TORONTO — A two-run lead was starting to slip away from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the ninth inning Friday night, along with a chance for the reigning champions to force the World Series to Game 7.
And then outfielder Kiké Hernández turned what might have been a tying two-run single by Andrés Giménez into the first game-ending, left field-to-second base double play in MLB postseason history.
“The crazy thing is I had no idea where the ball was because it was in the lights the whole time,” Hernández said after clinching a 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6 at Rogers Centre.
Instead of getting a World Series-winning, three-run homer like the one Joe Carter hit off Philadelphia Phillies closer Mitch Williams to capture the title in Game 6 in 1993, the Blue Jays were pushed to Game 7 and the Dodgers kept alive their chance to become the first repeat champion since the New York Yankees won three consecutive titles from 1998 to 2000.
Toronto plans to start right-hander Max Scherzer in Game 7, while the choice for Los Angeles when it comes to the first man on the mound Saturday night is still to be determined — perhaps two-way star Shohei Ohtani, perhaps Tyler Glasnow.
The Dodgers survived elimination on Halloween, and now the Fall Classic will end in November for the 10th time.
“It’s the two best words in sports: Game 7,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.
Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto beat Toronto for the second time in a week by allowing one run in six innings, and slumping Mookie Betts hit a two-run single in a three-run third against Toronto starter Kevin Gausman that included Will Smith’s go-ahead double.
George Springer, back in the lineup for the Blue Jays after missing two games with a sore right side, hit an RBI single in the bottom half, and the Dodgers held that 3-1 lead going to the ninth.
Roki Sasaki hit Alejandro Kirk on the left wrist with an 0-2 splitter leading off, and Addison Barger followed with a drive that landed at the base of the left-center wall. In a seldom-seen rarity, the ball lodged there instead of caroming back into play.
Both runners crossed the plate as many in the Rogers Centre crowd initially thought Toronto had tied the game, but the rulebook is clear that a ball lodged in a fence is a ground-rule double. The runners were placed at second and third, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought in Glasnow, who was lined up to start Game 7 on normal rest.
“I just felt that Roki wasn’t as sharp, and I just felt we needed some swing-and-miss (pitches), and Glasnow was the guy. So I had him loose, kind of looming,” Roberts said.
Glasnow escaped with just three pitches, earning the first save of this year’s World Series.
Ernie Clement popped up his initial offering to first base. Giménez took a ball, then hit the next pitch 247 feet to the opposite field in short left.
Hernández said he decided to play more shallow than the Dodgers’ scouting card called for. He ran 52 feet and while on the run made a tough catch, then made a one-hop throw to second baseman Miguel Rojas that doubled up Barger.
“For a split-second as Glasnow threw the ball, the crowd got quiet and I was able to hear that the bat broke,” Hernández said. “So I just got a really good jump on the ball, and I came in, and halfway there, the ball got in the lights. And I was just like, not the right time to stop to see where the ball is, just keep going.”
Hernandez said he remembered thinking: “It’s going to hit me in the face — but I’m not stopping. I’m not pulling up. And at the very end, the ball came out of the lights and went into my glove.”
Barger had gotten about halfway to third base before scrambling back, and he reached second too late with his headfirst slide.
“I was being too aggressive, trying to score, try to tie that game if that ball drops,” Barger said.
Even after the umpire signaled out, players had to wait 60 seconds for the call to be upheld by the video replay review room in New York.
Rojas had been inserted into the lineup for his first start since Oct. 6 in an effort by Roberts to provide a spark at the plate for Los Angeles, which is batting .191 in the series after winning Friday’s with just four hits.
“Pretty epic ending there,” Rojas said.
Yamamoto was not quite as sharp as in his Game 2 four-hitter, the first World Series complete game in a decade. Rookie reliever Justin Wrobleski struck out Giménez to strand a runner at second in the seventh, and Sasaki got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth when Bo Bichette fouled out and Daulton Varsho grounded out.
Then came the first game-ending double play in World Series history in which an outfielder had a putout or assist, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“Man, we live for Game 7, so here we go,” Roberts said.
Yamamoto, the winner of three MVP awards in Japan, improved to 4-1 with a 1.56 ERA in five postseason starts and has a 1.20 ERA in his two World Series outings.
Tommy Edman doubled with one out in the third for the Dodgers’ first hit. Ohtani was intentionally walked for the fifth time in the series and Smith hit an RBI double off the left-field wall on a high splitter. Freddie Freeman walked, bringing up Betts.
With Los Angeles seeking its third title in six seasons, Roberts dropped the slumping Betts from second to third in the batting order in Game 5 and then to fourth in Game 6 — the lowest Betts had hit since 2017.
Betts fell behind 1-2 in the count, fouled off two pitches and laced Gausman’s third straight fastball between shortstop and third for a 3-0 lead. That ended an 0-for-13 stretch with the bases loaded for the Dodgers that dated to their National League Division Series sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.
“He could hit me seventh, I don’t care. I just want to win,” said Betts, already a three-time champion. “Whatever we do, however we get there, I’ll jump on whoever’s back to go. We all get a ring, that’s all I care about.”
Scherzer and Glasnow started Game 3, which the host Dodgers won 6-5 in 18 innings.
A 41-year-old right-hander, Scherzer will become the fourth pitcher to start multiple World Series winner-take-all Game 7s after Bob Gibson (1964, ’67, ’68), Lew Burdette and Don Larsen (both 1957-58). Scherzer allowed two runs over five innings for Washington against Houston Astros in 2019, and the Nationals rallied for a 6-2 win that provided the franchise formerly known as the Montreal Expos its lone MLB title.
The best-of-seven series returned to Toronto — where the Blue Jays won 11-4 in the opener on Oct. 24 and the Dodgers won 5-1 last Saturday before heading to California — after the Monday night marathon that put Los Angeles halfway to repeating and then a show of dominant resilience by the Blue Jays over the next two days as they won 6-1 and 3-1 to regain control.
There was a travel day before what turned out to be another intriguing ending to a game Friday, but there will be no such rest with nowhere to go except back to the same field Saturday night for a winner-take-all showdown.
Toronto will be playing a World Series Game 7 for the first time; the Blue Jays won their only championships in six games in both 1992 and ’93.
Since moving to Los Angeles ahead of the 1958 season, the Dodgers got their only win in a World Series Game 7 in 1965, when Sandy Koufax pitched a three-hit shutout on two days’ rest against the host Minnesota Twins after his four-hit shutout won Game 5. In 2017, they lost Game 7 at home to the Houston Astros.
Going back, the Brooklyn Dodgers lost Game 7 to the Yankees in 1947, ’52 and ’56, but they beat the Yankees in Game 7 in 1955.
Roberts wasn’t ready to announce a starting pitcher, though he acknowledged Glasnow and Ohtani as candidates, but with so much on the line, it’s reasonable to expect a short leash for anyone on the mound — and a willingness by both managers to get creative with their pitching from start to finish.
“This is Game 7,” Roberts said, “so there’s a lot of things that people haven’t done.”