Game 7 of this year’s World Series wrapped up in a raucous Rogers Centre in Toronto that turned silent as the Dodgers secured back-to-back titles, the first time a team has done so since the dynastic New York Yankees of 1998-2000. The night of Saturday, Nov. 1 wrapped up with a 5-4 win for Los Angeles.
The final game was the dynamic thrill ride that baseball fans deserved, as relatively quiet innings at the beginning of the game gave way to a towering three-run home run by Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette in the top of the third inning. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts soon pulled starting pitcher and phenom Shohei Ohtani from the game with one out in the top of the third. The Dodgers responded in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff double by catcher Will Smith and eventually scored their first run after Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer walked the bases loaded, and the run came in on a sacrifice fly. The Jays limited the damage behind an incredible diving play by Daulton Varsho. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ended the inning without allowing another run with a toe-tapping play at first base in which he imitated an NFL receiver by extending his arm way over the chalk and keeping his toes inside it. Scherzer was taken out in the fifth inning, and both squads traded runs in the sixth, with Tommy Edman batting in Mookie Betts on a sacrifice fly and Andres Gimenez scoring Ernie Clement with a double. Heading into the eighth, Toronto was six outs away from a ring, the crowd was palpably anxious. That anxiety proved to be warranted as the Dodgers’ Max Muncy hit an opposite field blast that careened off the video boards in Rogers Centre.
The score stood at 4-3 Toronto in the top of the ninth inning as Jeff Hoffman stepped on the mound to try to send the Blue Jays to the World Series. All eyes were on Shohei Ohtani, who lurked in the lineup and could provide the tying shot. Instead, it was Miguel Rojas who took Hoffman deep to left field and tied the game at 4-4. Toronto still was dead set on winning things in the bottom of the ninth when they had a bases loaded situation with only one out. The Dodgers stifled what should have been a triumphant moment for the Jays with a laser throw home by Miguel Rojas on a ground ball to get the first out and a game-saving leaping grab by Andy Pages to send the contest to extra innings. After a back and forth tenth that still provided a stalemate, Shane Bieber came on for the Blue Jays to attempt to extend the game. It was the killshot, with catcher Will Smith hitting a go-ahead home run, that sucked the life out of Rogers Centre. A leadoff double by Guerrero in the bottom of the eleventh inning provided some hope as he was sacrificed over to third, but a heartbreaking double play secured the title for the Dodgers in the end.
The Series began at Rogers Center in Toronto, with many expecting a non-competitive set of games. Most major network sports commentators, including FOX Sports analyst and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, admitted that the Dodgers were heavily favored coming into the contest. Los Angeles was coming off a 4-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, owners of the best regular-season record in the Major Leagues. Additionally, the Dodgers possessed some of the most high-end talents in baseball at nearly every position, featuring two-way global sensation Shohei Ohtani, an ace starting pitcher who launched nothing but bombs at designated hitter all season. Besides Ohtani, the Dodgers were headlined by clutch-hitting First Baseman Freddy Freeman, the live bat of Mookie Betts, and other aces in the starting rotation, like the unflappable Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell.
The Toronto Blue Jays had just escaped a 7-game ALCS in which the Seattle Mariners had given them a run for their money, coming just short of the franchise’s first American League Pennant. But Toronto showed that they belonged in the Fall Classic, raising the first AL pennant on Canadian soil in over 30 years. They went on to shock the Dodgers in Game 1, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to put up 11 runs against Blake Snell. This was largely due to a massive 9-run sixth inning by the Blue Jays, which included the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series History by Addison Barger and a two-run bomb by Catcher Alejandro Kirk.
Los Angeles answered in Game 2, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto tossing his second straight complete game and allowing only one run in a dominant 5-1 win. Game 3 proved to be one of the greatest World Series games ever played, with 18 innings of back-and-forth tension in an epic marathon at Dodger Stadium. This eventually resulted in a Dodgers win behind a walk-off home run by Freddy Freeman. But the Blue Jays kept it competitive, taking the next two games in six-run performances that put them firmly in the driver’s seat as the series came back to Toronto for Game 6. Toronto was one win away from their first World Series title in over 30 years, and the die-hard home fans at Rogers Centre could taste it. Another shutdown performance by eventual World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed Los Angeles to squeak out a 3-1 victory and send the series to Game 7.
This season ends in heartbreak for Toronto, as it has for many teams already, but not without a battle against a seemingly inevitable juggernaut that will never be forgotten.
Featured image: CNN
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