Thrilling World Series is capped by a Game 7 for the ages as Dodgers beat Blue Jays in extra innings

TORONTO

A World Series that stretched beyond our baseball imaginations got the wild finale it deserved with Saturday night’s Game 7 for the ages, an 11-inning tour de force between the Dodgers and Blue Jays that started with future Hall of  Famers on the mound, had both teams emptying their rotations and  ultimately was decided by a pair of home runs that will go down as two of the most dramatic in the history of the sport.

So let’s begin near the end — at least the part in which the Dodgers finally tied it and pulled ahead for the first time  and put the finishing touches on the 5-4 victory that officially stamped them as baseball’s first repeat champions of the past quarter-century, dating  to the 1998-2000 Yankees.

The Blue Jays were a mere two outs away from hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy  when closer Jeff Hoffman threw a 3-and-2 slider to Miguel Rojas, a 36-year-old reserve infielder who didn’t get a start in this World Series until the manager shuffled his struggling lineup for Game 6.

Rojas hadn't hit a home run since Sept. 19. Before that, he hadn't hit one since July 19. Entering his ninth-inning at-bat, he had hit one in his last 172 at-bats, postseason included. But he pulled Hoffman's ill-fated pitch over the leftfield wall as the crowd of 44,713 uttered a collective gasp and the Dodgers went into a frenzy. It was an incredible moment right on brand for this World Series, now one of the craziest in recent memory.

“It couldn’t have been a better guy,” said Max Muncy, who homered off rookie sensation Trey Yesavage with one out in the eighth inning  to trim the Dodgers' deficit to 4-3. “He’s the ultimate team guy, and so for him to get the home run to tie it up, it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.”

Said Freddie Freeman: “When you play the game right, treat people right, you’re a teammate like Miguel is, the game honors you. To have that moment when you’re 36 years old, says he’s going to retire after next season, in a Game 7, just absolutely incredible.”

But there was so much more.

Catcher Will Smith, playing through a broken hand suffered in early September, stepped up with two outs in the 11th inning against Shane Bieber — one of three starters the Jays used, after Max Scherzer and  Yesavage — and clobbered a 2-and-0  slider, hitting a high-arcing blast that seemingly hung in the air forever before dropping into Toronto’s bullpen.

“I hope people realize that’s not easy to do,” Freeman said. “A lot of us are taking off-speed in that situation. He was on it and hit it out. He’s the silent assassin.”

Definitely true, in the sense that we couldn’t find him amid the postgame celebration to discuss his dynasty-saving homer. Fortunately, others could, the teammates who were holding their breath — for a second time — as they watched a home run quiet the previously screaming  fans.

“The loudest place I think I’ve ever been,” Muncy said, referring to the roar after Bo Bichette’s three-run homer knocked out Shohei Ohtani in the third inning and gave the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead. “The roof just exploded off this place. But we’ve talked about it since Philly, where hey, there’s going to be a moment where something happens and it’s gonna get extremely loud — but it’s going to be extremely silent when we’re on top at the end.”

Cue World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto.  Nobody earned that trophy more than the Dodgers’ $325 million ace, who again proved himself worth every penny.

The Dodgers used their entire playoff rotation in Game 7, and Yamamoto went longer than anyone else, getting the final eight outs  after pitching six innings the previous night in Game 6.

That’s right. Yamamoto was going on zero days’ rest and still threw  34 pitches, the final one with runners on first and third and one out in the 11th as Alejandro Kirk hit into a 6-6-3 double play deftly started by Mookie Betts. That ended Game 7 after four hours and seven minutes.

Yamamoto  finished 3-0 with a 1.02 ERA in the World Series, including a complete-game win in Game 2, but nothing impressed his teammates more than the Game 7 finisher.

“It was a chess match back and forth,”  pitching coach Mark Prior said, “and fortunately we had the right pitcher to be able to execute at a high level.”

The Dodgers clearly planned to ride it out with their best. In the 11th, with Clayton Kershaw and Roki Sasaki warming in the bullpen, Yamamoto — whose velocity had dipped into the 92-mph range — gave up a leadoff double by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was sacrificed to third by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Yamamoto then walked Addison Barger. Hanging by a thread, he somehow got Kirk to hit a shattered-bat bouncer to Betts.

“It's unheard of,” manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto’s effort. “And I think that there's a mind component, there's a flawless delivery, and there's just an unwavering will. And there's certain players that want moments and there's certain players that want it for the right reasons. But Yoshi is a guy that I just completely implicitly trust and he's made me a pretty dang good manager.”

Even before that, Yamamoto relieved Blake Snell with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth and the Blue Jays on the verge of putting Rojas' homer in the rearview mirror. He got Daulton Varsho to ground into a forceout at the plate, with Smith stretching like a first baseman to grab second baseman Rojas' throw. Then centerfielder Andy Pages made an incredible running catch at the warning track, knocking over leftfielder Enrique Hernandez in the process, to rob Ernie Clement of a World Series-winning hit. (Clement still set an MLB record with 30 hits in a postseason, breaking Randy Arozarena's mark of 29 set in 2020.)

"I've been crying for like probably for an hour,” Clement said long after the final out. “I thought I was done with the tears.”

With the bases loaded, one out and Seranthony Dominguez on the mound in the top of the 10th, Pages grounded into a forceout at the plate and Hernandez grounded out to end the inning.

Freeman noted that there was no way Yamamoto  was able to lift that MVP trophy afterward. He’s never seen anything like that performance.

“When he was jogging in, I looked at [Roberts] and said, 'Yeah, he is a dawg,' ” Freeman said. “Absolutely incredible. There’s no words.”

There’s one word that fits the Dodgers now as a result of this epic World Series, and that’s dynasty. It can’t be denied now. The team that was accused of ruining baseball combined with the Blue Jays to play an astonishing Fall Classic . . .  and didn’t even lead Game 7 until the 11th inning.

“We were going to play 27 outs,” Roberts said, even if they actually needed 33 to finish the job.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

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.