Even baseball fans who were around in 1992 and 1993 have never seen this: The Toronto Blue Jays will be playing in a winner-take-all Game 7 of the World Series for the first time, and while hope remains high, you can feel the city’s blood pressure rising.
Despite a solid start from Kevin Gausman and a promising late-game comeback, the Blue Jays missed their first chance to clinch the series in Game 6 on Friday, losing 3-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It’s been an exciting October, but the dramatic wins and losses, high nerves and late games are taking their toll on some Blue Jays fans, like Maria Havelka, who was at the downtown viewing party at Nathan Phillips Square for Game 6.
“It was very disappointing. I was here six hours in the cold. We were hoping to at least tie the game,” he said, lamenting the Blue Jays’ inability to get the tying run from second base with no out in the final inning.
The World Series heads into a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday after the Toronto Blue Jays lost Game 6 to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1. The Blue Jays are seeking their first championship since 1993.
But Havelka, like several other fans CBC Toronto spoke to at Friday’s watch party, said he’s keeping the faith.
“We are going to fight back. We always have. We are going to win,” he said. “I believe with all my heart that we are going to win tomorrow and we are going to knock the Dodgers out of the stadium.”
Game 6 was another exciting matchup in what will likely be remembered as one of the best World Series of the last decade, if not this century.
About that ninth inning…
All of the game’s runs were scored in the third inning. The Dodgers scored three times on hits by catcher Will Smith and shortstop Mookie Betts, while the Blue Jays’ only run was driven in on a single by George Springer, who returned to the lineup for the first time since what some thought was a season-ending injury in Game 3.
was the only one A problem for starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto of Los Angeles and Kevin Gausman of Toronto, although the Blue Jays would have multiple scoring opportunities as the game progressed, including right at the end.
In the ninth inning, it seemed for a moment that the “power of friendship” (the Blue Jays’ secret weapon, according to infielder Ernie Clement) was destined to prevail.
The Blue Jays opened the final inning with Alejandro Kirk reaching base after getting hit on the hand. Then, Addison Barger hit a rare double on a ball that lodged between the outfield wall and the grass. That put the tying run at second and the winning run at the plate, with no outs.
But batter Ernie Clement got out on the first pitch he saw. Barger was then caught with a bases malfunction, and was hit with a double at second after Andrés Giménez lined into shallow left field.
And that was it for Game 6.
Jays fan Mackenzie Barwell summed it up simply: “Just disappointing.”
“It ended very abruptly. We thought something else might come of it,” he said. “However, this is not over.”
Barger’s strange double caused some controversy on the field.
When Barger’s ball lodged in the left-center field fence, the outfield umpire immediately signaled a ground-rule double with two fingers. That hit put runners on second and third base, but the Blue Jays were unable to score in the ninth inning. Still, the Blue Jays have an excellent chance to exit this World Series in Game 7 on Saturday.
The Blue Jays left-handed hitter hit a long liner that perfectly sandwiched the ball between the field and the fence in left center. The Los Angeles outfielders raised their hands for timeout, refusing to play the ball as Barger and Myles Straw rounded the bases for an apparent game-tying inside-the-park home run. But the umpires ruled the ball dead, and a sold-out Rogers Center crowd booed fruitlessly as the runners were placed back on second and third.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Blue Jays fan Mark Chinchilla said as Nathan Phillips Square quietly emptied. “It’s really unfortunate. But I still believe. We’ve done very well and I’m hopeful for game seven.”
Possible HOF matchup for Game 7
The last time the World Series went seven games, the starting pitcher for the 2019 champion Washington Nationals was none other than Max Scherzer, who happens to be the Blue Jays’ starter on Saturday.
LA has not confirmed wHo will take the mound to start Game 7, but it seems likely to be a battle between two future Hall of Famers: veteran Scherzer and the do-it-all baseball machine in his prime, Shohei Ohtani.
For baseball fans it would be a dream duel, although each pitcher has points for and against.
While Ohtani is widely accepted as the best player in baseball, he allowed four runs in his Game 4 loss and would be pitching on short rest Saturday.
Scherzer is one of the best pitchers of his generation and has played in three previous World Series, winning two. A third ring would be the appropriate culmination of a tremendous career. But he’s now 41 years old, and while he’s shown flashes of his former brilliance this year, including in the postseason, he’s had his ups and downs and battled injuries since joining the Blue Jays.
With no tomorrow to worry about, virtually every pitcher on both teams will be available to pitch on Saturday, so expect both managers to empty their bullpens if the going gets tough.
Whoever pitches, Saturday should be one for the ages, if the rest of the series so far is any indication.
And while some Jays fans are stressed about what’s to come or are still cooking aAs for what could have been Friday, others, like Jamal Teymurlu, say these two teams were destined to go the distance.
“It was written in the stars,” he said after the game. “Honestly, I called him [would go to] Game 7 at the beginning of the series. But I’m pretty confident we’re going to get Game 7.”
Check out the parties happening in Toronto
First pitch is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET at the Rogers Center on Saturday. The winner will be crowned baseball champion.
Watch parties will be held throughout Toronto, including at Scotiabank Arena, Nathan Phillips Square and the University of Toronto’s downtown campus.
The City of Toronto says it is working closely with the Rogers Centre, Toronto Police, transit agencies and others to prepare for “all possible scenarios.”
Viewing parties are also planned across the province, including at Celebration Square in Mississauga, Garden Square in Brampton, Springer Market Square in Kingston and Sault Ste. Marie. The square in the center of Marie.
