It was all set up for history to repeat itself.
Thirty-two years after Joe Carter’s Game 6 three-run walk-off homer won the World Series for the Blue Jays, Toronto trailed by two runs with two runners in scoring position and no outs in the ninth inning of Game 6 on Friday with a chance to win their first Fall Classic since 1993.
This time, though, it wasn’t to be. The Dodgers’ hopes of a repeat remain intact after escaping with a 3-1 win and forcing a Game 7.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Betts has his 2025 World Series moment
(Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
After going hitless in Game 5, Mookie Betts was asked about the team’s scuffling offense overall.
“I don’t want to speak on anybody else,” Betts responded, “but for myself, I’ve just been terrible.”
Clearly, his struggles were weighing on him. Betts hit .133 in the NLCS and was batting .130 in the World Series entering Friday. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts moved Betts down from his usual No. 2 spot in the order to the No. 3 spot in Game 5, then down from the No. 3 spot to the clean-up spot for Game 6. Roberts had been hesitant to drop his star shortstop from one of the top two spots in the lineup during the regular season, even among Betts’ lowest points in the worst offensive season of his career, but the postseason required being a little more reactionary.
‘Kiké’s instincts are so good’ 😤 Mookie Betts on Dodgers’ Game 6 World Series win over Blue Jays
Still, Roberts thought Betts’ swing looked mechanically as sound during Thursday’s workout day as it had all week. And in Game 6, Betts responded with his biggest moment of the World Series. An RBI double from Will Smith opened the scoring in the third inning, and a walk to Freddie Freeman loaded the bases for Betts, who pulled a two-run single to left field that snapped a 3-for-24 start to the World Series for Betts. They were Betts’ first RBIs of the series.
“I know that’s a big weight off his shoulders,” Roberts said on the broadcast.
2. Yamamoto, Gausman put on another pitchers’ duel
(Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The last time they faced off, Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete game, retiring the final 20 batters he faced, overshadowing a strong performance from Kevin Gausman, who at one point retired 17 straight. In Game 6, another Gausman quality start was once again outdone by more spectacular work from Yamamoto. No one had ever racked up more strikeouts through three innings of a World Series game than Gausman, who quickly fanned eight batters on Friday. In five of the six innings he pitched, he retired the Dodgers in order.
But about that other inning…. In the third, the Dodgers tagged Gausman for three runs on three hits and two walks. The scuffling Dodgers offense, which had entered the night with just four runs over its last 29 innings, scored as many runs in the inning as it had in their previous two games combined. It was the first inning in which the Dodgers scored more than two runs all series (the Blue Jays, for comparison, have done it three times). Gausman settled back in from there, getting quick outs and quick innings. But it wasn’t enough to outduel Yamamoto, who came well short of his third straight postseason complete game but surrendered just one run over six innings.
3. Roberts’ Bullpen Gamble and a Wild Wall Wedgie
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
The Blue Jays put Yamamoto in a rare two-out jam when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled for his 28th hit of the playoffs — just one behind Randy Arozarena (2020) for the all-time mark in a single postseason — and Bo Bichette earned Toronto’s first free pass of the game, putting two on in the sixth. Yamamoto got out of it, getting Daulton Varsho swinging on a splitter below the zone.
He was only at 96 pitches when Roberts made the stressful decision to turn to his bullpen.
And, boy, did it get dicey.
Justin Wrobleski allowed a double to Ernie Clement but worked around the hit for a scoreless seventh. In the eighth, in came Roki Sasaki, who was pitching for just the second time in the last two weeks. He surrendered a single to Springer and a walk to Guerrero after getting squeezed on a splitter at the bottom of the zone that would’ve been strike three. It did not come back to bite him, as a popout and a groundout got him out of trouble.
Improbable WALL WEDGIE prevents Blue Jays from tying game in 9th vs. Dodgers in Game 6
But the ninth inning got even more stressful. Sasaki hit Alejandro Kirk on an 0-2 pitch, then allowed a two-strike double to Addison Barger. It could’ve been far more costly had the ball not wedged under the wall in center.
Alertly, defensive replacement Justin Dean waved his hands in the air to signal a dead ball. Myles Straw, who pinch-ran for Kirk, surely would have scored. Instead, the runners had to return to second and third.
And in came Tyler Glasnow.
4. An Unbelievable Finish
The Blue Jays had two runners in scoring position, including the tying run at second, with nobody out.
Three pitches later, the game was over.
Roberts turned to Glasnow, one of the candidates to start Game 7, for his first relief appearance since Game 1 of the NLDS in the highest pressure moment of his career.
“This is do or die,” Roberts said on the broadcast. “You’ve got to leave it all out there and pick up the pieces.”
Kiké Hernández turns incredible double play from left field to send Dodgers to Game 7 against Blue Jays
He got a pop out on the first pitch from Clement before Andres Gimenez lined the second pitch he saw to left field.
Kiké Hernandez was perfectly positioned as he came charging on to make the catch, and in one motion fired back to second base, where Barger had darted too far off expecting the ball to drop. Miguel Rojas, covering second on the play, made a spectacular pick for a game-ending double play.
It was the third double play the Blue Jays hit into on the night, and the one that 44,710 devastated fans in attendance at Rogers Centre won’t forget.
4 ½. What’s next?
‘This is do or die’ — Dave Roberts on his decision to bring in Tyler Glasnow in the 9th inning
Will Shohei Ohtani start? Could the Dodgers turn to Glasnow after he only needed three pitches? How long might Max Scherzer go for Toronto? Expect all hands on deck.
This will be the first Game 7 since 2019, when the Nationals won the final two games on the road in Houston. The Dodgers are hoping a similar fate awaits them, while the Blue Jays attempt to win their first World Series in 32 years.
The Dodgers are the first defending champions to return to the World Series since the Phillies in 2009, and they’re attempting to be the first team to win back-to-back World Series titles in 25 years when the Yankees had three straight.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
