with a grounder to second that should have resulted in at least one out and possibly a double play, but it passed under 2B Tommy Edman's glove and into center field, with Guerrero ending up on third base and Bichette safe at first on the error. After Varsho made an out to shallow left, Kirk followed by hitting a homer to center field and suddenly the game was upended, the 2-0 deficit having turned into a 3-2 lead for Toronto. There were still no outs, and the Blue Jays continued to press their advantage. Barger and Ernie Clement both singled to right, and Andres Gimenez drove in a fourth run with a sacrifice fly to deep center. Scherzer then retired the Dodgers in order in the bottom of the inning, and the momentum was clearly in the Blue Jays' camp. That became even more apparent in the 5th when they managed to chase Gausman: Nathan Lukes drew a lead-off walk, but after Gausman retired Guerrero and Bichette, manager Dave Roberts would not let his starter face the lefty Varsho, and called on Anthony Banda. Banda got Varsho to pop out to end the inning, but it meant that the Dodgers' troubled bullpen had a long night ahead of it; it's just that no one could anticipate how long it would be at that point. In the bottom of the inning, the Dodgers managed to first chase Scherzer and then tie the score. Mad Max gave up a lead-off single to Kiké Hernandez before retiring Andy Pages, but John Schneider would not let him face Ohtani a third time after the Japanese superstar had already recorded two extra-base hits off him. Lefty Mason Fluharty, who had made it a habit thus far in his young career to strike out Ohtani, was brought into the game, but you can only go to the well so many times. He got a full count on Ohtani before Shohei ripped a double to left, scoring Hernandez. Fluharty managed to get the righty Mookie Betts to fly out, but the lefty Freeman got to him with a single to right that tied the game. It was the reverse of Fluharty's outing in Game 1, when he had retired Ohtani and Freeman but allowed a hit to Betts. While the purists were admiring the perfect symmetry of the moment, the game was now tied at 4, and Louis Varland came in to finish the inning, striking out Smith.
The game remained tied through the 6th inning, as the Blue Jays stranded Barger on base after he had hit a single off Justin Wrobleski. In the bottom of the inning, Teoscar Hernandez singled with one out and after a second out, Edman hit a grounder that SS Gimenez fielded far behind second base. His throw to first base had no chance of getting Edman, but 1B Guerrero made a second brilliant defensive play, advancing to cut off the throw before it reached the bag, then firing an absolute bullet to 3B Clement to cut down Teoscar at third base. The Dodgers challenged the call, but it was upheld after a video review and the inning was over. The Blue Jays then took the lead in the top of the 7th. The inning started on an ominous note when George Springer fouled off the first pitch from Wrobleski, but then winced in obvious pain and was immediately removed from the game, victim of pulled oblique muscle that put his status for the rest of the series in serious doubt. Ty France, who had yet to play this postseason, came in to complete the at-bat. He eventually struck out, but only after a long battle, after which Lukes grounded out. Roberts did not want his young lefty to face Guerrero, so he called on veteran Blake Treinen, normally one of his trusted bullpen arms, but also someone who had struggled badly both during the season and in the postseason, And he immediately got in trouble when Guerrero lunged at a pitch well outside the strike zone, and in a move channeling his father Vlad Senior, he hit a single to center field. Bichette followed by dropping a hit down the first base line. Clearly unable to run much, he stopped at first base, but meanwhile Vladdy was off to the races, circling the bases at full speed. He knew that his old buddy Teoscar Hernandez did not have a good arm and ran home, and indeed, the throw was well off the plate (a good one would have gotten him easily), and the Blue Jays were in the lead once again. Schneider immediately replaced Bichette with pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Varsho hit a single. Treinen finally recorded an out on a ground ball by Kirk that ended the inning.
The next pitcher for the Blue Jays was hard-throwing righty Seranthony Dominguez and he got Pages to fly out for the first out, but he was helpless against Ohtani, who hit his eighth homer of the postseason on his first pitch, a fastball that was crushed to center field. It was his record third multi-homer game of the postseason, and really, was else can be said: Shohei was like a god among mere mortals, and the Blue Jays pitchers would have none of him for the rest of the game, walking him every time he came up after that. The game was tied again, this time at five, and it looked like this would be short-lived again, with both teams wielding hot bats and having to turn to pitchers all bearing some sort of flaw, but it wasn't the case at all. There would be no more scoring for ten full innings - more than a full night of baseball - and it would be almost 3:00 AM on the east coast by the time the next runner would cross the plate. In the immediate, Dominguez walked both Freeman and Smith before getting Max Muncy to ground out to end the inning and the string of goose eggs began in earnest, although there were plenty of scoring opportunities. The Dodgers' next pitcher, Jack Dreyer, was again let down by his defense, as SS Betts made a bad throw on a ground ball by Barger. Barger was replaced by a pinch-runner, Myles Straw, and after one out, Gimenez hit a single, placing a second runner on base. Out came Dreyer, in came closer Roki Sasaki who got both France and Lukes to ground out, with the Jays stranding two runners in scoring position. The parade of pitchers continued with Chris Bassitt giving Toronto a scoreless bottom of the 8th, followed by closer Jeff Hoffman for the next two. Sasaki remained in the game for the 9th and walked Kiner-Falefa with one out. Varsho followed with a single, but IKF was thrown out at third before Kirk drew a walk as well. Straw had the winning run in scoring position, but he hit a ground ball as the Jays wasted an inning in which they had managed to put three men on base.
Emmet Sheehan pitched the 10th for L.A., then stayed on for the 11th and the 12th as well. He almost lost the game in the 11th when France singled with two outs and gave way to pinch-runner Davis Schneider. The manager's namesake tried to score on a double by Lukes, but this time, Teoscar Hernandez hit the cut-off man, Edman, and his relay to the plate retired Schneider on another close play. By now, the Blue Jays were forced to go to some of their second-tier pitchers, with Braydon Fisher pitching the 11th but getting Freeman to fly out with two men on, one of whom was Ohtani who had been intentionally walked with the bases empty. In the 12th, Kirk drew a lead-off walk against Sheehan and was replaced with the fourth pinch-runner of the evening for Toronto, his back-up Tyler Heineman, as the Jays had now emptied their bench. Straw was asked to bunt him over, but failed in his assignment. Heineman made it to second on an out by Clement and Sheehan then issued an intentional walk to Gimenez, bringing up Davis Schneider, who was safe on an infield single to 3B Muncy. At this point Roberts called on veteran Clayton Kershaw to pitch in what could well be the final game of his career. Kershaw got Lukes to ground out, and the game was still tied, the Blue jays having stranded three more baserunners. Eric Lauer came on to pitch for Toronto during the 12th inning, and as a starter for most of the season, he was able to stay on the mound for a while, eventually giving the Jays 4 2/3 innings of scoreless ball - not that it was easy going. That was fine, but the Jays were unable to take advantage of his great work, as they were unable to score against Edgardo Henriquez in the 13th and 14th, and Will Klein after that. The Dodgers' best opportunity to end the game came in the 13th when Edman led off with a double off Lauer and Miguel Rojas, pinch-hitting for Kiké Hernandez, laid down a sacrifice bunt. Roberts then sent in Alex Call to bat for Pages, who had done next to nothing with the bat all postseason, but Call was no better, popping up to shortstop. After the obligatory intentional walk to Ohtani, followed by another intentional free pass to Betts, Lauer faced Freeman for a lefty-on-lefty match-up and got him to fly out to center as the Dodgers also left the sacks full. The Dodgers threatened again in the 14th. Muncy walked with one out, followed by a single by Teoscar Hernandez, but Lauer managed to retire the next two batters to add to the total of runners left on base. The next two innings were relatively quiet, and in the bottom of the 17th, the beleaguered lefty Brendon Little - in effect the last man available to pitch unless John Schneider wanted to turn to Game 1 starter Trey Yesavage - was sent to the mound. The Dodgers got a couple of men on base with two outs, one of which was Ohtani who received his fifth walk of the game, not officially an intentional one, but one on four pitches, three of which were in the dirt, but Betts could only hit a pop-up to Guerrero at first base.
So the game moved to the 18th inning, tying the Series record for the longest contest. In his fourth inning of work, Klein walked Guerrero with one out, but Vladdy was forced out by Kiner-Falefa on a close play. This was followed by a walk to Varsho and a wild pitch that placed both runners in scoring position, but Toronto was unable to take advantage of that opportunity as well, as Heineman struck out swinging on a full count. Little returned for another inning, but facing a fellow lefty in Freeman, he finally cracked. With a full count, he left a sinker hanging in the middle of the plate and Freeman, reprising his hero's role from Game 1 of last year's World Series, homered to center field to finally end the marathon contest.
Game 4 @ Dodger Stadium[edit]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Jays | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 0 | |
| Dodgers | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | |
| WP: Shane Bieber (1-0); LP: Shohei Ohtani (0-1) | |||||||||||||
| Home Runs: TOR - Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1) | |||||||||||||
- Attendance: 52,552
The Blue Jays were facing a tough assignment ahead of Game 4 after a physically and emotionally draining loss in Game 3, with the risk of falling into a 3-1 hole. Plus they were facing the great Shohei Ohtani both at the plate, where he had been unstoppable the night before, but also on the mound, as he was looking to add to a legend that was growing by leaps and bounds. Their hope was that Ohtani would be tired from having been on the bases a record nine times the night before and not getting any more rest than any one else to recover. Not that the Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber was any less tired, as he was on call for the final innings of the marathon game as a possible pitching option, so he could not just relax in preparation for today's starting assignment. Even worse for Toronto, one of their most dangerous hitters, George Springer, was out of the starting line-up after leaving the previous game with a muscle strain. That forced John Schneider to re-work his line-up, putting Bo Bichette as the DH, which had the added bonus of strengthening the defense given Bichette could not run much, with RF Nathan Lukes moving up to Springer's lead-off spot and every one else moving up one rung in the order. For the Dodgers, Dave Roberts had mused to journalists about replacing CF Andy Pages, whose bat was in hibernation, but he was still in the starting line-up when the game began, as the options on the bench were no great shakes either.
The first signs were not good for the Blue Jays in the 1st inning, as LF Kiké Hernandez made a great play, leaping halfway into the stands, to snatch a foul ball off Lukes' bat for the first out, and then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was completely fooled by three consecutive pitches by Ohtani for a strikeout. However, Bichette then worked a walk and Addison Barger followed with an infield single. That brought up the dangerous Alejandro Kirk, but Ohtani got him to pop up to first base. He then led off the bottom of the inning by drawing a walk - his eleventh straight time on base dating back to Game 2! Needless to say, it was another Fall Classic record, as Ohtani was piling these up like there was no tomorrow. The difference was that Bieber did try to get him out this time, contrary to the last five times his turn had come up the night before, and even got two strikes on him before missing with his sixth offering. However, Bieber settled down to retire the next three batters in order and the inning finished with no runs having been scored. Ohtani then made quick work of the Blue Jays in the 2nd, retiring them in order, but Bieber ran into trouble with a one-out walk to Max Muncy followed by a single by Tommy Edman. Muncy advanced to third on the hit and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kiké Hernandez. This was familiar territory for Toronto: in 11 games in the ALCS and World Series including tonight, they had given up the first run nine times, always in the first three innings, and had lost one of the two games in which they had scored first. So there was no need to panic, although one could understand their fans thinking "Here we go again". But Bieber got Pages to fly out to end the inning, and in the 3rd, the Jays did something they had also done as a matter of course over the two series, which was to erase said early deficit. Lukes singled to right with one out and Guerrero followed by blasting a 2-1 pitch beyond the fence in left-center field for a two-run homer that put Toronto in the lead. It was Vladdy's first homer of the World Series, but already his seventh of the postseason, which made him the franchise's all-time leader for postseason homers - all of them having been hit in the last three weeks.
The Dodgers would never manage to erase that slight 2-1 deficit. After looking a bit shaky in the first two innings, Bieber settled down and pitched like the former Cy Young Award winner he was. On a night when both managers were praying that their starting pitcher would go deep into the game, he did just that, hardly giving up anything else to the Dodgers until the 6th inning. This started by striking out Ohtani on a foul tip to lead off the bottom of the 3rd, proving that he was human after all (some doubt about that had been sewed given his recent performances). There was nothing spectacular or overpowering about Bieber's outing, just an efficient use of all of his pitches to keep the Dodgers from making any good contact. Ohtani also pitched well after being mugged by Guerrero, as he pitched into the 7th inning without giving up much of anything either. He struck out the side in the 4th, and gave the two-out single he gave up to Lukes in the 5th was his only flaw over the middle portion of the game. On most nights, this would have been enough to earn him a win. In the bottom of the 6th, Bieber gave up a lead-off single to the previous night's hero, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith followed with a sharp liner to center field, but Daulton Varsho made a sliding catch for the first out. When Teoscar Hernandez followed with a single, with Freeman stopping at second base, Schneider sensed that his guy was tiring and called upon young lefty Mason Fluharty to come and pitch. He had only faced three batters the night before so he was relatively fresh. Fluharty needed just four pitches to get out of the inning: Muncy hit a soft fly ball on his first offering, and the next three were strikes to Edman, and just like that, the inning was over with two men left on base and the Blue Jays still in the lead.
Toronto put the game away in the 7th as Ohtani came back out when he would normally have turned the ball over to the bullpen. But this was the World Series and almost certainly Shohei's last pitching appearance of the season, and the Dodgers' bullpen was both tired and shaky, its great collective performance the night before notwithstanding. It did not go well as Varsho led off with a single and Ernie Clement followed with a double. That spelled the end for Ohtani, although he remained in the game as the DH, and out came lefty Anthony Banda who had thrown just three pitches in Game 3. Being fresh did not help tonight, however, as he got two strikes on Andres Gimenez, but the shortstop continued to pile on the key postseason hits by hitting a single to left with a full count on a pitch that was outside the strike zone. Varsho scored to make it 3-1, and Clement went to third. Up next was Isiah Kiner-Falefa and the Dodgers expected him to attempt a squeeze bunt but Banda's first three pitches were outside the strike zone. He then lined a ball hard, but straight at 3B Muncy who caught it on the fly and relayed it to Freeman at 1B. The initial call by umpire Adam Hamari was that Gimenez was out as well, but the Blue Jays challenged the call and the replay showed that Gimenez had managed to touch the bag a fraction of a second before the ball reached Freeman's glove. That was a crucial play, as there was still one out, and pinch-hitter Ty France, batting for Lukes, hit a soft grounder to second base. He was out easily, but Clement scored and it was now 4-1. Roberts then called for an intentional walk to Guerrero, simultaneously replacing Banda with Blake Treinen. Treinen also had not pitched much in Game 3 - just a third of an inning and 15 pitches - but he had still managed to give up three hits and a run. More of the same followed as Bichette hit a ball into the left-field corner on which Gimenez scored and Guerrero advanced to third base. It was Bichette's hardest hit of the series, as his bat was clearly coming around even if his balky knee meant he had to stop on first base on what would have otherwise been a double. Barger then followed with another single, scoring Guerrero, before Kirk lined out to right. The disastrous inning for the Dodgers was finally over, but they were down 6-1 and things were looking bleak. Schneider then turned to veteran Chris Bassitt to take the mound, and, having accepted that his role on the Blue Jays' staff this postseason was to be a jack-of-all-trades relief pitcher, he proceeded to retire the three men he faced in order, including Ohtani on a grounder to second.
The Blue Jays continued to put men on base in the 8th, with Clement being credited with a single when new pitcher Jack Dreyer was late covering first base after 1B Freeman had ranged far to his right to field a ground ball. Dreyer then plunked the next batter, Gimenez, on the right shoulder with a pitch to put a second runner on base. The two advanced 90 feet on a ground out by Kiner-Falefa, but Myles Straw, in the game for defensive purposes, failed to drive them in, striking out swinging. Bassitt returned for another inning, and after giving up a lead-off single to Mookie Betts, he struck out Freeman and got Smith to hit into a double play. The Dodgers had three outs left to get five runs, and the television broadcast helpfully flashed a graphic that showed that in World Series history, teams heading into the 9th inning trailing by 3 or more runs were something like 0 and 354. In other words, their goose was cooked. Dreyer pitched a second scoreless inning in the top of the 9th, once again stranding two baserunners, then Schneider made a decision that could have blown up in his face. Rather than sending back to Bassitt, who was clearly in full control of the situation, and would not be available for Game 5 any way, he called on his personal favorite, Louis Varland, to pitch the 9th. Clearly, Schneider liked the hard-throwing righty, but he had been far from lights out in his innumerable postseason outings (there were only two games thus far in which he had failed to appear) and the manager was running the risk of making the Dodgers overly familiar with Varland's pitches. He quickly put himself in trouble by walking Teoscar Hernandez and allowing a double to Muncy. Schneider now had no choice but to start warming up closer Jeff Hoffman, something he would very much have wanted to avoid. Varland managed to settle down though, limiting the damage. He got Edman to ground out on a ball on which 3B Clement made a nice play. Teoscar scored, but Muncy had to stay put on second base. He then made Kiké Hernandez look foolish by getting him to swing at a knuckle curve well outside the strike zone for out number two. But Muncy was proving to be a distraction at second base, so Varland just disengaged from the pitching rubber three times, the "intentional balk" moving him to third base, so that he could concentrate Alex Call, who had come in as a pinch-hitter for Pages two innings earlier, with Ohtani now in the on-deck circle. Call hit a ball hard to the left field corner but Straw was there to make the catch, ending the game. The 6-2 win by the pesky Blue Jays tied the series and ensured that the two teams would return to the Rogers Centre for at least one more game. And the two managers had been able not to overuse their respective bullpens, so that fresh arms would be available for Game 5 the next evening.
Game 5 @ Dodger Stadium[edit]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Jays | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 0 | |
| Dodgers | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |
| WP: Trey Yesavage (1-0); LP: Blake Snell (0-2) | |||||||||||||
| Home Runs: TOR - Davis Schneider (1), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (2); LA - Kiké Hernandez (1) | |||||||||||||
- Attendance: 52,175
After evening things up in Game 4, the Blue Jays pounced on the Dodgers in Game 5, becoming the first team in the history of the Fall Classic to have its first two batters of a game go deep. Dodgers starter Blake Snell settled down after that and turned in a gutsy performance, pitching into the 7th inning and throwing 116 pitches, but he was outdone by the rookie Trey Yesavage, whose remarkable story continued with a performance that mirrored his stunning dismantling of the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the Division Series. He went seven innings, allowed just three hits, walked none, and struck out 12 while the Dodgers' batters looked helpless against all three of his pitches. His only mistake was giving up a solo homer to Kiké Hernandez in the 3rd, but by the time his work was done, the Blue Jays had a solid lead and were well on their way to taking control of the series. The Dodgers finally made a change to their starting line-up, which had not been generating many runs, replacing Andy Pages with Alex Call and moving a couple of batters around, but it did not help much. For his part, John Schneider, with George Springer still unavailable, had his namesake Davis Schneider batting lead-off in place of Nathan Lukes, a move that paid immediate dividends. There was an incident before the game that probably went unnoticed to the vast majority of viewers: asked to sing the Canadian national anthem, Rufus Wainwright opted for the bilingual version often heard at hockey games, but while his French pronunciation was good, he completely flubbed the lyrics, making up a mish-mash from the correct verses. As Sportsnet reporter Jamie Campbell put it eloquently: "Well, that was special". At least the flags were right-side up.
This was quickly forgotten when Davis Schneider stepped up to the plate against Snell. He rightly anticipated a first-pitch fastball and got all of it, pulling it just over the left field fence out of the reach of LF Call for a solo homer. The crowd had barely time to settle down before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. took a called strike then unleashed on Snell's next pitch, a fastball that hung belt-high, and he crushed a no-doubter to left, this one landing in the back of the bullpen. It was 2-0 after just three pitches and the Dodgers would never recover from that one-two punch. To Snell's credit, he did not fall apart and got his poise back, pitching creditably over the next six innings to keep his team in the game. But once again, the Blue Jays batters did what they do best, which is not to swing at bad pitches, foul off strikes, and run up pitch counts. Snell gave it all he had and more, but he could not complete seven innings. In normal circumstances, Dave Roberts would have removed him from the game before he had run completely out of steam, so his final line would have looked better, but with few palatable options available out of the bullpen, Roberts attempted to squeeze the lemon dry - to no avail. To get back to the 1st inning, things continued to be tough for Snell after the two homers, as after he struck out Bichette, Alejandro Kirk hit a single and Daulton Varsho hit what appeared to be an inning-ending double play, but the Blue Jays challenged the out call at first base, and it was overturned as Varsho appeared to touch the bag a fraction of a second before the ball had made it into 1B Freddie Freeman's glove. Varsho then attempted a rare stolen base for Toronto (they had not yet stolen a base all series, and the few times they had sent the runner was on an attempted hit-and-run). C Will Smith made an excellent throw. Varsho was called out, but the Blue Jays challenged again. This time, they were unsuccessful and the inning finally ended.
If Snell had started the game in the worst possible way, it was the opposite for Yesavage. He had struggled with his command in Game 1, making it through four innings largely on guts as his best pitch, his splitter, was not working that night and he had to rely strictly on his slider and fastball. That was not the case tonight. All three pitches were working perfectly, and expertly guided by Kirk, he switched back and forth from one to the other, tying up the Dodgers' hitters in knots. It started with Shohei Ohtani hitting a harmless grounder to Guerrero at first base, followed by a fly out and a strikeout of Mookie Betts. By the time he had gone through the batting order twice at the end of five innings, Yesavage had completed what researcher Herm Krabbenhoft has called a "pitcher' cycle" - a very rare feat in which one pitcher manages to strike out all nine opposite batters at least once. Doing so in just five innings is almost unheard of, and that was the measure of how dominant Yesavage's performance was. He made only one mistake all night: with one out in the 3rd inning, he left a fastball in the middle of the zone for Kiké Hernandez, who crushed it to left field for a solo homer. That reduced Toronto's lead to 2-1, and it temporarily restored some life to Dodger Stadium, which had become very quiet apart from the very loud public address announcements and music. Yesavage was not shaken however. He had struck out five straight batters prior to Kiké's long ball, and retired the two batters that followed it, including striking out Ohtani to end the inning. The Blue Jays replied immediately when Varsho led off the 4th with a hit down the right field line that was comically misplayed by RF Teoscar Hernandez, who tried to make some sort of sliding stop in the hope of maybe holding Varsho to a single. He missed the ball completely and it ended up in the right field corner, with Varsho making it to third base standing up. Under different circumstances, he would have likely tried for an inside-the-park homer and would have had a good chance of making it safely. The next batter, Ernie Clement, hit a fly ball to center field, and Varsho crossed the plate easily to increase the lead back to two runs. At this point, the Blue Jays had placed men on base in every inning, but Kiké's homer had been the only baserunner for Los Angeles. Yesavage hit Freeman with a pitch with two outs in the bottom of the 4th, after which Teoscar Hernandez hit an infield single. Kirk called time, made a slow mound visit to get his pitcher to collect his thoughts, and Yesavage ended the threat by getting Tommy Edman to pop up. That was as good as it got for the Dodgers.
The Blue Jays continued to put men on base in the following innings, even if they did not score, as Snell's pitch count climbed steadily. Meanwhile, if anything, Yesavage was getting better and better, getting two more strikeouts in the 5th. Snell finally managed to retire the Blue Jays in order in the 6th, and the Dodgers first batter in the bottom of that inning, Ohtani, hit a hard liner to right, but Addison Barger made a great sliding catch before Yesavage retired the next two batters. Snell was almost at 100 pitches by then and in the regular season, his night would have been done, but he returned for the 7th, which proved to be an inning too far. Barger led off with a single and took second on a wild pitch, before Isiah Kiner-Falefa grounded out, having failed in his attempt to bunt Barger over, in large part because Snell was showing clear signs of fatigue and missing his targets more often, as witnessed by the walk he issued to the next batter, Andres Gimenez. Davis Schneider was now up, and Roberts elected to have Snell face him, in spite of Schneider hitting a home run off him in the 1st. One of Snell's pitches was in the dirt and Barger managed to take third base even if the ball got only two feet away from Smith. Snell did manage to strike out Schneider for the second out. It was still just 3-1, but Roberts would not let his starter face Guerrero. Instead, he called on young hard-throwing righty Edgardo Henriquez to pitch. Henriquez had done well in extra innings in the marathon Game 3, but there was a reason he was considered one of the last options on the bullpen totem pole, as his control often left a lot to be desired - which is exactly what happened tonight. In walking Guerrero, his final pitch was two feet outside, escaped Smith's glove to roll to the backstop, and Barger scored standing up from third base. It was the third wild pitch of the inning, and it wasn't over yet. Bichette followed with a single to right and Gimenez scored to make it 5-1, while Guerrero advanced to third base. Henriquez then faced his mandatory third batter but walked Kirk to load the bases. That was the end for the youngster, replaced by Anthony Banda, whose numbers in the series were less than great. But he did manage to get Varsho to ground out, ending the inning. However, the score was now 5-1, and the Dodgers had their work cut out for them.
Contrary to Snell, Yesavage's pitch count was in good shape in spite of all of the strikeouts, and he had hardly had to make any pitches with runners on base. He completed a magnificent effort by getting three more outs, a strikeout of Freeman - his twelfth - then an infield single by Teoscar followed by a double play grounder by Edman. It was a perfect position for John Schneider, since he had two high-leverage relievers available and rested in Seranthony Dominguez and Jeff Hoffman and could give each of them a clean inning to work with a comfortable lead. A lead that was made even bigger when the Jays added a 6th run against Banda in the 8th. Had the score been closer, Roberts would have doubtless sent in closer Roki Sasaki for the final two innings, but there was no point in doing so now. So Clement extended his postseason hitting streak with a lead-off single, followed by yet another wild pitch. A ground out by Barger advanced him to third base and Kiner-Falefa had a rare hit to drive him in. Dominguez walked Call with two outs in the 8th, but got Ohtani, who had homered off him in Game 3, to ground out to first, so the game moved on to the 9th. Hoffman gave up a lead-off single to Smith - just the fourth hit of the game by L.A. - but then retired the next three batters, including back-to-back strikeouts of Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez to end the game. The momentum had completely turned around since the Jays' excruciating loss in Game 3. They were now the ones in control, and heading home with a chance of finishing off the Dodgers before what was sure to be a raucous crowd at the Rogers Centre, where over 25,000 fans had gathered every night just to watch the game on the big screen while their protégés were playing on the west coast the last three days.
Game 6 @ Rogers Centre[edit]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodgers | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | |
| Blue Jays | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | |
| WP: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-0); LP: Kevin Gausman (0-2); SV: Tyler Glasnow (1) | |||||||||||||
| Home Runs: none | |||||||||||||
- Attendance: 44,710
The Dodgers' bats did not really come to life in Game 6, as the team managed all of four hits all evening, but they had the good sense to bunch them up. By getting three hits in the 3rd inning, they scored three runs, and it was enough to run away with the win, as the Blue Jays had a number of opportunities with runners in scoring position. but scored only once, a single run in the bottom of that same 3rd inning. The best of these opportunities came in the bottom of the 9th, but it was snuffed out in a series of unusual plays. As a result, the 3-1 win by the Dodgers forced a seventh game to be played. On the mound, the two opponents from Game 2 were back at it, and in the same ballpark too. The Blue Jays had as their mission to force Yoshinobu Yamamoto out of the game as early as possible in order to get to the bullpen, which was already a tall order given Yamamoto was coming off back-to-back complete games. The Dodgers for their part needed to get just enough runs off Gausman to back up their ace's pitching. Both teams accomplished their objective, but the Blue Jays squandered a series of opportunities to score runs late in the game and ended up on the short end of the score. There were two major changes to the starting line-ups: the Dodgers had Miguel Rojas start a game for the first time, doing so at second base with Tommy Edman moving to center field, while George Springer was back in the line-up as the starting DH and lead-off batter for Toronto after missing the previous two games. Another former Blue Jays great, Devon White, delivered the ceremonial first pitch.
For the first two innings, Gausman looked like the best pitcher in the world: he faced six batters, struck out five of them, and the only one to make contact, Mookie Betts, hit a harmless grounder to third base. Meanwhile, Yamamoto, who had ended his Game 2 start by retiring the last 20 batters in order, saw that string end in the bottom of the 1st: Nathan Lukes hit a bouncer towards 3B Max Muncy that rolled under his glove. It was originally called a hit, then the ruling was changed to an error, correctly because it was a very makeable play. There were no consequences in any case as Yamamoto forced the next batter, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., to ground into a double play. In the 2nd, he retired the Blue Jays in order.
The 3rd inning was the pivotal one. Gausman started off by striking out Kiké Hernandez, giving him 6 Ks already, but on his next pitch, Edman hit a scorching liner above Guerrero's head at first base. By the time Guerrero had jumped to put his glove where the ball should have been, it was already past him and into the right field corner for a double. Rojas was next up and he struck out for the second out. John Schneider made a fateful decision at that point, which was to issue an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani. Until then, that strategy had always worked, with the men hitting behind him failing to push him across the plate, but it wouldn't be the case this time. And, given that it was still early in the game and Gausman had struck out Ohtani in the 1st inning, it was a puzzling decision, and one that would cost the Blue Jays the game. Will Smith, probably the team's most consistent hitter thus far in the series, followed with a double to left. Edman scored and Ohtani advanced to third base, bringing up Freddie Freeman. With a base open, Gausman did not want to give him much to hit and walked him on four pitches, bringing up Betts. He was the clean-up hitter in this game, but that was a function of being demoted two rungs down the order because of his inability to get any hits with runners on base. Plus, he was a righty, whereas Freeman had the platoon advantage. But Betts was also a former MVP and a very good hitter even if struggling at the moment, and with two strikes, he managed to pull a ball into left field for a single. Two runs scored and the Blue Jays had lost the game, although they may not have realized it at that point. But it is a fact: the Dodgers did almost nothing after that, getting just one hit the rest of the way and going down in order every inning save for the 8th, but they had done just enough to hold off the Blue Jays.
Toronto finally managed a run off Yamamoto in the bottom of the 3rd, their first off him since the 3rd inning of Game 2. Addison Barger led off with a double to right, then, after a rare strikeout of Ernie Clement, advanced to third on a ground out by Andres Gimenez. Springer, who had winced on pain on every swing in grounding out in the 1st, now looked at three straight balls before lining a single to right. Barger scored easily to cut the lead to 3-1. The Jays would get numerous other opportunities to score more runs after that, but Springer's hit would be their only one with a runner in scoring position all night. Yamamoto then ended the inning by getting Lukes to fly out. Meanwhile, Gausman had ended the 3rd inning by striking out Teoscar Hernandez, and he went back to being dominant for the next three innings, even if he was no longer striking out everybody. He was now relying on weak contact to retire ten straight batters until the end of the 6th, after which he left, having thrown 93 pitches. It was a quality start and would have been a win or a no-decision most times, but tonight it would result in being saddled with a second tough loss in as many World Series starts. Who said life was fair? For his part, Yamamoto was nowhere near as dominant as in his previous start, as the Blue Jays stretched out at-bats and put runners on base virtually every inning. In the 4th, it was a one-out single by Bo Bichette, but it was immediately followed by Daulton Varsho grounding into a double play. In the 5th, Clement singled with two outs, extending his postseason hitting streak to 12 games, but he was left stranded.
Yamamoto started to display signs of fatigue in the 6th, as he was approaching 100 pitches. It was a bit surprising, because he had thrown over 100 pitches in each of his two complete games, and had once thrown 132 in a key start in the Japan Series, but it seemed that he was human after all. It became a tough inning when Guerrero doubled with two outs, and Bichette saw a succession of pitches miss the strike zone by a lot, fouled off a couple of strikes, and then drew a walk. Varsho now had a chance to play the hero, but he struck out on a pitch in the dirt to end the inning. Louis Varland came to pitch the 7th for Toronto and retired the Dodgers in order once again. Dave Roberts was now in a quandary, as in his preferred scenario, he would have used only Yamamoto and closer Roki Sasaki in this game, but with three innings to go, he needed to find someone to bridge the gap. He turned to youngster Justin Wrobleski, who had pitched well in his lone postseason outing thus far, and it worked. The Blue Jays put another runner in scoring position, Clement thanks to a two-out double, but they were unable to cash him in. In the 8th, Varland retired Miguel Rojas on one pitch, then turned the ball over to lefty Mason Fluharty to face Ohtani. It was another tough battle between the two, but Ohtani showed why he is one of the best hitters in the world, as with two strikes, he swung at a pitch well below the strike zone, and with one hand managed to drive it all the way to the wall in left-center for a double in an amazing feat of strength. The Jays then issued an intentional walk to Smith to bring up the lefty Freeman, and Fluharty got him to fly out to RF Barger, with Ohtani staying put at second base. That was the end for the young lefty, who gave way to Seranthony Dominguez. The hard-throwing righthander was careful with Betts, walking him on a full count when he refused to lunge at pitches outside the strike zone, but he then struck out the much less disciplined Teoscar Hernandez to end the inning. It was the Dodgers' only inning in which they had put a man on base except for the 3rd.
The Blue Jays had two turns left at bat, and they would be against the hard-throwing but erratic Roki Sasaki. The bottom of the 8th started with a defensive swing by Springer who somehow managed to deposit the ball along the first base line for a single. No one was more surprised at the positive outcome than Springer himself. Lukes worked a full count, then flied out to center field. For his part, Guerrero just let the young fireballer walk him after a seven-pitch battle. Bichette was up next, but he popped up to foul territory behind third base for the second out. Varsho once again had the opportunity to tie the game, or even to put the Jays in the lead, but he failed, grounding out to second base. Chris Bassitt pitched the 9th for Toronto, and once again looked invincible in his new-found role of short reliever, getting two strikeouts and a ground out. He looked very much like Hall of Famer John Smoltz, when he had been forced to work as a closer for a couple of seasons after arm surgery and had been utterly dominant: Bassitt was just like that, having taken like a fish to a water to his new role. Then came the bottom of the 9th, against a still shaky Sasaki. Alejandro Kirk was first up, and he was plunked on the left wrist by a pitch and was immediately replaced by pinch-runner Tyler Heineman, his back-up and a much faster runner. Barger followed with a ball hit so hard to the fence in left-center that it became wedged between the padding and the ground of the warning track. The two Dodgers outfielders raised their hand, as every outfielder has been taught to do in such a situation since Little League, while both runners circled the bases. However, the umpires confirmed that the outfielders had been right, and that the ground rule pertaining to balls being stuck in the field applied. so Barger returned to second base and Heineman to third. But Roberts had seen enough and brought in his purported Game 7 starter, Tyler Glasnow to save the day in what was a very tough situation: nobody out, two runners in scoring position, including the potential tying run. However, the Blue Jays hitters, who had made a virtue of being patient, did not wait to see how Glasnow would react to being deployed in such a thorny and unfamiliar situation. Clement swung at his first pitch and hit a harmless pop-up to first base. Next up was Andres Gimenez, normally very good in such clutch situations. He let the first pitch go by for a ball, but on the second hit a soft liner to left field. However, Kiké Hernandez was not playing deep, and ran it down easily, then saw that Barger was well off the second base bag, and relayed the ball to Rojas in time to complete a double play. Three pitches and the game was over. The Blue Jays now had 24 hours to rue all of their missed opportunities and prepared for a winner-take-all game.
Game 7 @ Rogers Centre[edit]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodgers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 0 | |
| Blue Jays | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 0 | |
| WP: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-0); LP: Shane Bieber (1-1) | |||||||||||||||
| Home Runs: TOR - Bo Bichette (1); LA - Max Muncy (2), Miguel Rojas (1), Will Smith (2) | |||||||||||||||
- Attendance: 44,713
Game 7 was another incredibly dramatic affair, one in which both teams had a chance to put their hands on the Commissioner's Trophy, and it took extra innings to determine a winner. In the end, it was the Dodgers who came out on top, 5-4, in a game that had more twists and turns than the average roller-coaster. It was the first World Series Game 7 to be played since 2019, and incredibly, the man who had started the game for the Washington Nationals that year was on the mound again this year: Max Scherzer starting for Toronto. As had been the case six years earlier, he would end up with a no-decision. Against that sure-fire future Hall of Famer was another one, the living legend Shohei Ohtani, starting on short rest as the putative starter for the Dodgers, Tyler Glasnow had needed to pitch in relief the night before just to get them to this point. Just the pitching match-up made this a game for the ages before a single pitch was thrown, and the next four hours of baseball would not disappoint. Both managers had the same starting position players as in Game 6, with only a couple of batters moving a few steps up or down in the order. Two members of the Blue Jays last championship team, Hall of Famers Jack Morris and Paul Molitor, threw the ceremonial first pitch. It is often said that in a Game 7, all hands are on deck, and this time, this old saying would be proven beyond what anyone could have imagined.
Scherzer started off strong, stranding Ohtani on third base after he had led off the game with a single, but Shohei did not look as sharp as in his Game 4 start. Many of his pitches missed their target by a lot and he was constantly pitching from behind in the count. For example, George Springer led off the bottom of the 1st with a single after Ohtani had missed with his first three pitches, and it then took him seven pitches to strike out Nathan Lukes. Next up was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and he struck out as well, but in a play very similar to one earlier in the series in which Bo Bichette had been thrown out on the bases, Springer, who was running on the pitch, missed home plate umpire Jordan Baker's strike three call and stopped running, being easily tagged out on catcher Will Smith's relay to second. Scherzer then retired the Dodgers in order in the top of the 2nd, but Ohtani had an even tougher inning than the 1st. It started with a walk to Bichette, followed by a single by Addison Barger. Bichette, still bothered by the knee injury he had suffered in early September, was clearly uncomfortable running and had to stop at second base. After a pop up by Alejandro Kirk and a fly out by Daulton Varsho, who would end up wearing the mantle of the batter having squandered the most opportunities with men in scoring position in the final two games of the series, Ernie Clement extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a single to right, but once again, a hobbled Bichette had to stop at third base. In full health, Bichette would have scored and Barger been on third base after that sequence of batters. It was lucky for Ohtani, as he then managed to strike out Andres Gimenez and the inning was over with the game still scoreless. He would not be so lucky in the 3rd, after another 1-2-3 inning by Scherzer. Before the 2nd inning and this one, Blue Jays manager John Schneider had come out of the dugout to complain that Ohtani was given way too much time to warm up. He had a point, as the commercial break before the bottom of the inning was over, and Ohtani had not yet started his warm-up tosses. Baker told him to cut his pitches to just six instead of the customary eight, and indeed, Ohtani looked gassed even before the inning started. Springer once again led off with a single, and this time Lukes laid down a sacrifice bunt. With first base open, Dave Roberts made the same mistake his counterpart Schneider had made in the 3rd inning of Game 6: he elected to issue an intentional walk to Guerrero way too early in the game. Bichette made him pay dearly as on Ohtani's first pitch, he crushed a ball to left-center for a long homer, his first of the series. It was pandemonium in the Rogers Centre as the Blue Jays instantly took a 3-0 lead, and Ohtani was out of the game just like that. Pitching on short rest had not worked for him. With the Dodgers having had difficulty scoring runs all series, a three-run lead looked like a commanding one, and the Blue Jays immediately went into preserving mode, instead of perhaps trying to push the Dodgers some more. Justin Wrobleski was the first man called out of the bullpen, and he ended the inning with no further damage, even though Barger greeted him with yet another single.
The Dodgers now had no alternative but to try to peck at the lead any way they could, and hope that their relievers would hold the Jays within striking distance. Roberts knew that his regular relievers were unlikely to be able to do that, so he just looked around to see who his best options were, and most of them were his starting pitchers from the previous games. So Glasnow started warming up - after all, he had thrown just three pitches to end the game the night before, so apart from not being used to pitching in consecutive games, he was likely to have something left in the tank. Meanwhile, the Dodgers were finally able to get to Scherzer in the 4th, even if it was just one run. Smith led off with a double and Freeman followed with a single, so the three-run lead immediately looked shaky. However, Scherzer dug deep into his bag of tricks. He got Mookie Betts to fly out, then walked Max Muncy to load the bases. Teoscar Hernandez hit a sinking line drive to center, but Varsho made a beautiful diving catch for the second out, although Smith scored on the sacrifice fly. Tommy Edman then lined a pitch into foul territory down the first base line and it was Guerrero's turn to make a great diving catch. Tempers then flared in the bottom of the inning when after one out, Gimenez was hit with a pitch. It was not just the fact that Wrobleski had hit him on the wrist, but that two of his previous pitches in the at-bat had come close to doing so as well. Gimenez told the pitcher that he should try to throw the ball over the plate for a change, Wrobleski did not appreciate and there was a tense face-off down the first base line, with both benches and bullpens emptying, before order was restored. Both managers were warned to cut off the extra-curricular stuff, and the two teams went back to playing baseball. Springer singled, already his third hit of the game, with Gimenez stopping at second, but Wrobleski struck out Lukes. Roberts was not going to let the lefty face face Guerrero, however, and he brought in Glasnow. Guerrero hit a sinking line drive to center, but Edman caught it easily, and the Blue Jays stranded two more baserunners.
In the 5th, it was clear that Scherzer was nearing his limit, and after he struck out Kiké Hernandez, he gave up a single to the ninth hitter, Miguel Rojas, to bring up Ohtani, who was still in the game as the DH. Schneider removed Scherzer and brought in Louis Varland, who thereby set a record for most appearances by one pitcher in a single postseason. Ohtani singled to right, but Varland then settled down, getting both Smith and Freeman on fly balls, with the runners staying put. Glasnow only allowed a two-out single to Kirk in the bottom of the 5th, and Chris Bassitt came in to pitch for Toronto. He had been lights out as a reliever all postseason, but tonight he was the first of four relievers who would give up a run, and that would be what would give the Dodgers their win. Bassitt created trouble for himself by giving up a walk and a hit to the first two batters he faced, followed by a ground out, a sacrifice fly and another single before Rojas finally grounded back to Bassitt to end a very tense inning. The lead was down to 3-2, and the fans now understood that this game would be an absolute grind. And as legendary Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive could have put it: "You ain't seen nothing yet".
The Blue Jays scored an insurance run in the bottom of the 6th, and at the time it looked like it was the one that would seal the Dodgers' fate. Clement once again led off with a hit, a single to left, and Gimenez squared off to bunt. Glasnow missed the plate with his first three pitches, but the bunt sign was still on. Gimenez took a called strike and by now Glasnow was fully concentrating on not walking him, so much so that he completely ignored Clement, who took a big lead and started stealing before Glasnow had started his motion. Gimenez picked up what was happening and did not swing at a pitch right down the middle, allowing Clement to steal second base uncontested. Gimenez then had the latest in a series of clutch postseason hits, lining the next pitch to right field for a double. Clement scored easily and the Dodgers were reeling. There were still no outs, but the Blue Jays failed to press their advantage once again, as Springer, Lukes and Guerrero were unable to advance Gimenez any further. Still, with a two-run lead and nine outs left, the Blue Jays were in a great position, Schneider next called on his young phenom, Trey Yesavage to come and pitch and the hero of Game 5 gave him a scoreless inning, although it took yet another great defensive play by Guerrero, who started an inning-ending 3-6-3 double play after Ohtani had reached via a lead-off walk and Smith had flied out to center. The Dodgers were now down to six outs, and still two runs down. Emmet Sheehan came out for the bottom of the 7th, and while Kirk had another two-out single, it did not lead anywhere, then Yesavage returned to pitch the 8th. He got Betts to ground out and seemed in complete control when Muncy, seemingly out of nowhere, pulled a pitch into the upper deck down the right field line for a solo homer. The lead was now down to one, and the spectators were back to biting their nails. Yesavage got Teoscar Hernandez to ground out, then Schneider brought in his closer, Jeff Hoffman to record the final four outs. He started off by getting Edman on a ground out.
The Blue Jays had one more chance to pad their lead, and failed once again. The ever-reliable Clement started the bottom of the 8th with a double off Sheehan, leading to Roberts bringing in another of his starting pitchers in Blake Snell. After bunting Snell's second pitch foul, Gimenez took a full swing. He hit a scorching liner at 3B Muncy, who was playing shallow, but Muncy showed great reflexes by catching the ball for the first out. Snell then struck out Springer, and Schneider sent Davis Schneider to pinch-hit for Lukes, knowing he had homered off Snell in Game 5. But Snell struck him out as well. Hoffman now had to record three outs for the Jays to pop the champagne. He struck out Kiké Hernandez for out number one, but while everyone was thinking ahead about how he would deal with Ohtani, who had made his way to the on-deck circle, the number 9 hitter, Rojas, came out of absolutely nowhere, fouling off a two-strike pitch before lining Hoffman's next offering into the left-field stands. There was stunning silence in the ballpark as the game was now tied. Hoffman then retired the much-more dangerous Ohtani and Smith, the first on a routine fly ball and the second on strikes, and the two teams were tied heading into the bottom of the 9th.
The bottom of the 9th was destined to live on in the collective memory of Blue Jays fans for a long time as a symbol of what could have been. It started off with Guerrero who with a three-ball count hit one of Snell's pitches very hard, but to the deepest part of center field where Edman could make the catch. But Bichette followed with a single, and mindful of what had happened in the 2nd inning, John Schneider immediately sent in Isiah Kiner-Falefa as a pinch-runner. Barger then worked a walk after fouling a ball hard off his shin, and the winning run was in scoring position. Roberts then made a pitching change that appeared desperate at the time, but that was also destined to become the stuff of legends for years to come: he brought in his starting pitcher from the night before, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to pitch in a crucial situation. And it's not as if Yamamoto had been knocked out of the box early either: he had thrown close to 100 pitches and had looked completely done by the time he had left the game. On his second pitch, Yamamoto plunked Kirk on the wrist, and the bases were loaded for Varsho. Roberts replaced Edman in center field by Andy Pages, and brought both his infielders and outfielders close, hoping to cut down a runner at the plate if the ball was put in play. Varsho hit a ball hard to 2B Rojas, who bobbled it for an instant, but still managed to throw to C Smith. Baker called the runner out, the Blue Jays challenged, but it appeared that the ball had preceded a sliding Kiner-Falefa by a fraction of a second and that Smith had somehow managed to keep his foot on the plate. Clement was next up, and he hit a ball to deep left. For some reason, Kiké Hernandez was still playing shallow and the ball was over his head, but Pages came racing in from center field and managed to catch the ball near the wall, all the while crashing into Hernandez. The inning was over on two of the strangest plays one could imagine and the game was going to extra innings. Seranthony Dominguez, who had warmed up maybe five times already in this game, was next to pitch for Toronto, and he put himself in a situation equivalent to Yamamoto's after a one-out walk to Betts, a single by Muncy, and a walk to Teoscar Hernandez. Pages, the defensive replacement, was now up, and he hit a grounder to SS Gimenez. The play at the plate was not close this time, as Betts was out easily. Kiké Hernandez then hit a grounder to Guerrero, who tossed the ball to Dominguez, who gave Hernandez a full body-check worthy of a hockey game while preceding him to the bag as the Dodgers failed to score. This time though, Yamamoto retired the Blue Jays in order in the bottom of the inning, and it was on to the 11th inning.
The Blue Jays' seventh pitcher was Shane Bieber, yet another starting pitcher asked to pitch in relief with a all the chips on the table. He got two quick outs - Rojas and Ohtani - both on ground balls, but Smith, who had been the Dodgers' most consistent hitter the entire series, broke the hearts of the 44,000+ fans at the Rodgers Centre and millions watching on television across Canada with a homer to left. It was a well-hit ball, at over 104 mph and cleared the fence in no time. Bieber then got Freeman to ground out, but the Blue Jays absolutely had to score now. Guerrero was first up, and he gave the hometown fans some hope by hitting a double to the left-field corner. Kiner-Falefa was next up, as he had stayed in the game after running for Bichette in the 9th. He laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt, moving Guerrero to third base. Barger was up next and he drew a four-pitch walk, bringing up Kirk. Kirk is a fantastic if unconventional hitter, but one of the slowest runners in all of baseball, and that proved to be his downfall this time. He broke his bat and hit a slow roller to Betts, who was playing half-way. Guerrero crossed the plate, but there was plenty of time for Betts to touch second base himself and toss the ball to 1B Freeman to end a crazy game and give the Dodgers the title. Yamamoto, who had done the unthinkable by pitching 2 2/3 scoreless innings under the most trying of circumstances, earned his third win and was named World Series MVP. It was a well-deserved honor. The Blue jays had had all of the chances they could have wished for to win the series, but in the end, as in the marathon Game 3 that encapsulated this thrilling World Series, the Dodgers had proved to be more resilient and were World Champions once again.
Miscellaneous[edit]
There were numerous records set during the World Series. It all started with Game 3, that tied the record for longest ever in the Fall Classic and in which Shohei Ohtani staged a one-man demolition of the record books, setting a new single-game record for most times reaching base (9), most walks (5) and most intentional walks (4). In that game, Freddie Freeman became the first player to hit two career walk-off home runs in the World Series. World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto tied the record by nabbing three wins in one World Series, becoming the first to do so since Randy Johnson in 2001. The Blue Jays also contributed to the onslaught on the record books, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ernie Clement both tying the previous record for most hits in the postseason (29), with Clement pulling ahead by one with a three-hit game in Game 7 as he finished with 30. With 24 hits between them, Clement and Addison Barger set a record for most by two teammates in a World Series, while Trey Yesavage did something unprecedented when he struck out 12 batters without walking anyone in Game 5. Reliever Louis Varland set a record for most games pitched in a single postseason as he appeared on the mound in 15 of the 18 games the Blue Jays played.
Television viewership numbers were good in the United States, but were dwarfed by numbers that were absolutely through the roof internationally. In Canada, almost 11 million persons watched the English-language broadcast of Game 7, a record for any broadcast on Sportsnet, and an average of 7.5 million for the seven games (there were also 600,000 watching in French, also a huge figure). As a comparison, the Game 7 broadcast on Fox drew a very good audience of 26 million - but in a market with ten times the population of Canada. When the numbers in the U.S. Japan and Canada are taken together, the 51 million who watched Game 7 were the most for a single game since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, and the World Series as a whole brought in the highest viewership numbers in the U.S. since 2017. In Japan, there were 13.1 million viewers for Game 6 and 12 million for Game 7, with the former setting a new all-time record for the country. The global numbers of 34 million for the series as a whole were the highest since 1992 and up 19% since the previous year. There was also a significant rise in the number of young viewers (17 and under) tuning in. Like the match-up in the 2024 World Series, the clash between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays resonated well beyond traditional baseball circles, proving that the old game could still be relevant in the days of social media and highlight clips stripped out of contest.
The World Series parade took place in L.A. on November 3rd, starting downtown and heading to Dodger Stadium where they were greeted by a crowd of over 50,000 fans.
Further Reading[edit]
- Anthony Castrovince: "Dodgers-Blue Jays position-by-position breakdown", mlb.com, October 21, 2025. [1]
- Anthony Castrovince: "Dodgers rally for repeat, taking captivating Series on dramatic late HRs", mlb.com, November 2, 2025. [2]
- Sonja Chen: "LA basking in 'golden era of Dodger baseball'", mlb.com, November 2, 2025. [3]
- Sonja Chen: "Dodgers bask in glory at parade -- with focus already on the next", mlb.com, November 3, 2025. [4]
- Will Leitch: "Sho, Vladdy among the 8 players who could pivot this Series", mlb.com, October 21, 2025. [5]
- Rob Longley (Toronto Sun): "Toronto Blue Jays’ epic World Series Game 7 sets global MLB viewership record", Yahoo! News, November 5, 2025. [6]
- Brent Maguire at al.: "How to sound smart when discussing the World Series matchup", mlb.com, October 21, 2025. [7]
- Keegan Matheson: "Blue Jays 'left it all out there' in memorable 2025 run", mlb.com, November 2, 2025. [8]
- Brian Murphy: "Let's party! Dodgers to celebrate title with parade Monday", mlb.com, November 2, 2025. [9]
- Mike Petriello: "The strength-vs-strength battle that will decide the World Series: Dodgers' arms and Blue Jays' bats each performing at elite levels this month", mlb.com, October 21, 2025. [10]
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