Dodgers Win World Series In Arguably The Greatest Game Of All Time

The Los Angeles Dodgers mobs World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays for the first back-to-back titles since 2000. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The World Series has been home to some of baseball’s most remarkable games. Games that are remembered and rehashed for generations. Games that are replayed every year on the MLB Network. Last night, Game 7 of this year’s edition joined the ranks of Game 7 in 1960; Games 6 in 1975, 1986, and 2011; and Game 7 in 2016. People across two countries will be talking about the soul crushing (in Toronto) and miracle believing (in Los Angeles) eleven innings of baseball that served as a fitting coda to a truly remarkable World Series.

As per usual, the best writers in the business have broken down every element of what this game, and the long and short-term implications of what the Dodgers winning back-to-work championships means for the game writ large. There will be plenty of time to discuss that topic in the coming months, and leading up to a potential lock-out prior to the 2027 season. But for now, it is time to rejoice in the moments that made this particular Game 7 one of the – if not the – best World Series game of all time.

Part I: The Beginning

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani started on the mound for Los Angeles on three days’ rest. Manager Dave Roberts elected to start him because of the peculiarity of the “Ohtani Rule,” which allows a starting pitcher to leave the mound and stay in the game as the designated hitter, but if that same player becomes the pitcher later in the game and then departs, the team loses the designated hitter. The Dodgers couldn’t risk bringing Ohtani into the game at another time, so he took the ball in the first inning. His opposition: three-time Cy Young winner, and one of only four pitchers to throw multiple World Series game sevens, Max Scherzer.

Both pitchers gave up hits to the first batters they faced (in Scherzer’s case, it was to that man, Ohtani). Both pitchers got out of the first inning unscathed.

Ohtani allowed the Blue Jays to load the bases in the second, but a strike out of Andrés Giménez ended the threat.

Part II: The Seal Is Broken

In the third inning, after a George Springer single and an intentional walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette hit a 442-foot home run to center field (the longest Ohtani has ever allowed), giving Toronto a 3-0 lead, and ending Ohtani’s night on the mound.

The Dodgers struck right back in the top of the fourth. Will Smith led off with a double, followed by a Freddie Freeman single. After Max Muncy walked with one out to load the bases, Teoscar Hernández laced a 110-mph liner to center field, where Daulton Varsho made a diving catch saving at least one run, possibly two. Smith came home on the “sacrifice fly,” making the score 3-1.

Three pitches later, Tommy Edman roped a ball down the first base line. If it was fair, it would have scored one, if not two runs. But Guerrero Jr. made a diving catch across the foul line to end the inning.

The Dodgers left two runners on in the fifth inning, but chased Scherzer in the process. They got another run back in the sixth inning when two hits plus a walk led to an Edman sacrifice fly.

The Blue Jays got that run right back in the bottom half of the sixth. Ernie Clement led off with a single and came around to score on Giménez’s double to right center. But Toronto will forever lament that they left a “tack-on” run on second base after Springer struck out, Nathan Lukes flew out, and Guerrero grounded out. Going to the seventh, the home team led 4-2.

Part III: The Seventh and Eighth Innings

Game 5 hero, 22-year-old Trey Yesavage came out the bullpen to pitch the seventh, and walked Ohtani to lead off the inning. But Guerrero turned a nifty 3-6-3 double play on a Freeman chopper to end the inning.

Yesavage got Betts to ground out to short to start the eighth inning. And no sooner than Fox game analyst John Smoltz was lamenting the Dodgers’ hitters failure to move up in the batter’s box to contend with Yesavage’s splitter, Muncy hit a towering home run to right field on that exact pitch.

Prior to the World Series, I predicted that Toronto would win the World Series in seven games if Los Angeles did not get better at situational hitting. It turns out that condition afflicted the American League team as well. After failing to tack on a run in the sixth inning, Clement led off the eighth with a double, his record 30^th hit of the post-season. Giménez couldn’t get the bunt down, so he swung away on a 1-1 pitch and lined the ball directly to Max Muncy standing 73 feet from home plate for the first out. Springer, and then pinch-hitter Davis Schneider, both struck out, leaving a desperately needed fifth run on second base.

Part IV: The Ninth!

The Dodgers came to the plate for their last hurrah knowing that Ohtani – he of the 55 home runs during the regular season plus eight more during the playoffs – would at least get a crack at the bat. When Kiké Hernández struck out to lead off the inning, Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman could have been forgiven for looking past nine-hole hitter Miguel Rojas. Making just his second start since October 1^st, he had not hit a home run since September 19^th, and had not hit one off a right-handed pitcher since June 14^th (and that was against a position player). Hoffman’s 3-2 slider was in the middle of the plate, and Rojas slammed it at 105-mph (his hardest hit ball of the season) and 387 feet to left field where a fan in a Blue Jays cap made an incredible catch before realizing what the souvenir in his glove represented: a tie game!

Hoffman got Ohtani to fly out deep to left and Smith to strike out, giving Toronto a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, with their franchise player coming to the plate.

Blake Snell, the third Dodger starting pitcher to take the mound in this game, was obviously pitching around the dangerous Guerrero. On a 3-0 count, he threw a change-up outside the zone, but where Vladito could reach it. He slugged it well, but to the deepest part of the park, where Edman corralled it short of the warning track for the first out. Bichette followed with a single to left. Because Bichette was playing on essentially one knee, Isiah Kiner-Falefa came in to pinch-run. Snell walked Addison Barger and then left the game.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw six innings and 96 pitches in Game 6 the night before, came out of the bullpen, and promptly hit Alejandro Kirk with his second pitch (Kirk got hit in nearly the same spot in the same inning on Friday), loading the bases with one out. Varsho came to the plate needing only a fly ball to win the World Series. Instead, he hit a hard grounder to second that Rojas fielded while stumbling. He threw to the plate on his back foot, and beat Kiner-Falefa at the plate by a mere inches (the call was affirmed after a review). (The overhead camera showed that Kiner-Falefa had a short lead off third and did not get a good jump; and he slid into home plate rather than running through it. Would any of this have changed the outcome? People in Toronto will be debating that for a LONG time.)

Then, with the bases still loaded and two outs, Ernie Clement, already 3-for-4 on the day, crushed a ball 101-mph to deep left center field. Kiké Hernández, playing shallow to cut off a soft hit as he did in the ninth inning of Game 6, found himself in a dead sprint looking over his shoulder as he approached the warning track. Andy Pages – out of the starting lineup because of his poor hitting, but back in the game in the middle of the ninth inning as a defensive replacement for the less-strong-armed Edman – sprinted 121 feet, knocked Kiké over, and caught the ball at the wall to save the game and end the inning.

Part V: Extra Innings (Free Baseball)

The Dodgers used two walks and a single load the bases in the tenth inning with one out. Pages, hitting .080, having made a game-saving catch the inning before, had a chance for offensive redemption. Instead, he grounded to short, where Giménez fielded the ball and threw Betts out at the plate. Kiké then hit a slow roller to first, which required pitcher Seranthony Domínguez to make an athletic play to record the inning’s final out.

Shane Bieber, who started Game 4 for the Blue Jays, went 5-1/3, allowing just one run on three hits to get the win, came out of the bullpen in the eleventh inning. On his second pitch he got Rojas to ground out to third; on his third pitch he got Ohtani to break his bat and ground out to second. He could be forgiven for taking a breath. Unfortunately, with the Dodgers and their nearly-$400 million payroll, there is simply no time to take a breath. Will Smith, after catching 72 innings in the World Series (which would ultimately become a record-setting 73), clobbered a 2-0 slider 105-mph over the wall in left field for his 10^th career post-season home run to give the Dodgers their first lead of the night.

In the bottom half, Guerrero somehow got his hands inside a 97-mph fastball that was up and in to lead off the eleventh with a double. Kiner-Falefa then executed a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving Guerrero to third with one out. Yamamoto, still in the game, pitched around Barger, walking him on four pitches. That brought Kirk, who already had two hits (and a hit-by-pitch) on the night, to the plate, needing only a fly ball to tie the game. With an 0-2 count, Yamamoto’s 34^th pitch of the game – his 130^th pitch in just over 28 hours – was a 92-mph splitter that shattered Kirk’s bat, inducing a slow grounder to short. Betts, who acknowledged how nervous he was, fielded the ball, stepped on second base, and threw off-balance to Freeman to complete the double play and complete the first back-to-back World Series championships since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.

Part VI: Post-Game Analysis

With eleven innings played, this was tied for the second longest Game 7 in history (the Washington Senators beat the New York Giants 4-3 in 12 innings in 1924; the Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians 3-2 in 11 innings in 1997).

Many believed that the 18-inning Game 3 thriller last Monday was one of the greatest World Series games of all time. And after pretty pedestrian Games 4, 5, and 6 (the ending notwithstanding), Game 7 surpassed it. In the post-game analysis, Alex Rodriguez said that “cardiologists in these two countries are going to make a fortune tomorrow.” Both team had the bases loaded with one out in the final innings and failed to score. Thirteen pitchers took the mound, including all of the Dodgers’ and three of the Blue Jays’ starters, and the same pitcher – Yoshinobu Yamamoto – won both Games 6 and 7 (as well as Game 2, which easily made him the World Series MVP).

The Blue Jays will spend the winter and the rest of their lives thinking about the 14 runners they left on base, including eight in scoring position, where they went 3-for-17. But they will also remember George Springer’s three hits with a severely injured oblique; and Bo Bichette, essentially playing on one leg in potentially his last game as a Blue Jay, mashing a 400-foot three-run homer in the third that, for a while, seemed like it might be dispositive. They will think about Dalton Varsho saving three runs with an incredible catch in the fourth. And they should remember that they finished last season in last place, and the finished this season in the eleventh inning of Game 7 of one of the greatest World Series of all time.

The Dodgers, of course, will remember Miguel Rojas and Will Smith and Max Muncy and Shohei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki and Andy Pages and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw, who’s last appearance as a Dodger left the bases loaded in the twelfth inning of Game 3, and who ended his illustrious career sprinting in from the bullpen to celebrate in the most fitting way possible.

And we, as baseball fans, will remember the highs and lows and each agita-inducing moment after agita-inducing moment, culminating in the type of World Series we all long for: one where it’s shame that one team has to lose.