Dodgers Cement Their Dynasty With A World Series Game 7 Comeback For The Ages

TORONTO — When it was over, erstwhile aft 162 regular play games and different 15 successful nan playoffs and now two excruciating innings nan Dodgers won Game 7, 5–4, to repetition arsenic champions, nan man who won nan crippled raced to nan mound to drawback nan man who saved it. 

It was Will Smith, nan catcher, who launched nan 11th-inning location tally that stunned nan sellout crowd of 44,713 astatine nan Rogers Centre and gave nan Dodgers their first lead of nan night. But it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, nan Game 6 starter who sewage 8 outs successful Game 7 connected nary days’ rest, who gave him nan chance. Yamamoto, who each but forced his measurement into nan crippled aft head Dave Roberts insisted he would not beryllium available, threw 34 pitches. 

The Blue Jays were 2 outs distant from ending a 32-year World Series drought erstwhile an improbable hero—or villain, depending connected your perspective—emerged: Dodgers glove-first 2nd baseman Miguel Rojas, playing successful his 2nd crippled successful 3 weeks, lined a solo location tally complete nan near section wall to necktie nan game. 

Each squad loaded nan bases pinch 1 out—the Blue Jays successful nan bottommost of nan ninth, nan Dodgers successful nan apical of nan 10th—and grounded to score. Smith, dragging himself astir nan section aft catching each 72 innings of this epic World Series, dragged nan Dodgers ahead. 

It almost wasn’t enough. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., nan look of a franchise and nan look of a nation, doubled to lead disconnected nan bottommost of nan 11th. Isiah Kiner-Falefa sacrificed him to third. Addison Barger worked a walk. But Yamamoto collapsed Alejandro Kirk’s bat pinch 1 of his signature splitters, and shortstop Mookie Betts scooped up nan easy grounder, stepped connected 2nd guidelines and fired to first for nan double play. The Dodgers, who became nan first squad since nan 2000 Yankees to repeat, were connected nan section almost earlier nan Blue Jays understood what had conscionable happened to them. 

Of people this World Series came down to other innings successful Game 7. It could not beryllium contained by nan laws of physics, nan columns of scorebooks aliases even, astatine times, by nan customs of quality decency. At 1 constituent successful Game 7, nan only daylight betwixt nan teams came erstwhile nan umpires pushed nan players apart. Counting nan 18-inning Game 3, this was nan first Fall Classic that featured much than 8 games’ worthy of baseball. Only 3 of nan games were genuinely close—Games 1, 2, 4 and 5 were decided by an mean of 5 runs—but neither squad ever seemed overmatched. 

Still this 1 was loopier than most. The Dodgers utilized each 4 of their World Series starting pitchers, two—Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow—on nary days’ rest. The Blue Jays utilized 3 of theirs. 

The Blue Jays ne'er seemed to spell away. Twice nan Dodgers won successful what should person been backbreaking fashion—the 18-inning Game 3, and past nan chaotic double play to snuff retired a rally successful Game 6—but Toronto conscionable kept fighting. It won Game 4, and it astir won this one. 

MORE: World Series Game 7 Takeaways: Dodgers’ Wild Comeback Secures Back-to-Back Titles

Los Angeles’s roster boasts 44 All-Star Game appearances and 22 World Series rings. For nan Blue Jays, those figures are 29 and three. The Dodgers’ grounds $328 cardinal payroll has made immoderate observers mobility whether they are ruining baseball. The Blue Jays were not willing successful narratives, conscionable successful wins. 

Dodgers 2nd baseman Miguel Rojas, right, celebrates pinch Shohei Ohtani aft his game-tying location tally successful nan ninth inning. / John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Game 7 pitted 2 Hall of Famers against 1 another, 1 who had been preparing for this commencement each bid and 1 who learned for judge he would get it aft Game 6. 

When head John Schneider told Max Scherzer he would commencement Game 3, Scherzer said, “O.K., truthful 3 and 7.” The duty made him, astatine 41 years and 97 days, nan oldest pitcher to commencement a winner-take-all World Series game. When Schneider walked by him aft Game 6, which nan Blue Jays mislaid connected a sadistic game-ending double play, he said, Scherzer looked “ready to termination somebody.” Schneider added, “So you spot him to beryllium fresh for this environment.”

The Dodgers spot Ohtani arsenic well, though they were not judge what to expect from him. After Game 6, they reviewed their options. Game 3 starter Tyler Glasnow had gotten nan last 3 outs that night. Blake Snell, who started Games 1 and 5, would beryllium connected short rest; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who started Games 2 and 6, would beryllium connected moreover shorter rest. Despite playing 18 innings—and reaching guidelines a postseason grounds 9 times—in Game 3, past receiving IV fluids and pitching six innings 17 hours later successful Game 4, Ohtani assured them that he was disposable connected nan mound for Game 6. (This is simply a man who, offered nan chance to travel retired of Game 3 successful nan 11th owed to limb cramps that had him hobbling astir nan bases, declined, and who, asked successful nan sixth inning of Game 4 really galore much frames he could go, said three.) 

He mightiness person been a much accepted action successful relief. But location is thing accepted astir Ohtani. The Dodgers chose to commencement him mostly because of nan norm that allows him to stay successful nan crippled arsenic nan DH erstwhile he comes disconnected nan mound—but only if he starts nan game. If he relieves, erstwhile he exits arsenic a hitter, he exits arsenic a pitcher. Between that regularisation and nan logistical nightmare of getting him to nan bullpen to lukewarm up successful betwixt at-bats, this pathway was nan evident choice. But Ohtani, still recovering from room to repair his near elbow, had only started connected 3 days’ remainder erstwhile successful his career, and that came erstwhile rainfall trim nan first outing to 2 innings and 30 pitches. 

“This is Game 7,” Roberts said. “There’s a batch of things that group haven’t done, and you’ve conscionable sewage to spot your players and effort to triumph a shot game.”

Ohtani opened nan crippled pinch a single, took 2nd connected a grounder to first and took 3rd connected a heavy alert shot to halfway field. Betts grounded retired to extremity nan frame, which gave Ohtani 2 and a half minutes to dart into nan dugout, region his batting armor, drawback his glove, huddle pinch pitching coach Mark Prior and chair coach Danny Lehman, and return nan mound for his six warm-up pitches. Just nether 5 minutes—and, it must beryllium said, two and a half minutes aft nan rules stipulate—after he ran retired Betts’s grounder, Ohtani threw shot 1 to George Springer. Springer, visibly wincing connected each plaything arsenic he managed a right-side wounded that costs him 2 games, singled but was retired connected a strike-’im-out-throw-’im-out double play to extremity nan inning. 

Ohtani caught a break successful nan 2nd inning. His secondary bid was spotty, truthful he had to thin connected his fastball. He walked Bichette to lead disconnected nan framework and allowed a azygous to Addison Barger. With 2 outs, Ernie Clement knocked a azygous to correct field, but nan hobbled Bichette had to clasp astatine third. Andrés Giménez waved astatine an wrong fastball to extremity nan threat. 

Springer led disconnected nan adjacent inning pinch different single. When Nathan Lukes bunted him complete and he took 3rd connected a chaotic pitch, nan Dodgers elected to locomotion Guerrero intentionally. That brought up Bichette. The first transportation he saw was a slider that slid correct into nan mediate of nan zone. As 44,713 roaring fans shook nan Rogers Centre, Springer and Guerrero each raised their hands and jogged home. Bichette slow followed them. 

Bichette knew he would beryllium a free supplier aft nan World Series ended. He knew aggravating nan wounded could wounded his semipermanent earning potential. He did not care. “It’s nan World Series,” he said. “So nary of that worldly really matters.”

The homer ended Ohtani’s nighttime connected nan mound aft 2 ⅓ innings pitched. The Dodgers manufactured a tally successful nan apical of nan fourth. In nan bottommost of nan inning, 194-pound floppy-haired lefty Justin Wrobleski buzzed 5’11” shortstop Andrés Giménez pinch an wrong fastball. On nan adjacent pitch, he deed him. The benches—and nan bullpens—cleared. The umpires issued warnings. The Dodgers scored different tally successful nan apical of nan sixth; nan Blue Jays did nan aforesaid successful nan bottommost of nan frame. With his sixth-inning single, Clement group a grounds pinch his 10th multi-hit crippled this postseason; pinch his eighth-inning double, he group a grounds pinch his 30th hit. 

To headdress 1 of nan finest violative postseasons of each time—he had much hits this postseason (28) than swings and misses (25) and much homers (eight) than strikeouts (seven)—Guerrero dazzled pinch his glove. He made a diving extremity and flipped to first successful nan first; snared a statement conscionable beyond nan foul statement to extremity nan fourth; and started a nifty double play to extremity nan seventh. He roared aft each 1 arsenic if he’d deed nan game-winning homer. 

Both pitching staffs were topsy-turvy aft specified a grind of a series. Snell sewage 4 outs. The Blue Jays threw Louis Varland, presumably pitching successful agelong sleeves to support his correct limb attached to his body, group a postseason grounds by appearing successful his 15th crippled (Toronto played 18); Chris Bassitt, nan starter turned alleviation ace; and Trey Yesavage, nan 22-year-old pitching connected 2 days’ remainder aft yet different postseason masterpiece successful Game 5, who allowed a location tally to Max Muncy successful nan eighth inning that brought nan crippled wrong one. Then came Rojas, and past came Smith.

And astir of all, past came Yamamoto, who was named World Series MVP. The Dodgers did not, arsenic it turned out, ruin baseball. In fact, they gave america much of it. 

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