Dodgers Extend World Series In A Game 6 Win Decided By Inches

TORONTO — After miles of location runs and miles per hr of velocity, nan Dodgers will play Game 7 of nan World Series acknowledgment to 2 inches. 

A adjacent but straightforward crippled turned into a 3–1 thriller successful Game 6 erstwhile nan bottommost of nan ninth went spooky connected Halloween night. Roki Sasaki, trying to get six outs to sphere a two-run lead, deed nan Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk connected an 0–2 transportation to unfastened nan ninth. Then, connected a 2–2 count, Addison Barger lined a fastball to nan halfway section wall—where it lodged. Center fielder Justin Dean threw up his hands and nan umpires agreed: ground-rule double. If nan shot had landed anyplace else, it would person been a one-run game. Instead, nan runners stood astatine 2nd and 3rd pinch 1 retired and Andrés Giménez astatine nan plate. Then different inch: Clement lined a shot to near field, wherever Kiké Hernández charged it. He fired to 2nd base, wherever Miguel Rojas caught it pinch his ft connected nan container to double disconnected Barger by a divided second. If Hernández had misplayed it, nan World Series mightiness person been over. Instead, nan crippled was. 

For astir of nan night, nan mobility was whether nan lineup could benignant itself out. The Dodgers had tried everything they could deliberation of, truthful finally, they decided to punctual Mookie Betts who he is. He is not a slugger who swings retired of his spikes each clip up trying to put nan shot successful nan seats. He is not nan creaky 33-year-old who needs to cheat to get to a fastball. And he is not nan only personification connected this squad who has to play better. 

“Focus connected 1 game,” was head Dave Roberts’s message. “Be bully for 1 game. Go retired location and compete.”

So erstwhile Betts, aft getting beaten connected 2 consecutive fastballs up successful nan 3rd inning of a win-or-go-home World Series Game 6, lined nan 3rd 1 to near section to thrust location nan go-ahead runs and cardinal a 3–1 triumph complete nan Blue Jays to unit Game 7, nan happiest personification astatine nan Rogers Centre was surely nan shortstop, who howled his alleviation and banged astatine his thighs. But No. 2 mightiness person been his skipper, who shouted and pointed astatine Betts. 

Roberts had tried to put a complaint into Betts by publically challenging him. The head had tried to reassure him, some to nan media and down closed doors, by insisting that he would beryllium fine. He had dropped him down successful nan lineup, from No. 2 to No. 3 and past finally, connected Friday, to No. 4. 

Betts had near 24 men connected guidelines this postseason, and he was hitting .132 since nan opening of nan National League Championship Series. “I’ve conscionable been terrible,” he lamented aft yet different 0-for-4 successful Game 5. He added, “I wish it were from deficiency of effort. But it’s not. I mean, that’s each I tin say.”

Perhaps that effort was nan problem. Maybe he needed to retrieve that he wasn’t nan only 1 scuffling—the Dodgers arsenic a group entered nan nighttime hitting .201 successful nan World Series—and truthful he wasn’t nan only 1 responsible for fixing it. So location was logic to judge that a caller slot successful nan batting bid mightiness help. He has spent astir of his profession successful nan two-hole, but possibly nan move to nan cleanup spot, wherever location were much tally opportunities, would unlock his expertise to enactment short to nan shot and usage nan full field: Over his October career, he has deed .313 pinch runners successful scoring position and .241 without. 

He took batting believe connected Thursday’s workout day, and some he and nan hitting coaches believed he’d recovered something. But Betts is specified a tinkerer pinch his plaything that he often finds thing and loses it wrong a fewer minutes. 

“They’re going to make bully pitches,” Roberts said earlier Game 6. “He’s going to spell retired location and compete. But I deliberation that wherever his plaything is astatine mechanically is arsenic bully arsenic it’s been successful a week, truthful I really consciousness bully astir that.”

Go retired location and compete is what Roberts has been practically begging his silent discourtesy to do each series. He openly covets his opponents’ at-bats. “You intelligibly spot those guys uncovering ways to get hits, move nan shot forward, and we're not doing a bully occupation of it,” he said aft rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage held nan Dodgers to 1 tally successful Game 5, while Toronto exploded for six. “I thought Yesavage was bully coming mixing his fastball, slider, and nan split. But you still person to usage nan full section and return what they springiness you, and if they’re not going to let for slug, past you've sewage to beryllium capable to benignant of redirect and nine down to return competitory at-bats, and you see, whether it’s [Addison] Barger aliases [Bo] Bichette, those guys are doing it.”

For Halloween, to Roberts’s delight, nan Dodgers went arsenic nan Blue Jays. Game 6 featured a rematch of Game 2, which started arsenic a pitcher’s duel and ended successful history. Kevin Gausman matched Yoshinobu Yamamoto until nan seventh inning, astatine which constituent Gausman made a brace of mistakes—two fastballs that caught excessively overmuch of nan sheet and that Will Smith and Max Muncy whacked for homers—and Yamamoto seemed only to get stronger. He completed his 2nd consecutive game, nan first clip anyone has done that successful nan postseason since 2001. 

Again they looked adjacent to moreover connected Friday. Barger doubled to lead disconnected nan 3rd and George Springer, returning from an oblique wounded that costs him 2 games and visibly wincing pinch each swing, singled to thrust successful a run. 

Meanwhile, Gausman struck retired six of nan first 7 hitters he faced. But nan eighth was Tommy Edman, who doubled, and Gausman intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani, nan 5th clip nan Blue Jays person removed nan bat from his hands this series. The strategy worked nan first 4 times, but connected Friday, Will Smith lofted a double down nan near section statement to bring location nan Dodgers’ first run. The deed marked their first pinch a runner successful scoring position since Game 3. Freddie Freeman walked to load nan bases, and past nan beleaguered Betts yet barreled up that fastball. 

The series marked nan Dodgers’ first deed pinch a runner successful scoring position since Game 3, and their first multi-run inning since Game 4 of nan NLCS. They loaded nan bases again pinch 2 outs successful nan eighth, but grounded to rate in; still, nan third-inning rally held up, moreover arsenic Yamamoto for nan first clip successful 3 weeks went only six innings. The leaky bullpen held nan lead astatine two, wherever it remained. 

The Dodgers could not person forced Game 7 without Betts. They astir apt can’t triumph it without him, either. 

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