TORONTO — In a World Series for the ages that went back and forth again and again, Will Smith delivered the biggest swing of all for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Smith connected in the 11th for the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all title game in Major League Baseball history, and Miguel Rojas became the first player to hit a tying home run in the ninth inning of a Game 7. On a roller-coaster Saturday night of see-sawing emotions, the Dodgers outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4, to become the first repeat champion in a quarter-century.
“You dream of those moments,” Smith said after the 4-hour, 7-minute thriller that finished after midnight. “I’ll remember that for forever.”
In the type of dramatic Game 7 that kids conjure in backyards, the Blue Jays led 3-0 on Bo Bichette’s third-inning homer off Shohei Ohtani and 4-2 before Max Muncy’s eighth-inning solo homer off star rookie Trey Yesavage.
American League champion Toronto was two outs from its first championship since repeating in 1993 when Rojas, inserted into the slumping Los Angeles lineup in Game 6 to provide some energy, homered on a full-count slider from Jeff Hoffman and stunned the Rogers Centre crowd of 44,713.