TORONTO (AP) — In a World Series for the ages that went back and forth over and over again, Will Smith delivered the biggest swing ever for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Smith connected in the 11th for the first extra-inning homer in the winner-take-all title game, and Miguel Rojas became the first player to hit a tying home run in the ninth inning of Game 7. On a night of rollercoaster emotions, the Dodgers edged the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 on Saturday to become the first repeat champions in a quarter-century.
“You dream about those moments,” Smith said after the 4-hour, 7-minute film. “I’ll remember that forever.”
In the kind of dramatic Game 7 that kids in backyards conjure up, the Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead on Bo Bichette’s third-inning homer off Shohei Ohtani and 4-2 before Max Muncy’s eighth-inning solo homer off rising star Trey Yesavage.
Toronto was two home runs away from its first championship since 1993 when Rojas was inserted into the Dodgers’ running back lineup in Game 6 to provide some energy, homering on a full-out slider from Jeff Hoffman and stunning the Rogers Center crowd of 44,713.
“It cost everyone here a World Series ring,” Hoffman said.
Rojas has not returned home since September 19.
“I had a conversation with my wife,” he added. “She told me there was something big waiting for me.”
World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half, and Toronto reliever Ceranthony Dominguez stranded three Dodgers runners in the 10th.
Smith, who hit a go-ahead homer in Game 2, sent a 2-0 pitch from Shane Bieber into Toronto’s bullpen in left field, where it ricocheted into the seats and gave the Dodgers their first lead of the night. Smith ran between first and second, raising his arms in triumph.
“He got stuck sliding,” Smith said. “I banged that up.”
Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner, was making his first appearance since 2019.
He added: “He was looking for it and I did not implement it.”
Of course, there was bound to be more drama in just the sixth game of the winner-take-all series to get extra innings. It matched the Marlins’ 3-2 win over Cleveland in 1997 as the second-longest Game 7, behind the Washington Senators’ 4-3, 12-inning win over the New York Giants in 1924.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled his lead off the bottom of the 11th and was sacrificed to third. Addison Barger walked and Alejandro Kirk hit a breaking grounder to relieve Mookie Betts, who started the title-winning double play 6-6-3. It was only the second double play to end a Series, after the Yankees turned one in 1947 against the Dodgers.
“I thought we had chances to sweep them,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Going back to the beginning of the series when people were calling it David vs. Goliath, it’s not even close.”
Smith set a Series record by picking up 73 runs. Betts captured his fourth title at the conclusion of the 150th season of Major League Baseball, the first season that began and ended outside the United States.
In the Dodgers’ final game of his decorated 18-year career, Clayton Kershaw lost track.
“When he hit the double, I thought the round had scored and the score was tied,” he said. “I thought I got the next batter.”
Los Angeles and its $500 million roster overcame a 3-2 series deficit on the road. The Dodgers became the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees won three in a row, and the first from the National League since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds.
With their ninth championship and third in six years, the Dodgers made a case for their teams of the 2020s to be considered a dynasty. Dave Roberts, their manager since 2016, has boosted his likelihood of earning an induction into the Hall of Fame.
“To do what we did in this amount of time is pretty remarkable,” Roberts said. “I think let the critics and all the fans talk about whether it’s a dynasty or not.”
After throwing 96 pitches in the Game 6 win on Friday, Yamamoto threw 43 more pitches over 2 2/3 innings to pick up his third win of the series. He finished the postseason 5-1 with a 1.45 ERA.
“Before I went in, to be honest, I wasn’t really sure if I could give my best,” Yamamoto said through a translator. He added: “But when I started to warm up… I started to make some adjustments, and then I started to think that I could do my job.”
The series produced the first grand slam, its first complete game in a decade, an 18-inning Game 3 that included Shohei Ohtani reaching base nine times, six outs on the bases, Freddie Freeman becoming the first to hit two homers, the first back-to-back homers to open a game, Yesavage hitting a rookie-record 12 hits just six weeks after his debut, and the first game-ending double play in which an outfielder had a putout or assist.
“That game had everything you could possibly have,” Freeman said. “It’s just an absolutely amazing game, an amazing series.”
Los Angeles used all four starting pitchers for the postseason, with Yamamoto joining Ohtani, Glasnow (two-and-a-half innings each) and Blake Snell (one-and-a-half innings).
Bichette, eyes bulging, put Toronto ahead in the third with a 442-foot drive off Ohtani, the two-way star who took three days off after suffering a loss in Game 4.
Los Angeles closed 3-2 on a sacrifice fly from Teoscar Hernandez in the fourth off 41-year-old Max Scherzer, only the fourth pitcher to start multiple winner-take-all games, and Tommy Edman in the sixth off Chris Bassett.
Andrés Giménez restored Toronto’s two-run lead with an RBI double in the sixth inning off Glasnow, who was relieved after getting the final three outs on three pitches to save Game 6 on Friday.
There was so much more to come.
In a series filled with key defensive plays, Rojas faltered in the ninth inning while fielding Dolton Varsho’s bases-loaded single off Yamamoto. Rojas was able to throw the ball home for the force as Smith kept his foot on the board to beat Isiah Keener-Faleeva, who had an unusual 7.8-foot lead off third.
Ernie Clement then moved on to midfielder Andy Buggs, who had just come off the bench to defend. Pages sprinted 121 feet and made a jumper and caught a backhander on the left-center warning track when he collided with left fielder Kiki Hernandez.
Then with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th, Pages grounded out to shortstop, where Jimenez threw home for a force out. Guerrero sent a jab to the right side and threw it to Domínguez covering first, just beating Hernández on a call that was upheld upon video review.
Visiting teams have won five straight World Series games after home teams won nine straight from 1982 to 2011.
While the Dodgers were sprinkled with silver confetti and celebrated, the Blue Jays reflected on how close they had come to failure. Eyes were red and voices cracked between sobs.
“I was crying for probably an hour,” Clement said long after the final. “I thought I was done with tears.”
In the midst of celebrating, Freeman was already looking forward to the big, bad Dodgers team taking over the rest of baseball again in 2026.
“The Yankees are three in a row, so we have to use the same combo next year,” he said.
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