This game will be remembered for a long, long time. Even longer than it took to play.
In an instant classic at the baseball mecca of Dodger Stadium that began under the California sun and seemed to end close to dawn, the Los Angeles Dodgers topped the Toronto Blue Jays with a marathon 6-5, 18-inning victory in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday.
Freddie Freeman, a dual citizen who represents Canada internationally, hit the walk-off home run to end the situation.
The Dodgers now lead the series 2-1 after a game that took six hours and 39 minutes to complete and had twists and turns at nearly every stop.
“Probably everyone watching the game around the world felt like they were on a roller coaster,” Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer said after the game. “Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy game.”
Tied for the longest innings contest in World Series history, it was the kind of game that makes you wonder how they’re going to come back and do all of this (well, maybe not all of this) again tomorrow.
It was the kind of game that exhausts you, yes, you, just sitting on your couch. We can only imagine what the players feel.
It was the kind of game you always talk about.
Especially if you’re a Dodger.
Blue Jays must move on quickly
The Blue Jays, on the other hand, will have to take this loss and move on pretty quickly. Game 4 will begin less than 18 hours after Freeman’s home run cleared the center field fence.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the game that his players were enjoying it.
“They were in the right mindset and the right headspace the whole time. It’s a shame it’s too late now, we have to come back and do it again tomorrow, but these guys will be more than ready,” Schneider said.
“The Dodgers didn’t win the World Series today. They won a game.”
By the time Freeman finished things, sending a shot to the moon through the sea layer that had previously kept other Dodgers near the park, Brendon Little was pitching for the Blue Jays.
If it had been July, that might have meant Toronto was in top form. But it’s October and Little has struggled mightily for months, culminating in a disastrous Game 5 in the American League Championship Series. He hadn’t pitched since and was the last man out of the Blue Jays bullpen that night.
The left-hander with a penchant for hitting curveballs had entered an inning earlier in the 17th, when he escaped a two-on, two-out jam.
But he failed to walk the tightrope twice and Freeman sent a mid-medium fastball to center field.
“He’s obviously a great hitter. But he’s got to make pitches,” Little said.
Ohtani steals the first half of the show
In the first half of this game (regulatory, if you will), two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani stole the show.
His first four at-bats? Double, home run, double, home run. The final shot, which tied the game in the seventh inning, was enough to convince Blue Jays manager John Schneider that Ohtani should never swing again.
His next five (yes, five) plate appearances: four intentional walks and one unintentional free pass.
“He had a great game, he’s a great player,” Schneider said. But after that home run in the seventh inning, “you just have to get the bat out of his hands.”
The Blue Jays manager said he would expect more of the same strategy in the future.
Ohtani will take the mound as the starter for Game 4, looking to put Los Angeles one win away from its second straight title.
A tough job awaits him, although in reality it awaits everyone who participated in this one-of-a-kind ball game. But that’s a story for daylight Tuesday. We have yet to unravel what happened before dawn.
And there was a lot.
Baserunning Mistakes and Legendary Pitchers
Teoscar Hernández was ejected at third base; so was Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Ohtani was caught trying to steal second place in the ninth; Davis Schneider was gunned down trying to score early in the 10th.
This game featured two legendary pitchers with six Cy Young Awards between them. ScherzerIt took 4.2 innings to start the game for the Blue Jays, allowing three runs on five hits; Clayton Kershaw got perhaps the biggest out of the game for the Dodgers in the 12th, with the bases loaded and two down.
Another Cy Young winner, Shane Bieber, was relaxing in the Blue Jays bullpen and could have entered the game if he had reached a record 19 innings. Instead, he will start as scheduled in Game 4.
And yet, despite all the big names, it was an unlikely hero who stepped forward. Reliever Will Klein, who hadn’t been on the postseason roster until this World Series, pitched four scoreless innings against the Blue Jays with no one behind him.
In the 14th, Blue Jays fans breathed two sighs of relief when Dodgers catcher Will Smith threw a ball toward the warning track and Max Muncy hit one just outside the right field foul pole.
On the 13th, after a pair of intentional walks, Freddie Freeman threw a ball to the warning track, only for the marine layer to track it down.
Toronto’s big bats, silent or absent
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays, MLB’s best offense this postseason and fourth-best in the regular season, failed to score over the final 11 innings and rarely threatened after a series of moves and an injury left the Blue Jays with a weakened lineup.
George Springer, one of baseball’s best hitters all year, left the game after an awkward swing in the seventh. Schneider called it “right-sided discomfort” and the team is awaiting the results of the MRI.
After struggling to run the bases, Bo Bichette was replaced in the seventh. Game 1 hero Addison Barger was thrown out by pinch-runner Myles Straw in the eighth.
Alejandro Kirk, who gave the Blue Jays a lead in the fourth inning with a three-run homer, was lifted in the 12th.
His replacements had great difficulty at the plate.
In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before someone won for the Dodgers, with the Blue Jays offense looking so anemic.
Then again, after 18 innings filled with everything from momentum-changing home runs to baserunning errors to plates of fruit in the dugout, who could blame them?
All in all, the third game was an instant classic. And in the end, the Dodgers walked away in ecstasy, while the Blue Jays limped away in agony.
Another game awaits.
