Game 7! Dodgers survive scare in stunning finish, force World Series to winner-take-all

TORONTO – One of the greatest postseasons by a pitcher in modern baseball history saved the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season – and gave them the opportunity to ensure Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s playoff run is only further memorialized in the game’s record books.

The Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays will play Saturday for the World Series championship in Game 7, this Fall Classic knotted at three games apiece after the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory in Game 6.

Technically, Mookie Betts provided the decisive advantage, as the slumping superstar’s two-run single to cap a three-run third inning stood up, keeping alive the Dodgers’ chance to become the first team to repeat as World Series champions since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.

Yet it took a high-wire ninth-inning act for the Dodgers to survive. Rookie closer Rōki Sasaki hit Alejandro Kirk with a pitch and promptly gave up a 105.5 mph laser to Addison Barger, a ball that pierced the wall in left center field and stuck, for a ground-rule double.

Rogers Centre roared in disbelief.

Sasaki, the kid who was sent to the minors and then re-emerged as the Dodgers’ relief solution, was removed. All hands, truly, were on deck: Tyler Glasnow, the 6-foot-8 right-hander slated to start or relieve Shohei Ohtani in Game 7, was called on to save the day.

He got Ernie Clement on a pop-up, then No. 9 hitter Andrés Giménez lined an opposite field shot to left. It finds turf? Tie game.

Instead, Kiké Hernández steamed in, caught the ball just a few inches off the turf and fired to second base – doubling Barger off second to end the game.

And for the second time in a week, Yamamoto carried the Dodgers to victory, continuing a postseason for the ages.

Coming off consecutive complete games – unheard of in this era’s postseason, and impressive enough in any – Yamamoto gave them six innings of five-hit ball, striking out six and walking one.

His totals for this World Series: two starts, two victories, two runs given up in 15 innings – a 1.20 ERA – and 14 strikeouts to just one walk.

His totals for this postseason: five starts, four victories, five earned runs given up in 352/3 innings – a 1.26 ERA – and 32 strikeouts to just five walks.

It is a definitive autumnal run, putting Yamamoto up there with the likes of Cole Hamels, Madison Bumgarner, Nathan Eovaldi and Stephen Strasburg as aces navigating the modern game’s endless rounds of playoffs – yet performing like an ace all the way through.

And now, Game 7, and another round of intrigue.

When will the Dodgers deploy the great two-way star, Shohei Ohtani, on the mound? Can Max Scherzer – who started Game 7 in the Washington Nationals’ 2019 championship, the last time baseball’s ultimate game was contested – find one more star turn in his 41-year-old bones?

Back-to-back, or the Commissioner’s Trophy, back in Toronto?

Delicious questions to ponder. And we have Yamamoto to thank for it.