Los Angeles Dodgers Hold On in Canada to Force Winner-Take-All Game 7 in World Series
This year's World Series is going to a decisive seventh game following the Dodgers kept their repeat dreams alive Friday night with a 3–1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6.
The defending champions ended Toronto’s late-game comeback with a dramatic final double play, stunning a Rogers Centre audience that had arrived prepared to celebrate the city’s championship in over three decades.
Sixth Game Recap
Los Angeles produced all of their offense in the third frame. With two outs, Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked before Will Smith doubled to left to bring home Tommy Edman. Freeman earned a base on balls to load the bases, and Betts came through with a two-RBI hit to left, giving the Dodgers a 3–0 advantage.
Betts’ hit broke a postseason slump and rekindled the title holders' aspirations of becoming the initial back-to-back championship victors since the Yankees captured three straight from 1998 to 2000.
Pitching Duel
Kevin Gausman had been nearly unhittable to that point, fanning six of the first seven batters he confronted. He struck out 8 through three innings, matching a World Series mark, but the third-inning barrage proved costly. The Toronto ace finished with eight strikeouts over six frames, allowing three runs on three safeties and two free passes.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, meanwhile, was solid again under pressure. The 27-year-old right-hander outdueled his counterpart for the second occasion in a week, giving up one run on five base hits over six frames with six strikeouts. He improved to 4–1 this postseason with a 1.56 ERA.
The only run against him came on Springer’s two-out single in the third, driving in Addison Barger, who had hit a double previously in the frame. That single offered a brief spark in his return to the lineup after sitting out a pair of contests with an oblique injury.
Relief Heroics
From there, the Los Angeles relievers carried the load. Rookie Wrobleski got out of a jam in the seventh inning, and another rookie Sasaki pitched into the ninth inning before hitting Alejandro Kirk to start the inning. Barger followed with a double that got stuck under the left-center-field fence, obliging base runners to stay at second and third.
Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers' third game starter, entered in a relief role and got a pop fly before Andrés Giménez lined to left field. Enrique Hernández made the catch and fired to second base to double off the runner, clinching the victory and earning the pitcher his first-ever successful save.
Next Up: Seventh Game
The best-of-seven now boils down to a single contest. Scherzer will start for the Blue Jays, making him the only living pitcher to start multiple seventh games of the World Series after doing so in 2019 with Washington. The veteran inked a single-season contract to chase another championship and has been a outspoken presence throughout this playoff run.
The Los Angeles squad, looking to become the sport's initial repeat champions in nearly a quarter-century, are projected to rely on their two-way star for a brief appearance.