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