Miguel Rojas, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Will Smith Help The Dodgers Escape The Jaws Of Defeat As They Flip The Script And Snatch Away The World Series Title From The Blue Jays To Cap Off An All-Time Series
Patrick Smith. Getty Images.I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment, but that might have been the greatest World Series Game 7 of our generation. What more can you want? I didn't have a dog in the fight and I was freaking out nervous the whole game. The execution, the swings, the play-making, the drama. It was all there.
The chaos really started when Miguel Rojas blasted the game-tying homer in the 9th inning. Two outs away from the game being over and the Dodgers 9 hitter finds the barrel to level the score.
Blake Snell had the 9th and let two guys reach with just one out. That set the stage for Yoshinobu Yamamoto to enter the game with the World Series hanging in the balance. 24 hours prior he threw 90+ pitches and got 18 outs. Well, after hitting Alejandro Kirk on the arm to load the bases, he got Varsho to ground out to who, but Rojas at 2nd playing in. A double clutch and Will Smith's foot coming off and then back on home plate had everyone thinking this was it.
There are a bunch of still images from this game that will never escape a Blue Jays fan for as long as they love. IKF's lack of a lead on this play will be one of them. Good god dude, what are you doing?
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As if it couldn't get worse, everyone at the Oilers game, including the broadcast booth, thought Toronto had won on that play at the plate.
That was just two outs though. The red hot Ernie Clement, who had just set the single postseason record for hits in baseball history, proceeded to drive this ball to the wall. Couldn't believe the carry this sucker got off that bat. After contact I thought it was a routine fly out, but when the camera turned you saw every OF playing so far in and sprinting back to the wall. Andy Pages had to essentially Moss Kiké to save the game. Pages, by the way, came into the game two batters prior. It actually felt like we were watching a movie at this point. Like come the fuck on…
Wanna talk about an image that will live in Jays' fans heads for eternity?
Yamamoto continued to toss up zeroes which allowed the Dodgers a chance to strike. After two quick outs for Bieber to start the 11th, Will Smith drove this one over the left field wall for the go ahead homer.
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And that was all Yamamoto would need. Even with Vladdy leading off the bottom of the inning with a double and IKF successfully bunting him over, Yamamoto wouldn't blink. Kirk grounds one up the middle for the double play and just like that the Dodgers steal the World Series. For the first time in a quarter century a team has repeat as champs in baseball.
It's not only one of the best Game 7s you'll ever see, but it's one of the best World Series you'll witness. Back and forth they went the whole way. It was only fitting it ended in extras the way it did.
A couple quick thoughts to close us out:
1) Nobody is happier than Clayton Kershaw with the way the outcome unfolded. Dude was warming up to come into this game. Last game of his career and he almost had a chance to lose the World Series with the final pitch of his career. After all he's had to deal with when it comes to October, that would have been especially cruel. Bystander was the name of the game for him tonight and he couldn't be happier.
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2) Yamamoto is a fucking legend. To throw 6 innings in Game 6 and come back the next night to get 8 outs is unheard of. Not just 8 regular ol' outs, but the most pressure packed 8 outs you can imagine. The most outs ever recorded in a postseason game for someone who the previous game threw 6 innings. Guy came over from Japan without throwing a single pitch in the US and was handed the richest contract in pitching history. He's been worth every penny and more. The rightful World Series MVP.
3) I'd rather lose like the Yankees did in 2024 than what Toronto just suffered. I'd never be able to recover losing the World Series like that. Nope. In 2001 I was only 8 years old so I can't say it crushed me how it should have. Even for adults at the time, the Yankees had just ripped off four titles in five years and three in a row. Toronto was chasing their first in over three decades. To go back home up 3-2, in Game 6 you have the tying runs on base with nobody out. Three pitches later you lose. Then the 9th inning lead, two outs away. Then the bases juiced in the bottom of the 9th with 1 out. No one deserves that kind of loss. I'd never recover.
4) Max Scherzer’s effort will get lost here but a 41 year old Mad Max getting 13 outs just giving up the one run in a Game 7 here is HOF stuff. Sucks for him it’s all for nothing but he did all he could.
5) Thank god the World Series didn’t end on a replay review of Will Smith’s spikes barely missing home plate on the throw home from Rojas. He touched so it was all good but an overturn there would have been a lame way to end it.
Congrats to the Dodgers. If you're a fan of this juggernaut go fuck yourself and buy some merch.