Usually, Sport 3 is a fairly essential one within the World Collection. One group will both go up 2-1 or 3-0. The three-game lead is almost insurmountable. A 2-1 deficit isn’t not possible to beat, however it’s a lot worse than being up in that scenario. Naturally, each the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays know this, in order that they handled Sport 3 like an absolute must-win contest. And after a historic period of time, one group walked away with a vital collection lead.
Printed: October 29, 2025
Dodgers win a traditionally lengthy World Collection contest
A standard baseball recreation is 9 innings. Final night time, for round six hours, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays performed 18 innings earlier than LA walked it off. That’s two full video games of baseball. Solely as soon as has a World Collection recreation ever gone that lengthy earlier than, and it’s weirdly related to this recreation.
It occurred in Los Angeles in 2018, and it was additionally Sport 3. The Dodgers confronted the Boston Crimson Sox and walked off on a Max Muncy house run. Muncy remains to be on the group and performed each inning final night time. That recreation ended 3-2, and this one was 6-5, though each little bit of scoring, save for the ultimate run, occurred within the first seven innings.
Shohei Ohtani cranked a game-tying house run, his second of the sport, to knot it at 5 runs within the seventh. From then on, the offenses went silent. This was partly attributable to Ohtani by no means even getting an opportunity to hit. The Blue Jays deliberately walked him in all however one at-bat within the the rest of the sport. The one time they didn’t deliberately stroll him was a four-pitch stroll that by no means got here near registering strikes. It was an unintentional intentional stroll, so to talk.
Blue Jays helped Ohtani
In doing so, the Blue Jays helped Ohtani to a historic stat line. He does that every now and then, however there have simply been so few video games just like the one Ohtani had final night time. Ohtani is simply the second participant to document 4 extra-base hits in a World Collection recreation. He’s the fourth to achieve base 9 occasions in a recreation. Few gamers even get 9 at-bats in any recreation, not to mention making it each single time.
Per MLB, Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts stated, “He’s the most effective participant on the planet, and he was on the heels of an enormous offensive night time. And [Blue Jays manager John Schneider] smelled that and wasn’t going to let Shohei beat him in any respect.” Fittingly, or maybe sadly for the Blue Jays, Ohtani goes to comply with that up by beginning on the mound at this time. He’ll attempt to have an awesome recreation from the opposite aspect and provides the Dodgers a 3-1 collection lead.
Freeman the Hero
However the hero of the night time was Freddie Freeman, who made it two consecutive World Collection with a walkoff house run. He walked off Sport 1 final yr in opposition to the New York Yankees in extras with a grand slam. Freeman is the one participant to have two walkoff house runs in World Collection historical past.
The groups had 19 mixed pitchers, which was probably the most in a recreation in postseason historical past. There have been 609 pitches thrown, virtually 50 greater than in another playoff recreation for the reason that flip of the century. A kind of pitchers was Clayton Kershaw, who may’ve pitched for the ultimate time. He’s retiring on the finish of this collection, and he got here in within the twelfth with the bases loaded and two outs.
After a full depend and a few foul balls, Kershaw induced a weak floor ball from Nathan Lukes, and Tommy Edman’s glove flip recorded the out and saved the sport tied so the Dodgers may ultimately win it within the 18th.
