WS 7: Dodgers 5, Blue Jays 4 (11)

Dodgers   - 000 101 011 01 - 5 11  0
Blue Jays - 003 001 000 00 - 4 14  0

It was only the sixth World Series Game 7 to need extra innings. And it ended up being one of the most memorable Game 7s of all time. 

How the Los Angeles Dodgers, down by two runs with only eight outs remaining, rallied to tie and eventually win the game (and the World Series) in eleven innings, while also snuffing out three harrowing potential rallies in the final four innings, any one of which could have given the Toronto Blue Jays its first World Series championship in 32 years, was improbable, astonishing, and anxiety-producing and exhausting even for fans with no serious stake in the outcome.

After wishing dearly that all the hopes and dreams of Blue Jays fans would be crushed into dust before their disbelieving eyes, by the time the tenth inning began tonight, I no longer felt that way. I felt truly bad for Blue Jays fans, maybe even had some compassion. To witness the unprecedented ending of Game 6, when the ultimate victory seemed so close, they could almost surround it with their arms and never let it go, and then have to go home and gear up for yet another game, that was bad enough. But  the torture was only beginning. Forgetting the Dodgers pulverizing hopes and dreams. The Blue Jays ground up their own fan base, forcing them to witness events so brutal, they should qualify as extreme emotional abuse. A few of those fans will never recover. 

While the Dodgers enjoyed their on-field celebration, as their families ran onto the field to join them, Sportsnet showed many shots of stunned Blue Jays fans, who had watched Mookie Betts glove Alejandro Kirk's ground ball, step on second base, and throw to Freddie Freeman at first to end the game, and simply collapsed into their seats, staring blankly out at the field. I saw one young person with his mouth open in apparent astonishment 15 minutes after the game had ended.

One picture will stay with me for a long time. (I'm tearing up right now, as I type this.) A young boy with red-orange hair was sitting in his seat, with his head face down on the dugout. He wasn't moving. His father sat to his left, not saying a word. How long had he been in that position, forehead resting on the top of the dugout? The camera lingered; the boy never even twitched. Sportsnet finally cut away. How old was this kid? We never saw his face, even when the camera returned a few minutes later. Now he's being hugged by his father, who seems to be speaking softly and consolingly to him. At some point, he had lifted his head and buried in his father's Blue Jays shirt, and I know -- I know -- he never opened his eyes.

He could be ten years old. He's just old enough to care -- to really care about the Blue Jays for the first time -- and this is what happens. This is what fuckin happens to an innocent child when, for perhaps the first time in his life, he puts his tender, untested emotions on the line. He didn't decide to do that, of course; it simply happened at some point; an investment was made. He has unknowingly given himself over to something very powerful that he has no control over. He understands nothing of the depth of his investment or the range of possible consequences. I didn't fully understand it when it hit me like a battering ram at the age of 40. You never see the emotional cost coming. Your team lost many games throughout the season -- 75, by the time Game 7 began -- but this one will be unlike all of the others. This is pain of a magnitude that will shock you. You probably told yourself they might lose tonight, but that's no protection. There is no barrier against any of the worst pains of life. . . . Sorry, kid. You'll never see it coming -- and you'll be utterly defenseless. 

Let's start in the eighth inning. Both teams had scored a run in the sixth, the Dodgers cutting Toronto's lead to 3-2 and the Blue Jays restablishing their two-run cushion in the bottom half. 

Shohei Ohtani had been a bust on the mound (2.1-5-3-2-3, 51). After throwing 43 pitches in two innings and leaving the bases loaded in the second, should he have come out for the third? A Dodgers fan messaging with my partner Laura throughout the World Series said, in real time, no fuckin way. Dave Roberts didn't listen. Springer single, Lukes sac bunt, Guerrero BBI, Bichette three-run homer (442 feet to dead center).

The Dodgers' ability to string together hits for a multi-run rally had vanished several games ago. And it was absent from this game, too. LA got a run when Smith doubled to start the third. Scherzer had given up a single to Ohtani to start the game but retired the next nine batters. I thought Smith's double had hit the wall in left-center above Varsho's glove, but the replay showed the ball landed inside his glove and caromed out. Freeman singled and Smith played it safe, stopping at third. Betts popped to right and Muncy walked, loading the bases. Teoscar H. lined a ball to center and Varsho made a sterling catch diving forward towards the infield. Smith tagged and scored. Edman then lined a shot down towards first, heading for the right field line, but Guerrero dove to his left, snaring the ball and sliding across the foul line chalk. It was one of several exceptional plays for Guerrero in this game.

LA scored another run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Betts walked and took second on Muncy's liner to right. Teoscar forced Muncy at second and Betts scored from third on Edman's fly to center. As mentioned, Toronto matched that run in the home half. Clement singled to left, setting a record with 29 hits this postseason (usual caveats about the numerous rounds of the postseason). He stole second without a throw and came home on Gmenez's double to right-center. 

T8: The Dodgers got one run closer on Max Muncy's one-out home run to right. The Blue Jays now led 4-3.

B8: That pesky fucker Clement doubled to left-center, his 30th hit of this postseason, off Sheehan. Snell entered the game (and was the third LA starter to pitch in this game, after Ohtani and Glasnow (both went 2.1 innings); there would be one more). After some mound grooming by the grounds crew, Snell got to work. Gimenez, after trying to bunt the runner to third, smoked a liner right at Muncy who was on the infield grass and made the catch. Springer fanned on three pitches and pinch-hitter Schneider also went down swinging.

T9: It's 11:10 in Toronto, the Blue Jays are three outs from a championship, Jeff Hoffman is on the mound, and Skydome is rockin'. Kike Hernandez lunges after a 1-2 slider out of the zone and strikes out. Those splitters and sliders must be extraordinarily enticing because none of the Dodgers hitters have been able to stop chasing them all night. Two outs to go. Miguel Rojas, the man who recorded the final out of Game 6 at second base, battles Hoffman: swing/miss, ball, ball, foul, foul, ball -- and then a drive to left that carries over the fence (387 feet) for a game-tying home run! Ohtani has been hacking at everything all night and he drives the first pitch to the edge of the track in left for the second out. Smith looks at two strikes, then watched four balls sail outside -- Wait! Plate umpire Jordan Baker blows the final call, ringing Smith up and ending the inning. One of many shitty calls by Baker, whose incompetence is altering the course of the ninth inning of Game 7, for fuck's sake. Manfred allows this to happen year after year after year after year . . . but, hey, teams will be allowed to challenge two pitch calls per game next year. TWO! Count your fuckin blessings!

* * *

Sorry. Gotta go to sleep. Will complete tomorrow.

WS 6: Dodgers 3, Blue Jays 1

G1: Blue Jays 11, Dodgers 4
G2: Dodgers 5, Blue Jays 1
G3: Dodgers 6, Blue Jays 5 (18)
G4: Blue Jays 6, Dodgers 2
G5: Blue Jays 6, Dodgers 1
G6: Dodgers 3, Blue Jays 1
G7: ?

Dodgers   - 003 000 000 - 3  4  0
Blue Jays - 001 000 000 - 1  8  0

The last World Series to that needed a Game 7 was in 2019, when the Nationals beat the Astros 6-2. The home team lost every game in that series. Since then, the World Series has been completed in six, six, six, five, and five games.

Max Scherzer was the starting pitcher for the Nationals in that Game 7 on October 30, 2019. He will be the starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays tonight in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series.

The Dodgers won Game 6, at Skydome in Toronto, by a 3-1 score. The bottom of the ninth inning was both remarkable and bonkers. Roki Sasaki was beginning his second inning of work. The Dodgers had just left the bases loaded in the top half of the eighth, missing a chance to pad their lead and remove a lot of drama from the next two innings. Sasaki had struggled with his control and needed 25 pitches to get through the eighth inning, giving up a leadoff single and a one-out walk (a seven-pitch battle against Guerrero) before stranding both runners.

The importance of the bottom of the ninth was emphasized by the fact that Sportsnet did not go to commercial, using the mid-inning time to set the stage for the Blue Jays' final chance to tie the game.

Sasaki got two strikes on Alejandro Kirk before coming up and in and hitting on the left ar, just above the wrist. Myler Straw pinch-ran. Sasaki alternated between fastballs in the zone and splitters away to Addison Barger, establishing a 2-2 count before lifting a fly ball to deep left-center. The ball landed at the base of the wall and stuck under the padding. 

Dodgers centerfielder Justin Dean, who had taken over at the start of the inning, immediately indicated the situation to the umpires, who agreed the ball had been stuck. The hit was ruled the equivalent of a ground-rule double. Straw would have scored easily from first, but was sent back to third. The Blue Jays challenged the call – and it certainly looked like Dean could have grabbed the ball and thrown it in. It had not disappeared under the wall. Dean made a split-second decision to argue the ball was stuck, knowing a runner on first would be awarded only two bases. The original call stood, and Toronto's second run was taken off the board.

Even after this bit of bad luck, the Blue Jays had runners at second and third, with the potential World Series-winning run in the batters box. A single could tie the game. I cannot imagine many (if any) of the excited Blue Jays fans in attendance believe the team would not at least tie the game, if not outright grab the championship within minutes.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought in Game 3 starter Tyler Glasnow, who began warming up as the inning began. Glasnow faced 22 batters on Monday and now it was Friday and he had to get out of this extremely jam.

Ernie Clement had singled and doubled in his last two at-bats and was hitting .360 (9-for-25) in the series. Andrés Giménez would next and then it was back to the top of the order with George Springer (who was 2-for-4 and had driven in Toronto's third-inning run). Glasnow's first pitch, a sinker, ran up and in on Clement's hands and he popped up to first. One pitch, one very big out.

Giménez looked at a very high curveball for ball one. Glasnow threw the left-handed batter an outside sinker, which Giménez hit towards shallow left field. It seemed like it could be a single, but the ball was not going to drop in. But Kiké Hernández had it played perfectly. He was running in and, in one fluid motion, caught the ball and threw to second base. Barger desperately dove back to the bag, but he had been just a little too far away.

The throw came in on one hop. Second baseman Miguel Rojas had his left foot on the base and he recoiled a bit to glove the ball. Barger's hand was only a few inches from the bag. This play was not close. His momentum knocked Rojas on his ass; by the time the infielder had rolled over and was on his knees, he was already yelling and celebrating. The out call was made – a game-ending double play – a Game 7-creating double play – and the Dodgers had won. 

Mookie Betts took flight. He suddenly appeared in the camera shot, sailing through the air towards Hernández, who had kept running to the infield, and now happily caught his shortstop. (Betts, mired in a 3-for-24 WS slump, drove in the Dodgers' second and third runs with a two-out single in the third inning. They were his first RBI since NLCS 3.) Several "Fuck Yeahh!!!s could be heard on the Fox broadcast, thanks to those microphones in the bases.

It was the first time a postseason game ended with a 7-4 double play.

ALSO: It was not the first time in this postseason that Hernández had made this exact (double) play. In the third inning of NLCS 3 against the Brewers, Hernández came sprinting in on a similarly-hit ball, made the catch, and fired a perfect, one-hop throw to first, doubling off Blake Perkins of the Brewers. The athleticism of that play – to make a perfect throw from that far away, while running hard – was (and is) absolutely astonishing.

AJ Cassavell (mlb.com) wrote a great recap and has some analysis along with Hernández's version of events:

This was an all-timer of a finish, largely made possible by Hernández. Let's start with the positioning, which was perfect:

• Hernández played Giménez 272 feet deep – a whopping 26 feet shallower than the average for left fielders against left-handed hitters this season.

• To some extent, that's because of Giménez, who isn't much of a power threat. On average, left fielders started at just 285 feet against Hernández, ranking 151st of 158 lefties (min. 200 PA from the left side).

• Hernández himself clearly likes to play shallow, also averaging 285 feet against lefties (ranking 107th of 119 left fielders).

• Still, Hernández crept even further than all of those averages. That's mostly just the way he's been playing Giménez all week. Hernández had averaged a starting point of 273 feet against Giménez (which was a full 24 feet closer than the Dodgers' other left fielders in this series).

"With Glasnow's stuff, I was anticipating him hitting the ball to the left side of the field," Hernández said. "I was playing shallow, tying run on second base. I just wanted to make sure that if he got a hit through the six-hole, I was going to be shallow enough to keep the tying run that was at second base, keep him at third."

Hernández's positioning was perfect. So was the play itself. Hernández still needed to cover some serious ground – 52 feet in 3.4 seconds to be exact. His read off the bat was exquisite. Hernández got the best jump imaginable to make a catch Barger never saw coming.

"I was pretty surprised he got to it," Barger said. "Off the bat, I thought it was going to get over the shortstop's head. I didn't think it was going to travel that far. It was kind of a bad read. Obviously, I was too far off the base. … I was being too aggressive."

Per Statcast, Hernández's jump was 7.3 feet better than the league average (with jump defined as feet covered in the correct direction within the first 3 feet after the ball was hit). If Hernández's jump is any worse, it's possible he still makes the catch. But he almost certainly isn't able to double up Barger.

Which brings us to the final part of the play – one that shouldn't be overlooked. Hernández did his best to get the ball out of his glove as quickly as possible. The throw was accurate – but it came with an in-between hop.

"I was coming in full speed, so I didn't want to really throw hard, because I was probably going to throw it over his head," said Hernández.

Added Rojas: "When he threw the ball to second, I said, 'No way this ball is getting past me.'"

Indeed, Rojas put the finishing touches on the play – and Game 6. He planted his left foot on the bag, then let the ball travel past him, which gave him additional time to read the hop. He squeezed the ball in his glove, a split second before Barger's left hand hit the bag.

The Dodgers poured out of the dugout as Rogers Centre settled into a hushed silence.

And so tonight's Game 7 -- with Max Scherzer and Shohei Ohtani as starting pitchers -- will determine who gets to call themselves the champions of baseball for 2025.

Toronto's Blue Jays Game 6 starter Kevin Gausman began the evening with an absolutely unhittable splitter than the Dodger batters could not stop chasing. Gausman struck out the side in the first, two more in the second, and three in the third. He retired the Dodgers in order in five of his six innings.

Gausman was the first pitcher to strike out the side in order in a World Series first inning since Blake Snell (2020 WS 6 for Rays against Dodgers). It was the 12th occurence in a World Series game. It was also the first time Gausman struck out the side in the first inning of any game since July 22, 2023.

Gausman's eight strikeouts in the first three innings tied the record for a World Series game. Cleveland's Corey Kluber fanned eight Cubs in the first three innings of 2016 WS 1.

The lone inning in which Gausman (6-3-3-2-8, 93) gave up all of his hits, all of his walks, and all of his runs, was the third, and it ended up being the difference in the game. And all that occurred with Gausman receiving significant help from the plate umpire.

Adam Hamari was calling balls and strikes and he rung up Kiké Hernández for Gausman's first out on a 2-2 slider that was too far outside. Tommy Edman lined a first-pitch double into the right field corner. Then Hamari called a strike 3 on Rojas on a 2-2 fastball that was below the bottom of the strike zone. That was the second out. Ohtani was intentionally walked. Will Smith drove a 1-0 pitch into the left field corner for a run-scoring double. Freddie Freeman fouled off a pitch and then took four balls out of the zone, two of them low and two in the dirt. Bases loaded. Betts, on 1-2, lashed a single to left, scoring two more runs. 

The Jays got one of them back in the bottom half, against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Barger doubled down the left field line; the ball took two hops before caroming off the jut of the box seats into short left. Clement striuck out and Giménez grounded to second, moving Barger to third. George Springer attacked a 3-0 cutter, singling to right-center and bringing home Barger.

The Blue Jays had men on base all night long, but it usually happened with one or two outs. 

1st: Lukes one-out single, Guerrero GIDP 5-4-3.
2nd: Jays retired in order.
3rd: Barger leadoff double, Springer two-out single.
4th: Bichette single with one out, Varsho GIDP.
5th: Clement two-out single, Giménez F8 (deep left-center).
6th: Guerrero two-out double, Bichette walk, Varsho struck out.
7th: Clement two-out double, Giménez struck out.
8th: Springer leadoff single, Guerrero one-out walk, Bichette PF6 (long run by Betts), Varsho 4-3.
9th: Kirk leadoff HBP, Barger double, Clement pop up to first, Giménez hits into 7-4 DP.

Yamamoto (6-5-1-1-6, 96) pitched only six innings – and everyone in Toronto was glad to see him go. Roberts went with Justin Wrobleski to face the bottom of the Blue Jays' order in the seventh. It paid off. Kirk struck out and Barger grounded to second (a high chopper on which Rojas was forced to field barehanded and make a quick throw). Clement doubled to left-center and Giménez struck out.

Sasaki worked for his outs in the eighth, stranding two runners. Then came the ninth. . . . And now comes Game 7.

Scherzer will be the oldest starting pitcher in a winner-take-all World Series game. It will also be his record-setting ninth winner-take-all game that he has pitched in, in any role.

In best-of-seven series with the current 2-3-2 format, teams that have won Game 6 in order to force a game 7 have won that series 35 of 56 times (62.5%)

When the Game 6 winner has forced a Game 7 on the road, that road team has won the series 14 of 22 times (63.6%)

Max Scherzer will be the fourth pitcher to start multiple World Series winner-take-all Game 7s, joining Bob Gibson (3), Lew Burdette (2), and Don Larsen (2).

If Louis Varland pitches in Game 7, he will set a new record of 15 appearances in a single postseason.

Most total bases in a single postseason
2020 Randy Arozarena: 64 (20 games)
2025 Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 56 (18 games, so far)

Most hits in a single postseason

2020 Randy Arozarena: 29

2025 Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 28

2025 Ernie Clement: 26

2014 Pablo Sandoval: 26

WIll Blue Jays Win First Title In 32 Years Or Will Dodgers Rebound And Force Game 7?

The 2025 Major League Baseball season began in Tokyo, Japan, and it will end in Toronto, Canada. This is the first time a season has both begun and ended outside the United States. The Dodgers won way back on March 18 and they hope to win both tonight and Saturday night, and repear as World Series champions.

Los Angeles trails in the series 2-3 and are calling upon Yoshinobu Yamamoto to stifle the Toronto Blue Jays' bats, while simultaneously hoping to break out of their recent hitting slump. The Dodgers are hitting .201/.296/.354 in the World Series. (In Games 4 and 5, LA is 10-for-61 (.164), with eight singles .)

The noodle bats abound: Mookie Betts (.130, 3-for-23), Max Muncy (.150, 3-for-20), Kike Hernandez (.211, 4-for-19, zero walks, 10K), Tommy Edman (.143, 3-for-21). . . . The only Dodgers batting over .238 are Teoscar Hernandez (.318, 7-for-22), Shohei Ohtani (.316, 6-for-19, 2 doubles, 3 home runs, 7 walks) and Freddie Freeman (.250, 5-for-20, 4 walks (.400 OBP)).

Teams in the Blue Jays' position (breaking a 2-2 tie by winning Game 5 on the road in a 2-3-2 series) have won the series 74.1% of the time.

The 2025 Dodgers have lost their last two games and need to win their next two games. How often did the pattern LLWW appear in their schedule? Twelve times:

April 7-11, 12-15, 23-27
May 18-21, 24-27
June 6-9
July 9-13, 26-29
August 12-16, 22-25
September 15-18, 21-25

Yamamoto has been superb in his brief postseason career (two seasons). In six of his eight postseason starts, he's allowed two earned runs or fewer. He comes into Game 6 having thrown two consecutive complete starts, against the Brewers in NLCS 2 (9-3-1-1-7, 111) and against the Blue Jays in Game 2 (9-4-1-0-8, 105) of this series. 18 innings, 7 hits, 1 walk, 2 runs, and 15 strikeouts. (I'll mention his other WS start, in Game 2 last October, because he shut down the Yankees (6.1-1-1-2-4, 86).

Also: In the last 55 years, only three pitchers have thrown three complete games in a postseason: Luis Tiant (1975), Orel Hershiser (1988), Curt Schilling (2001).

Toronto will send Kevin Gausman to the hill, who was on the losing side in Game 2 (6.2-4-3-0-6, 82). The Blue Jays have a ton of momentum, winning Games 4 and 5 in Los Angeles after losing in 18 innings in Game 3. George Springer is back atop the lineup. (This may be limited to Sportsnet, but I have seen a pro-Jays commercial that puts Springer's seventh-inning, lead-grabbing, three-run homer against Mariners in ALCS 7 on par with Joe Carter's World Series-winning blast against the Phillies in 1993. Nonsense. 

2025: The Mariners held a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh of Game 7. The Blue Jays' win probability was at 22%. The inning unfolded against Bryan Woo thusly: Addison Barger walk (29%). Isiah Kiner-Falefa single (39%). Andres Gimenez sacrifice bunt (37%). Eduard Bazardo replaced Woo. Springer homered to left (77%), giving Toronto a 4-3 lead (win probability increased by 40%). The Mariners retained a win probability of 26% as they began the top of the eighth. They trailed by one run and would come to bat for at least two more innings. At the start of the ninth inning, their win probability had dropped to 17%. I don't know how many 2025 games in which the winning team began the ninth inning with a 17% win probability, but I'll bet it's over 30. Unfortunately, the Mariners went down in order in both innings.

1993: Carter's shot off Mitch Williams came in Game 6 (which I watched in the Brooklyn apartment of a hardcore Phillies fan; I don't know where Carter was when the TV was shut off, but he hadn't touched home plate, that's for sure), not a decisive Game 7. Even if the Blue Jays had lost that game 6-5, there would have been another game the following night. Toronto led 5-1 after six innings (94%), thanks to a strong performance from Dave Stewart (6-2-1-3-2, 99). But Stewart also faced three batters in the seventh and the Phillies went walk, single, home run (Dykstra, 69%). Another run in that inning tied the game 5-5, dropping the Blue Jays' likelihood of a win at 37%. And it kept dropping: 26% (end of 7), 32% (mid 8), 17% (end of 8), 21% (mid 9). With Mitch Williams on the mound: Henderson walk (35%), White F7 (22%), Molitor single (34%), Carter home run (100%). The play added 66% to Toronto's win probability. 

And it fuckin won the World Series. Which is a much bigger deal than winning a pennant and getting the chance to play in the World Series. Springer's home run was a hell of a moment for Blue Jays fans, especially for those fans born after Carter's heroics, which thus have been relegated to "history".

Does David Ortiz's game- and series-winning home run against the Angels on par with either of his game-winning hits against the Yankees in the ALCS? No. Of course not.

Out of curiosity, I looked at those three games. 

ALDS 3: Boston begins B10 at 66%. Rodriguez pitching, Damon single (73%), Bellhorn bunt-FC (65%), Reese pinch-run, Manny K (57%), Washburn pitching, Ortiz home run (100%). Added 43%.

ALCS 4: Boston begins B12 at 66%. Quantrill pitching, Manny single (73%), Ortiz home run (100%). Added 27%. (Extra: Roberts' steal in the ninth added 25%!)

ALCS 5: Boston began B14 at 66% (this is standard in the middle of an extra inning; WP is at 50% after each full extra inning). Loaiza pitching, Bellhorn K (59%), Damon walk (65%), Cabrera K (57%), Manny walk (62%), Ortiz single (100%). Added 38%.

In this case, the order of importance of those hits (ALCS 4, ALCS 5, ALDS 3) is in reverse proportion to their value, according to win probability.

Trey Yesavage has left his mark on this postseason:

Yesavage has eight major league starts on his resume. Five of those came in this postseason. He is the first major league pitcher to make even three postseason starts within his first eight games and the first pitcher in history to start multiple World Series games within his first eight career games.

Yesavage's 12 strikeouts in Game 5 set a World Series record for rookie pitchers, surpassing Don Newcombe (11 Yankees, 1949 WS 1). Yesavage issued no walks, becoming the first pitcher to strike out 12+ and not walk anyone in a World Series game.

Yesavage struck out each batter in the Dodgers' starting lineup at least once. He's the third starting pitcher in World Series history to do that, joining Bob Gibson (1968 WS 1, Tigers) and Randy Johnson (2001 WS 2, Yankees).

Yesavage got the Dodgers to swing-and-miss 23 times, the most by a pitcher in a World Series game since pitch tracking began eighteen years ago (2008).

Yesavage has two of the seven postseason games in which a rookie struck out 11+ batters. (He struck out 11 Yankees in ALDS 2.) He's the first rookie in postseason history with multiple 10+-strikeout games and the first to do so before his 23rd birthday.

Yesavage became the second pitcher in World Series history with 10+ strikeouts in the first five innings. He joined Sandy Koufax (1963 WS 1, Yankees).

Yesavage is the second pitcher to have a 10+K postseason game in his career, joining Gerrit Cole. Yesavage is the first to it twice in the same postseason (i.e., his "career").

Yesavage made only three MLB starts before this postseason and did not record 10 strikeouts in any of them. He's is the first pitcher in history to have his first two career 10+ strikeout games in the postseason. He has more strikeouts in the World Series (17) than in the regular season (16).

Yesavage became the youngest pitcher with 10+ strikeouts in a World Series game (22 years and 93 days). Smoky Joe Wood of the Red Sox was 22-349 when he struck out 11 Giants in 1912 WS 1. 

Yesavage is the third-youngest pitcher with 10+ strikeouts in any postseason game. The previous two: John Candelaria (21-335, 1975 NLCS 3, 14 K vs Reds) and himself (!) (22-69, 2025 ALDS 2, 11 K vs Yankees).

Happy Halloween!

WS 4: Blue Jays 6, Dodgers 2WS 5: Blue Jays 6, Dodgers 1

Blue Jays - 002 000 400 - 6 11  0
Dodgers   - 010 000 001 - 2  6  0

Blue Jays - 200 100 210 - 6  9  0
Dodgers   - 001 000 000 - 1  4  0

Now that the Dodgers' starting pitching has come back down to Earth and the Blue Jays are proving that every spot in their lineup can contribute at any time, I'm finding it difficult to imagine a scenario in which the American League champions lose two consecutive games in Toronto.

The Blue Jays seem to have everything lined up to win their first World Series title in more than 30 years. The Toronto franchise is playing in its third World Series -- and it leads the Dodgers 3 games to 2 games. In the previous two, the Blue Jays beat Atlanta 4-2 in 1992 and the Phillies 4-2 in 1993. If they win on Friday night at Skydome, they will beat the Dodgers 4-2.

After the exhausting brilliance of Monday's 609-pitch marathon, the greatest game I have seen in a very long time (perhaps since the other 18-inning World Series game back in 2018), the next two games were standard contests between two good teams. Similar scoring in the first three innings, a lead-expanding rally by Toronto in the seventh, and a general feeling that the Dodgers have lost . . . something . . . cohesiveness, perhaps. They have not presented themselves as a unified team at the plate for the last two nights, that's for sure. Los Angeles is 10-for-61 (.164) in Games 4 and 5. Of those 10 hits, eight are singles. They have gone 0-for-6 with RATS. Their three runs were driven by a solo home run, a fly out, and a ground out. In Game 5, the Dodgers has as many hits as wild pitches (four).

In Game 4 on Tuesday, the Blue Jays faced the possibility of trailing 1-3 in the series and knowing they might be forced to watch the Dodgers repeat as World Series champs with 50,000 of their fans. Shane Bieber (5.1-4-1-3-3, 81) allowed a run in the second inning due to a momentary loss of control. A four-pitch walk to Max Muncy, a single to right (on a 2-1 pitch) by Tommy Edman, and a sac fly to from  Kiké Hernández gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. The Blue Jays answered immediately against Shohei Ohtani in the third. With one out, Nathan Lukes, atop the lineup with George Springer out with "right side discomfort", singled and Vladimir Guerrero hammered a sweeper over the wall in left-center for a lead-grabbing two-run homer.

Bieber allowed only two baserunners over the next three innings --  a single in the third and a walk in the fourth -- and both of those came with two outs. He pitched a clean fifth but left a bit of a mess in the sixth. Freddie Freeman singled off Guerrero's glove at first for a single. Will Smith lined out to center and Teoscar Hernández singled to center. Mason Fluharty (who allowed a .157 average to lefty batters this season) came in to face LH-hitting Max Muncy -- who lifted the first pitch to left center for the  second out. Edman, a switch-hitter, opted to bat righty, and struck out on three pitches.

Excited by that escape, perhaps, Toronto batted around in the seventh against three Los Angeles pitchers. Ohtani threw only three pitches before being lifted, but allowed a single to Daulton Varsho and a double off the left-center wall to Ernie Clement. Anthony Banda took over. It was during Andrés  Giménez's eight-pitch at-bat that my Telus connection to Sportsnet dropped out and sputtered off and on until things cleared up in the bottom of the eighth.

Gimenez singled to left to give the Jays a 3-1 lead. Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined out to third and first base umpire Adam Hamari said Muncy's throw to first doubled off Giménez. The Dodgers challenged the call at first and Hamari's call was overturned. Ty France batted for Lukes and brought Clement in with a groundout to second. Guerrero was walked intentionally and Blake Treinen came in to pitch with Toronto up 4-1 and runners at first and second with two outs. As Ohtani had done to begin the inning, Treinen allowed two hits in a span of three pitches. Bo Bichette singled to deep left to score Giménez and Addison Barger grounded a single past shortstop to bring Vlad home. Alejandro Kirk lined out to right to end the inning. Blue Jays 6-1.

Toronto continued getting baserunners, stranding men at second and third in the eighth and first and second in the ninth. Los Angeles went in order in the seventh and had a leadoff single in the eighth wiped out on a double play. Teoscar H. walked to begin the ninth, went to third on Muncy's double to right, and scored on Edman's grounder to third. Louis Varland struck out Kiké H. and then intentionally balked Muncy to third to stop him from giving info about the catcher's positioning to the batters. The distraction having been dealt with, Varland retired Alex Call on a line drive to left.

The main story of Game 5 was Trey Yesavage (7-3-1-0-12, 104), who was as dominating and as impressive as he was against the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS, back on October 5. In that game, he pitched 5.1 no-hit innings and recorded 11 of his 16 outs "by way of the K". Facing the Dodgers in hostile territory, Yesavage became the youngest pitcher (22 years, 93 days) to have 10+ K in a World Series game. (Of his eight major league starts in 2025, five came in this postseason.)

The other story was David Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero beginning the game with two solo home runs, which had never before occurred in a World Series game. Schneider belted Blake Snell's first pitch to left, estimated at 373 feet. Guerrero looked at a called strike before also clearing the left field wall, at an estimated 394 feet. Three pitches and Toronto led 2-0. The Blue Jays also challenged a double play call and had it overturned (Jordan Baker blew the call at first this time), but could not take full advantage.

Yesavage retired the first seven batters (including five in a row) before Kiké H. got ahold of a fastball at 93 and homered to left (407 feet). It was barely a speed bump for Yesavage, who fanned three of the next four batters, and gave up only two infield singles and an HBP over the next 4.2 innings.

Varsho tripled to right to begin the top of the fourth. Teoscar H. did not have a chance to catch sinking liner and should have played it safe. Instead, he went into a dive and the ball skipped by him. Varsho tagged and scored on Clement's line out to center. Snell issued a walk, but struck out the next two. He also began the fifth with a walk, but a double play took care of the runner.

LA manager Dave Roberts trule trusts only a few bullpen arms, so he sent Snell out for the seventh at 93 pitches. Barger singled to the opposite (left) field, the ball sailing through the spot normally occupied by Muncy, who was playing the batter to pull. IKF attempted to bunt twice before Snell wild-pitched the runner to second. IFK grounded out to shortstop. Giménez worked an eight-pitch walk. After a mound conference, Schneider stepped in. Snell (6.2-6-5-4-7, 116) got two called strikes, then threw three balls (one of which was another wild pitch), before a swinging strikeout. Snell threw the most pitches in the seventh inning: 15-11-19 21-12-14 23 = 116.

Edgardo Henriquez, who was impresive with 101/102 heat in Game 3, had nothing tonight. Facing Guerrero, he went to a full count before walking him with a wild pitch that scored Barger and moved Giménez to second (where he would have been anyway because of the aforementioned walk). After a called strike to Bichette, Henriquez threw three balls (inside, away, very high) before the Son of Dante singled to right, bringing in Toronto's fifth run. Henriquez then issued a four-pitch walk before Banda got the final out (the first ball was actually a strike but the next three were: in the dirt, well outside, and up at sasahe height).

Clement led off the eighth with a single, took second on a Banda wild pitch and scored on IKF's single  through the 5/6 hole into left.

As for Yesavage, he stranded two runners in the fourth, and retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth. He began the seventh with a K before Teoscar H. singled. Edman batted from an 0-2 count to 3-2 but hit into a 5-4-3 double play.

Seranthony Domínguez had an easy eighth. A first-to-pitcher ground out, a strikeout, a walk (during which plate umpire Alan Porter blew the calls on consecutive pitches), and a line out to first. Jeff Hoffman gave up a leadoff single to start the home ninth, but the runner went no further. A fly to left and two strikeouts ended the game. Describing the pitches to the last two hitters would consist of repeating the phrase "down and away" over and over, like Jim Garrison in a court room. And that's today's Sir Story.

So . . . I fuckin cannot stand Buck Martinez. His extremely nasal voice should make him a very popular target of impressionists, but he calls Blue Jays games in Canada, so no one gives a shit. Both Buck and Ron Shulman slipped up and acted professionally during Game 3, probably because both teams were so evenly matched and the game was so tense and constantly amazing, they forgot their roles as mindless shills for the Jays. I had to mute the TV several times during Game 4 and grind through a few other rough spots. 

On nights I worked, the game was muted on my computer, but my partner Laura was watching Sportsnet and being tortured. She said they both had given up any pretext of neutrality and were gushing non-stop over the Blue Jays like a couple of ignorant fans in the stands. When they weren't mindlessly polluting the airwaves by repeating every worthless, overused cliche you can think of, they  were busy spinning everything that happened on the field as a "win" for the Blue Jays. Even when the Jays did something that was clearly not ideal (like swinging at pitches way out of the strike zone), they argued that, no, it was great because blahblahblahblah. I kind of wanted to go back and re-watch a bit with the sound on, but I never did. (I'm amazed at people who listen to the fascists on US television (either the shameless propaganda channels or from shitposters in government) and transcribe and report on what they say. A younger me would love to work at a place like Media Matters, but I couldn't do that kind of work.)

The two dongs to start the game clearly super-charged their inanity muscles and I scribbled some of the worst examples in the first two or three innings. 

Shulman, T1: "They can't wait to get to the ballpark." (Players on other WS teams avoid going to the park for as long as they can.)

Shulman, T2: He seemed truly astounded that between the ALCS and WS, Barger flew home for the birth of his third child. The ALCS ended on a Monday and the WS did not start until Friday. The more amazing thing is that the timing worked out for the Barger family, not that Barger flew round-trip from Toronto to Florida. Depending on where he lives, the flight is between three and four hours. He wasn't going to fuckin New Zealand for fuck's sake (which could take 22+ hours).

Martinez, T3: "Who does this better than Kirk?" He went gaga over Kirk fouling off a 2-2 pitch in the dirt. Here's a small example of a bad decision being presented as great. Kirk's foul kept the count at 2-2, but not swinging at a pitch off the plate and very close to the ground would have improved the count to 3-2. Kirk then swung and missed the next pitch and ended the inning. No one does it better!!

Martinez, B3: Buck also praised ALL of the Jays hitters for running up Snell's pitch count. He threw 45 pitches in the first three innings. Snell was not sharp, but the sooner the Jays got into LA's bullpen, the better, right? Probably. But after two innings, Yesavage had thrown two more pitches than Snell (27-26) and one more pitch after three (47-46). Yesavage's pitch limit was far more strict that Snell's, so in fact it was the Dodgers that were doing a better job of rushing the opposing pitcher out of the game.

Shulman, T4: "It's only the fourth inning, but that run [putting Toronto up 3-1] seems very big . . ." It turns out that Dodgers' run was the extent of their scoring, so the third run was not big at all. Toronto could have won 2-1. Admitting it's only the top of the fourth is also an admission that feeling is all in your head and has no relationship to reality.

Martinez, B4: "This is a beautiful trip to the mound." Martinez was a catcher, so he's especially tuned in to what a catcher should do. But this praise is Sutcliffian in its inflating something minor into a Hall of Fame-worthy action.

Martinez, T7: Barger made a nice sliding catch on a line drive for the first out in the B6. Yesavage said something to Barger in the dugout as the T7 began. Speaking of the 22-year-old pitcher: "He knows what's going on around him." Most fans would assume he's utterly clueless, never turns around to look at his fielders at all (probably believes he's in Pittsburgh), but Martinez's astute analysis is pure in-game education.

Both announcers have said several times how LOUD Dodger Stadium is. They do not mean the fans, they mean the sound system. They say it's the loudest system in the majors by a wide margin. (And they call games at Skydome, which can be so loud between innings, it's impossible (literally) to converse with the person next to you. Though I doubt they would complain about the noise at Skydome if it was the worst.) You can tell through the TV that everything is cranked. They are especially fond of playing the slow droney bit from the beginning of "Iron Man" and the drum/cymbal clatter from the start of "Hot For Teacher". The noise is a real shame. We were at a Dodgers game late in 2003 and it was not like that at all. Organ music between innings, as if the whole point of being there was the baseball game. What a fuckin concept.

They have also described this series as being dominated by the splitter. A lot of pitchers on both teams rely heavily on split-finger fastballs. And yet every plate umpire's judgment on pitches at the bottom of the strike zone and below has been shit. Some calls have been eye-poppingly wrong. Low pitches are tough to judge in general, but I'd be extremely surprised if anyone in power at MLB considered this and assigned umpires who are the best, relatively speaking, at calling low pitches. Extremely surprised.

Shulman and Martinez are going to be absolutely unlistenable on Friday. But I don't want to experience Game 6 in silence. . . . Sigh. . . . If I mute, how will I know if these players "understand" that it's "Game 6"? How else will I learn that "this" is what they "play for"? Will all of them be wearing his "game face" ? And, perhaps most importantly, when a ballplayer is shown on TV, how can I be sure that he is a "ballplayer"?

WS 3: Dodgers 6, Blue Jays 5 (18)

Blue Jays - 000 400 100 000 000 000 - 5 15  0
Dodgers   - 011 020 100 000 000 001 - 6 16  2

For the second time this postseason, baseball fans – and more casual postseason observers who do not obsess over the game from the moment the gates of spring training camps are unlocked in mid-February – have been treated to an extraordinary, unforgettable game that simply would not have occurred if the most radical of the rule changes imposed on the game by Commissioner Rob Manfred's tenure had been used, as it is during the regular season.

The extra-inning runner that is used during the regular season is not used during the postseason. It would appear that even Manfred understands, on some level, that he shouldn't shit on the most important games of the season by insisting upon his most infamous gimmick of a rule change. I don't believe in prayer, but I pray this obscene rule is erased as soon as Manfred's current tenure ends in 2029, and the basic foundation of the game, which had done quite well for 150 years, is restored. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays battled through eighteen innings on Monday night in the third game of the 2025 World Series, leaving fans of both teams utterly exhausted, as though they had run a marathon. For six hours and 39 minutes, the two teams battled in what truly deserved to be called a heavyweight bout before Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 18th round inning. Los Angeles leads 2-game-to-1 in the World Series. (Earlier this month, the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 in 15 innings to win the American League Division Series.

This game is tied for the longest World Series game by innings with Game 3 of the 2018 World Series between the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, a game won 3-2 by the Dodgers on Max Muncy's walkoff home run after seven hours and 20 minutes. (A couple of years ago, looking at the online box score and seeing 7:20 as the time of game, my first thought was that it must be a typo. Nope. The game ended for me at 3:30 a.m. in the Eastern time zone. I ended up not posting all that much about the game because I needed to get a bit of sleep before later that day. I went to bed around 4:15, got four hours of sleep, and worked my noon-to-midnight shift at a Toronto law firm. (My favourite factoid from that game: It lasted 15 minutes longer than the entire 1939 World Series, when the Yankees swept the Reds in a combined 7:05 (1:33, 1:27, 2:01, 2:04).)

That 2018 game featured 561 pitches. This "instant classic" had 609 pitches (48 more than in any other postseason game since at least 2000), which were disbursed over 153 plate appearances against a total of 19 pitchers (which is a record for a postseason game). The 37 combined runners left on base also set a postseason game record.

In a best-of-seven postseason series that is tied 1-1, the Game 3 winner has gone on to win the series 70 of 101 times (69.3%). Teams breaking a 1-1 tie with a home win in Game 3 in the current 2-3-2 format that have gone on to win the series 29 of 48 times (60.4%).

The best place to begin is probably with Shohei Ohtani. The man set several World Series records in this game because of course he did. If a game with Ohtani in it goes 18 innings, he's probably going to break a few all-time records. It would be surprising if he did not. Ohtani batted nine times and he reached base a record NINE TIMES. He went 4-for-4, with two doubles, two home runs, five walks (four intentional), three runs scored, and three RBI. The four BBIs was a new record. Then he went nine innings (as LA's DH), more than three hours, without facing a single pitch. He did not swing at a pitch after the seventh inning. He now shares the World Series record of four extra-base hits in a game with Chicago White Sox second baseman Frank Isbell, who hit four doubles in Game 5 of the 1906 World Series. . . . Ohtani will be the starting pitcher for the Dodgers in Game 4.

Ohtani At The Bat

1st inning: Double to right
3rd inning: Home run to right (increased LA lead to 2-0)
5th inning: Double to left-center, RBI cut Toronto's lead to 4-3 (he scored tying run)
7th inning: Home run to deep left-center (401 feet, first pitch, tied game 5-5)
9th inning: Intentional walk, thrown out trying to steal second
11th inning: Intentional walk
13th inning: Intentional walk
15th inning: Intentional walk
17th inning: Walk (four pitches)

[Some Ohtani factoids at end of post.]

Both teams seemed allergic to clean innings all night long. Of the 35 complete half-innings, only 10 were comprised of three straight outs. Once the game went into extras, I spent the top half of seemingly every inning anxiously watching the Dodgers' pitchers get in and out of trouble, before relaxing during the bottom half, happy to accept whatever the LA batters did or didn't do. . . . I was really hoping the game would last into a record 19th inning . . . and beyond. (I have this entire week off. I have nowhere to go, nothing to do.)

The Dodgers took a 2-0 lead on solo homers from Teoscar Hernández leading off the second and Ohtani with one out in the third. That inning ended with Freeman being thrown out at the plate by Blue Jays right fielder Addison Barger, who fielded a single from Will Smith and threw a perfect strike to Alejandro Kirk on the fly. Kirk was in perfect position to catch the ball and block the runner from the plate and tag Freeman out.

Toronto was retired in order in the first and third inning, while stranding runners at the corners in the second. Mark Wegner, the home plate umpire, screwed the Blue Jays in the second. With Bo Bichette on first, Daulton Varsho walked on a high 3-1 pitch. But Wegner fucked up twice: he called the pitch a strike and he waited so long before annoucing the blown call that a confused Bichette was picked off first base. Varsho ended up walking and Kirk singled, so Wegner's blown call and unprofessional delay likely stole at least one run from the Blue Jays.

Toronto broke through against Tyler Glasnow (4.2-5-4-3-5, 85) in the fourth. Vladimir Guerrero drew a full-count walk and Bichette reached on an error. After Varsho poped to left, Kirk crushed a first-pitch curve to left-center for a three-run dong. The Jays made it 4-2 with singles by Barger and Ernie Clement and a sac fly from Andrés Giménez.

The Dodgers tied things in the fifth off Max Scherzer (4.1-5-3-1-3, 79), pitching in the World Series for his fourth team (2012 Tigers, 2019 Nationals, 2023 Texas). Kiké Hernández grounded a single into to center. With one out, Mason Fluharty came in and gave up a run-scoring double to Ohtani (who had fanned three times in three previous at-bats against him). With two outs, Freeman lined a single down the right field line, scoring Ohtani with the tying run.

The two teams each scored in the seventh. George Springer led off the top half and hurt himself when he fouled the first pitch off. He left the game and Ty France took over the at-bat, striking out. Nathan Lukes grounded back to the pitcher for the second out. Blake Treinen relieved Justin Wrobleski, and gave up a single to Guerrero. Bichette fouled off four pitches before singling down the right field line. The ball got tangled up with a sound guy and Guerrero scored all the way from first. The throw from right field was to the first base side of the dish and Smith could not get back for a tag before the run scored.

Seranthony ("Sir Anthony") Domínguez began the bottom of the seventh by retiring Andy Pages on a fly to right. Ohtani was next and Toronto's decision during a mound meeting was between simply sending him to first base or going right after him. (The idea of nibbling and trying to get him to chase was dismissed as pointless.) They decided to pitch to him, but Domínguez's first offering was a grooved fastball at 98. He might as well have placed the ball on a tee. Ohtani took a swing that appeared so easy and controlled and relaxed, it was a small shock that the ball travelled 401 feet to deep left-center. Ohtani's second home run of the night re-tied the game at 5-5. With two outs, Domínguez walked Freeman and Smith and had a 3-1 count on Max Muncy, but got Muncy to ground out.

And 5-5 was how the score remained for the next ten innings. Toronto put runners on first and third, thanks to a Betts error and a single from Giménez off Jack Dreyer. Roki Sasaki took over and got two ground outs to escape the jam, the third out coming when he leapt skyward to spear Lukes' high chopper over the mound. Sasaki seemed sharp as he got the first batter in the ninth, but then couldn't find the plate. He walked Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who had pinch-run for Bichette two innings earlier) on five pitches. Varsho lined a full-count pitch towards right field. Freeman leapt and the ball deflected off his glove. Tommy Edman chased the ball into the outfield and then fired a throw to third base to get IKF, who had ill-formed ideas of getting to third. That was the second out and Sasaki walked Kirk before getting a force at second. The Blue Jays left two men on base in each of the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, going 1-for-9 with RATS.

In the bottom of the ninth, Ohtani was walked intentionally with one out. He was also thrown out trying to steal before Betts fouled to right. It was the first of four consecutive intentional walks to Ohtani. The next time he actrually stood in the box and saw some pitches was when he walked on four straight ball sin the seventeeth inning.

Emmet Sheehan faced the Jays batters in the tenth. (Sportsnet analyist Buck Martinez informed the international audience: "This is a big game for both teams." I suppose there might have been a few seals on Baffin Island who were unsure about the stakes.) Sheehan needed only six pitches to get two outs before giving up a single to France and a double to Lukes. The Baltimore dong was lined to to right, but the Dodgers gunned down pinch-runner David Schneider at the plate 9-4-2. Edman, the cut-off man, took Teoscar Hernández's throw, and made a perfect relay throw to the plate. It was in plenty of time and as Will Smith gloved the ball, he turned to block the runner and protect the plate. The Blue Jays challenged both the umpire's out call and his ruling that Smith didn't block the plate before he had possession of the ball. They lost on both counts.

Bottom of the 10th: Blue Jays reliever Jeff Hoffman hit Smith with a pitch with one down. After Muncy struck out looking, Teoscar Hernández smacked an 0-2 pitch into left for a hit. Hoffman got Edman to foul out to Gerrero on his 33rd (and final) pitch of the night.

Top of the 11th: Sheehan avoids any drama, retiring Toronto's 3-4-5 hitters in order. Guerrero F8, Kiner-Falefa 1-3, Varsho K.

Bottom of the 11th: "Let's Go" Braydon Fisher, a rookie who had given up five runs in 5.2 postseason innings, is the seventh pitcher for Toronto. He strikes out Kiké Hernández on a diving curve and Clement catches Pages' line drive at third. Ohtani is put on first base and Mookie Betts singles to left. Ohtani appears to jog gingerly into second base. Roberts and a translator come out to chat, but everything seems fine. Freeman pops to left.

Top of the 12th: My scorecards have room for 12 innings, but the many pitchers on both sides (as well as several scrawled notes) have left little room at the bottom of the page, so I start a second scorecard. This is a scary fuckin inning. Facing Fisher, Kirk walks on five pitches (none of the four balls were close) and Tyler Heineman pinch-runs. The Blue Jays now have no position players on the bench. Myles Straw twice tries to bunt before lining to first. Clayton Kershaw is warming up for the Dodgers! Clement falls behind 0-2 and grounds the ball up the middle. Edman moves to his right, backhands the ball and fires to first. It's the second out, on a very close play. LA manager Dave Roberts has Giménez walked intentionally, putting runners at first and second. The move mystifies both Sportsnet announcers. Ron Shulman announces the move in a WTF voice and all Martinez can say is "very interesting" with a certain amount of wonder in his voice. Fisher has a 2-2 count on Schneider but misses with ball 3 – a pivitol pitch, because now the runners will be off with the pitch. Schneider hits a slow grounder towards third. Heineman is running to third and Muncy has his foot on the bag, forced to wait for the ball to get to him. Getting to third does not seem to be an urgent concern for Heineman, but he does make it to the safely base (without sliding). The bases are loaded and here comes Kershaw, who has announced he will retire after the World Series. He battles Lukes to a full count (bcbcb). His next three pitches are all a bit out of the strike zone, and would presumably be called ball 4 and force in a run, but Lukes offers at all of them, fouling the first two off before grounding out to second. Inning over, three left on base.

Bottom of the 12th: The Dodgers are retired in order. Fisher strikes out Smith and Eric Lauer, a lefty who made 15 starts during the season, gets two infield popups.

Top of the 13th: Edgardo Henriquez, a 23-year-old righty, takes over for the Dodgers, and alternates fastballs at 101/102 with sliders at 83/84. He hits Varsho in the back leg with a 102-mph fastball with two outs. Heineman, in his first postseason trip to the plate, flies to center.

Bottom of the 13th: Edman extends his arms and drives an outside 0-1 pitch to right-center.  Centerfielder Varsho was shaded towards left, and has a long run to get the ball. It's a double. Pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas bunts the potential winning run to third. Alex Call, another pinch-hitter (for Pages, who is 4-for-48 (.083) in this postseason), gets ahead 2-0 but pops to shortstop. Toronto manager John Schneider intentionally walks Ohtani (who reaches base for the seventh time, a new WS record). He also intentionally walks Betts, setting up an inning-ending force at every base, but also affording his pitcher absolutely no room for error. Freeman takes a ball before launching a fly to deep center. Varsho drifts back to the track and makes the catch. Schneider is a badass. (Buck Martinez: "This is a baseball game, folks.")

Top of the 14th: It's the bottom of the Jays lineup and Henriquez sets them down with a minimum of fuss: F8, 5-3, K.

Bottom of the 14th: Smith leads off and belts Lauer's eighth pitch to deep left-center, sending Straw to the wall for a very long (and for Dodgers fans, heart-stopping) out. Lauer is throwing a lot of pitches (and/or the Dodgers are making him work). After an eight-pitch F7, Lauer walks Muncy (seven pitches) and gives up a single to Teoscar Hernández (eight pitches). LA is again threatening to end the game, but Lauer suddenly needs only four pitches to get the final two outs: Edman pops to second (infield fly rule) and Rojas grounds to third.

Top of the 15th: Toronto's bats have cooled significantly since the twelfth. The last reliever in the Dodgers' pen, Will Klein, showcases a disgusting red beard that has obviously repelled all attempts at grooming. Perhaps it is a weapon to distract opposing hitters. Guerrero singles with two outs but is left at first when Kiner-Falefa strikes out looking.

Bottom of the 15th: GDGD says Brendon Little is now pitching for Toronto, but it's actually still Lauer (for the next two innings, in fact). Back at Skydome, it's 1:48 a.m. and a lot of fans are still watching the game on Skydome's huge board (which is extremely huge and high defintion). The team's admission charge of $15 seems greedy – why not free or a token $5 and make your $$ on food and drink?, but the remaining fans are getting their money's worth. Call grounds to second, Ohtani is walked intentionally, Betts flies to right, and Freeman lines out to deep left-center, as Varsho makes a nice running catch at the wall.

Top of the 16th: The Bue Jays go 1-2-3. It's quite boring, for a change: 4-3, P1, K. Guerrero eats an apple.

Bottom of the 16th: The Dodgers go 1-2-3. K, K, F8 to the track in right-center. Things have calmed down and I envision both teams settling into a groove of making outs for many innings.

Top of the 17th: Another clean inning for Klein. F8, K, L1. He's retired seven in a row! Sportsnet says that Fox's Tom Verducci is reporting that Dave Roberts will have a position player on the mound if the game goes into the 18th. Shulman and Martinez are skeptical. Why wouldn't Roberts have someone like Blake Snell (G1 starter) go for an inning or two instead?

Bottom of the 17th: Lauer is done after 4.2 innings (4.2-2-0-4-2, 68), having thrown the second-most pitches of any Jays pitcher (after Scherzer). Little is in and he strikes out Edman and gets Rojas on a grounder to short. Call singles to left-center and Toronto is more or less forced to pitch to Ohtani, hoping to maybe get him out rather than put the wnning run at second for Betts. But Little misses with four straight and Ohtani gets franked anyway. (Ohtani saw one strike after the fifth inning tonight, his HR in the seventh (which was also his last swing oif the game.) Betts, who has barely been an afterthought in this game, sees eight pitches and fouls to first. (He's 2-for-15 in the WS.)

Top of the 18th: No position player. It's Klein for his fourth inning (4-1-0-2-5, 72). Though, with one out, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who threw a complete game in G2!) is warming up in the Dodgers bullpen. Guerrero walks, but is forced at second. Varsho also walks and the runners take second and third on a wild pitch before Heineman strikes out.

Bottom of the 18th: Freeman hammers a 3-2 sinker – the 609th pitch of the game – that is left out over the plate. This time, Varsho runs to the wall can do nothing. Little grabs his cap and walks off the field as the Dodgers celebrate.

The two longest World Series games by innings were both won at Dodger Stadium on solo home runs (hit on full counts) by the first batter in the home half of the 18th inning:

2018 WS Game 3 (October 26): Max Muncy led off the bottom of the 18th inning and homered on a full-count pitch (bbbcff) to left-center.

2025 WS Game 3 (October 27): Freddie Freeman led off the bottom of the 18th inning and homered on a full-count pitch (fbbbc) to center.

Four Dodgers played in both games: Max Muncy, Enrique Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw, and Mookie Betts (who was with the Red Sox).

Ohtani set a new postseason record by reaching base nine times in a game. The previous record was six times, held by Stan Hack (1945 WS 6), Kenny Lofton (1995 WS 3), and Kerry Carpenter (2025 ALDS 5).

Ohtani is one of four players to reach base nine times in any game (regular season or postseason) and the first to do so in the last 83 years. The other three: Max Carey (July 7, 1922), Johnny Burnett (July 10, 1932), and Stan Hack (August 9, 1942).

Ohtani is the first player in MLB history with 4+ hits and 5+ walks in a game (regular season or postseason)

Ohtani is the first player to be intentionally walked more than once with the bases empty in a postseason game (since BBI became official in 1955). He had three tonight. Albert Pujols had one in 2011 World Series 5.

Ohtani is the first player to be intentionally walked four times in a postseason game. Only six players have had 4+ BBI in a regular season game, since 1955: Roger Maris (1962), Garry Templeton (1985), Andre Dawson (1990), Manny Ramirez (2001), Barry Bonds (2004, 4 games), James Wood (2025).

Ohtani has nowbeen walked eight times in this postseason, tying Pujols (2011) for the second-most BBis. Barry Bonds received 13 BBI in 2002.

Ohtani and Babe Ruth are the only players with postseasn careers with multiple pitching starts and more than two home runs. Ruth (15 HR, 3 GS), Ohtani (11 HR, 2 GS).

Ohtani is the only player in postseason history with at least one pitching start and multiple home runs in a single postseason.

Ohtani has hit eight home runs in the 2025 postseason, tied for the most in a single postseason in Dodgers history, with Corey Seager (8 in 2020). In MLB history, only Randy Arozarena has hit more (10 in 2020).

Ohtani is the first player with multiple games with 12+ total bases in a single postseason. The only other player with two such games in a postseason career is Babe Ruth.

Ohtani is the first player with three multi-homer games in a single postseason.

Ohtani's last two games at Dodger Stadium:
October 17, 2025 (NLCS G4): 12 total bases (3 HR)
October 27, 2025 (World Series G3): 12 total bases (2 HR, 2 2B)
No other MLB player in the modern era (since 1900) has had 12+ total bases in two consecutive home games in the regular season or postseason.

NLCS 4: Dodgers 5, Brewers 1 (LAD wins 4-0)ALCS 5: Mariners 6, Blue Jays 2 (SEA leads 3-2)

We may have witnessed – in Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS – the greatest performance in a major league baseball game by a single player.

Shohei Ohtani won the MVP award (after being introduced as "the greatest baseball player on the planet") largely because of his unprecedented performance in the Dodgers' pennant-winning 5-1 victory on Friday night in Los Angeles, finishing off a dominating sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers (who had won all six of the games the two teams played during the season).

Ohtani pitched six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and walking three. He collected 10 strikeouts. One of those hits and one walk came in the seventh, at which point manager Dave Roberts called upon his bullpen. If Ohtani had called it a night after finishing the sixth, his line would have been: 6-1-0-2-10, 87.

Ohtani also hit three home runs, all of which were crushed more than 425 feet. They were all solo shots, but he couldn't do anything about that. He also walked, because why make an out? (I almost wanted the Brewers to tie the game, so Ohtani could win the pennant in the bottom of the ninth with his fourth homer of the night. He would have been the inning's second batter.)

Ohtani came into the game hitting only .103 (3-for-29) since the start of the NLDS. I guess he's out of his slump. He also had not pitched in almost two weeks.

Ohtani swung at six pitches in the game: three home runs, two foul balls, and one swing and miss.

So how unique was his performance? ... I'm glad you asked.

Hitting three home runs.
Allowing no runs and striking out 10+ batters.
No one in major league history has ever done both over an entire career (same game, different games, regular season, postseason, spring training). Ohtani did both in the same game. (Won the pennant, too.)

Ohtani is the first Dodgers starting pitcher to throw multiple 100.0+ mph strikeouts in a postseason since pitch tracking began in 2008. All other Dodgers starters combined for one such pitch in those 18 seasons. Ohtani had two in the first inning.

Ohtani is the first pitcher in MLB history to hit a leadoff home run (regular season or postseason).*

Ohtani is the second player in major league postseason history to hit three home runs as his team's leadoff batter. George Brett did it against the Yankees in 1978 ALCS Game 3. (They were also all solo shots.)

Ohtani is the first player to strike out a batter and hit a home run in the first inning of a postseason game. (He actually struck out three batters, after walking the leadoff guy.)

Ohtani is the first player with multiple career postseason innings which include two strikeouts as a pitcher and a home run as a batter. Both happened in G4 (1st and 4th innings).

Ohtani is the first pitcher in postseason history with a multi-homer game. (Bob Gibson had 10+ strikeouts and 1 home run in a game on two occasions (1967 World Series Game 7 (9-3-2-3-10) and 1968 World Series Game 4 (9-5-1-2-10).)

Ohtani is the first pitcher in Dodgers history to hit a home run in the postseason. (The last pitch home run in the postseason was Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers off Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 of the in 2018 NLCS.)

Ohtani is the first pitcher with 10+ and no runs allowed in a pennant-clinching game.

Ohtani is the first major league player to have 10+ strikeouts as a pitcher and multiple home runs at the plate in a game (regular season or postseason) twice in his career.

Ohtani is the first player in major league history with 3 homers and 10 strikeouts as a pitcher in a game (regular season or postseason).

Ohtani's three home runs, with estimated distance and speed of the ball off the bat:
1st inning: 446 feet, 116.5 mph
4th inning: 469 feet, 116.9 mph  (over the pavilion roof in right-center; his teammates were in awe)
7th inning: 427 feet, 113.6 mph

Ohtani is the first major league player with two 116+ mph home runs in a game in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season or postseason). And, as the indefatigable Sarah Langs (who tweeted most of these) pointed out, "HE IS ALSO PITCHING TONIGHT"

Ohtani has hit 8 home runs of 450+ feet at Dodger Stadium in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season and postseason). No other major league player has hit more than one. (Of course, he plays there more often than most players. I'd like to know which visiting players have the most plate appearances at Dodger Stadium since the start of 2015.)

Ohtani's first two home runs are the hardest-hit home runs hit by a pitcher in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season and postseason).

10-17-25  Ohtani: 116.9 mph (2025 NLCS G4, 2nd of game)
10-17-25  Ohtani: 116.5 mph (2025 NLCS G4, 1st of game)
08-23-23  Ohtani: 115.7 mph
04-04-21  Ohtani: 115.2 mph
09-10-21  Ohtani: 114.7 mph
05-15-23  Ohtani: 114.6 mph
07-21-25  Ohtani: 113.4 mph 
06-09-23  Ohtani: 112.9 mph 
04-02-17  Madison Bumgarner: 112.5 mph
04-02-17  Bumgarner: 112.1 mph

Ohtani is the only name on the list of the Dodgers' 18 hardest-hit batted balls in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season and postseason). (Every other Dodger in the last decade has had a noodle bat, apparently.)

09-02-25  Ohtani: 120.0 mph HR
04-27-24  Ohtani: 119.2 mph 1B
07-27-24  Ohtani: 118.7 mph HR
04-23-24  Ohtani: 118.7 mph HR
09-11-24  Ohtani: 118.1 mph HR
05-05-25  Ohtani: 117.9 mph HR
10-17-25  Ohtani: 117.8 mph HR  2024 NLCS G4
09-30-25  Ohtani: 117.7 mph HR  2025 NLWCS G1
09-02-24  Ohtani: 117.2 mph 1B
08-05-24  Ohtani: 117.1 mph 2B
10-17-25  Ohtani: 116.9 mph HR  2025 NLCS G4 (2nd of game)
09-25-24  Ohtani: 116.8 mph 2B
09-08-24  Ohtani: 116.7 mph HR
07-21-24  Ohtani: 116.7 mph HR
10-17-25  Ohtani: 116.5 mph HR  2025 NLCS G4 (1st of game)
10-13-24  Ohtani: 116.5 mph 1B  2024 NLCS G1
07-01-25  Ohtani: 116.3 mph HR
08-02-24  Ohtani: 116.3 mph HR

The Dodgers pitching staff simply suffocated the Brewers offense. Here are the stats for the four NLCS starters, with pitches, batters faced, and number of swings/misses:

G1 Blake Snell        8.0-1-0-0-10, 103 P, 24 BF, 20 S/M
G2 Yoshinobu Yamamoto 9.0-3-1-1- 7, 111 P, 32 BF, 14 S/M
G3 Tyler Glasnow      5.2-3-1-3- 8,  99 P, 23 BF, 13 S/M
G4 Shohei Ohtani      6.0-2-0-3-10, 100 P, 22 BF, 19 S/M

28.2 innings, 9 hits, 2 runs, 7 walks, and 35 strikeouts. 0.64 ERA starters' ERA.

The Dodgers allowed a puny .118 opponent batting average (14-for-119) in the NLCS. That's a major league record for the lowest in a postseason series of three or more games. The Brewers slugged .193 and their on-base was .191. Will Smith's .400 batting average was higher than the Brewers' .384 OPS!

Most consecutive games allowing 1 or 0 runs in single postseason:

2025 LAD: 5  (active streak)
1996 ATL: 5
1981 LAD: 5
1990 OAK: 4
1948 CLE: 4
1920 CLE: 4
1907 CHC: 4

Going into the top of the ninth . . .

I got my wish!!

My next request is for the Mariners (who have never been this far in the postseason before, winning a third game of an ALCS) to take a big dump on the Blue Jays' fortunes tomorrow, crush the hopes of every single Blue Jays fan, and give me the Mariners/Dodgers I wanted before the postseason began.

* I do not consider the first batter in the bottom of the first inning to be a "leadoff" hitter. I believe the term "leadoff" is reserved for the first batter of the game, especially when referring to home runs. In other words, the home team can never have a "leadoff" anything, because they don't bat first. We don't take special note of home runs that are hit to start any other inning. You can hear some arcane factoids during a game, but I've yet to hear which active player has the most "leadoff" fifth inning home runs. Maybe I should ignore "leadoff" factoids simply because other people define them differently incorrectly (see, RATS/RISP), but whatever.