World Series: Stunning ending leaves Blue Jays and their fans shaking their heads
The Los Angeles Dodgers' Mookie Betts leaps into the arms of Kiké Hernández after the Toronto Blue Jays' Addison Barger, right, was forced out to end Game 6 of the World Series on Friday in Toronto. Credit: AP/Ashley Landis
TORONTO
As if a $395 million payroll, an MVP-loaded lineup and a billion-dollar rotation weren’t enough for the Dodgers, now we can call the defending champs lucky, too.
Good fortune transcends salary and skill on certain special occasions, and the ninth inning of Friday night’s Game 6 of the World Series was one of those moments. It helped the Dodgers escape with a 3-1 victory over the Blue Jays before a stunned crowd of 44,710 at a silenced Rogers Centre.
It’s not that the Dodgers didn’t put themselves in position to win. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, coming off consecutive complete-game victories, powered through what had to be an exhausting 95-pitch effort to get through Toronto’s tenacious hitters for six innings. The struggling Mookie Betts, who’s been ping-ponging around L.A.’s misfiring lineup, batted fourth for the first time since the 2017 postseason with the Red Sox and delivered a two-run single on a 1-and-2 pitch after Will Smith’s two-out RBI double in the third inning.
Those were the central figures as the Dodgers forced Saturday night’s Game 7, the first since the 2019 World Series, won by the Nationals over the Astros. But everyone walked away from Friday’s nail-biter with their heads still spinning from the bizarro ninth, when the Blue Jays appeared to tie the score on a freakish ball wedged underneath the outfield wall’s padding, and after it was sorted out, ultimately lose on a line-drive double play.
“Pretty epic ending there,” said second baseman Miguel Rojas, who somehow held on to the ball (and the base) as he tumbled to the ground for that final out. “I think this is another proof of a team that’s never going to quit in any situation or any particular case.”
We’ll get to Rojas’ role in a minute. But first, here’s the scene in the ninth:
Roki Sasaki was fading in his second inning of work and Tyler Glasnow — who started Game 3 and presumably was scheduled for Game 7 — entered as really sort of a Hail Mary closer.
Sasaki, perhaps the only trusted reliever left in the Dodgers’ bullpen, stranded the tying runs in the eighth inning but immediately put them on again in the ninth, first drilling Alejandro Kirk and then giving up a 105.5-mph bullet by Addison Barger. That’s when all heck broke loose.
The ball rocketed into the left-centerfield gap, but as Justin Dean waited for the carom, it never came. Instead, the baseball got wedged beneath the padding and warning track. Dean at first looked unsure of what to do, then threw up his arms as pinch runner Myles Straw and Barger circled the bases and scored.
The ruckus at the Rogers Centre was deafening; the crowd thought the Blue Jays had tied it. But after the umpires huddled and Toronto asked for a review, it was correctly ruled that the runners had to return to second and third on what became a ground-rule double for Barger.
“Been here a long time — I haven’t seen a ball get lodged ever,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Just caught a tough break there. Just kind of didn’t bounce our way.”
He hadn’t ever seen it. And yet it happened for the Dodgers, who were on the verge, at the very least, of having their lead trimmed to 3-2 with the tying run on second base.
Not that L.A. still wasn’t in serious trouble with none out, and that’s when Dave Roberts signaled for Glasnow.
It was harder to imagine a tougher jam, given the stakes, with the season hanging in the balance, but it was practically over in a blink.
Glasnow got Ernie Clements — perhaps the best contact bat in the Jays’ lineup — to pop up his first pitch to Freddie Freeman. Two pitches later, Glasnow threw a 96-mph sinker to Andres Gimenez, who punched a cracked-bat liner to leftfield.
Enrique Hernandez sprinted in to not only make the catch but spot Barger a bit too far off second base. He fired a throw that Rojas snagged in acrobatic fashion, doubling off Barger.
“[Hernandez] with an amazing read, identifying that it was a broken bat and closing really good on it,” Rojas said. “After that, when he threw the ball to second, I said no way is this ball getting past me.”
Said Smith: “He was playing a little shallower just because of the situation. Barger probably got a little giddy and wanted to score the tying run. But yeah, Miggy made one heck of a pick. That was awesome.”
The extreme rarity of a wedged baseball, followed by the costliest of Blue Jays brain cramps. It was an ending impossible to script for a Dodgers team that was facing steep odds heading into that Game 6.
At stake was the opportunity to become baseball’s first repeat champions since the Yankees won three straight from 1998 through 2000. History wasn’t on the Dodgers’ side, either. Under the current 2-3-2 playoff series format, teams that take a 3-2 lead by winning Game 5 on the road, as the Blue Jays did, have gone on to win the series 74.1% of the time (20 out of 27).
It still could happen. Toronto isn’t dead yet, just deflated, much like after the Jays lost Monday’s 18-inning Game 5 in Los Angeles. They proceeded to win the next two at Dodger Stadium, and even though they never led in Saturday’s Game 6, the Jays were starting to feel inevitable again during that ninth inning.
Instead, the Dodgers somehow kept their dynasty dream alive, with an assist from the baseball gods and the Blue Jays. It’s almost unfair. But now there’s one night left to crown a champion, and L.A. has to hope it still has some luck left.
“It’s Game 7 of the World Series at your home stadium,” Schneider said. “I mean, what the hell else do you want?”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
