Wild double play saves Dodgers’ season as they drive Game 7 in Toronto

This World Series had one sport that lasted two. It had a nine-run inning in its first sport, and a nine-inning full sport in its second. It had a residing legend attain base 9 instances one night time, and a rookie with fewer than 9 huge league begins strike out 12 one other.

And now it’s going to have a Game 7.

A collection stuffed with stress and launch reached an apex within the ninth inning of Game 6 when the Toronto Blue Jays threatened to win the entire thing on a walk-off, solely to have the Los Angeles Dodgers pull off a game-ending double play to flee with a 3-1 victory that compelled a winner-take-all matchup on Saturday night time.

It will all come down to at least one sport, however first, this sport got here down to at least one play.

Down by 2 within the backside of the ninth, Blue Jays put the tying run into scoring place with no outs when Alejandro Kirk was hit by a pitch and Addison Barger hit a ground-rule double that wedged beneath the padding on the middle discipline wall. Dodgers’ supervisor Dave Roberts introduced in Tyler Glasnow, a candidate to start out Game 7, who induced a popup along with his first pitch. Two pitches later, Andrés Giménez hit a fly ball to left discipline the place Kiké Hernández made the catch and threw to second to double off Barger and finish the sport.

It was a surprising end to arrange a becoming conclusion. This World Series has been loaded with singular performances and big momentum shifts. The Dodgers received an 18-inning epic in Game 3, then misplaced two in a row to fall to the brink of elimination. Facing a must-win, they turned to one of many standouts of this postseason, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

He didn’t throw an entire sport, as he had in his earlier two playoff begins, however he went toe-to-toe with Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman for six innings, a pitchers’ duel worthy of a postseason that’s been marked by standouts on the mound. Yoshinobu allowed only one run and picked up his second World Series win. Gausman was almost pretty much as good.

The first time by the Dodgers’ lineup, Gausman struck seven of 9. He had 12 swings-and-misses by the top of the second inning — he’d had 11 whiffs in 6 2/3 innings Game 2 — and was one out away from getting by the third inning when he deliberately walked deliberately walked Shohei Ohtani to face Will Smith with two outs and two on.

Smith smoked an RBI double into left discipline. When Gausman walked Freddie Freeman to load the bases, Mookie Betts — who was hitting .125 with out an RBI within the World Series — lined a two-strike single to attain two and push the Dodgers’ result in 3-0.

Gausman settled in once more after the Betts single, retiring the following 10 in a row, however three runs was all of the Dodgers wanted.

The lone Blue Jays run got here within the backside of the third. DH George Springer was taking part in for the primary time since hurting his aspect in Game 3, and he appeared to wince with each swing, however with two outs and a runner at second he drove an RBI single to heart discipline to place the Blue Jays on the board. They’d lower into the Dodgers’ lead, however that was as shut as they’d get.

Yamamoto pitched out of bother within the sixth, Roki Sasaki received by the center of the order within the eighth, and Blue Jays escaped by the pores and skin of their enamel within the ninth.

And with that, fittingly, it was on to Game 7.