LOS ANGELES — This is why October baseball is the king of all post-seasons, hands down. It’s drama at every turn, plays big and small, every damn thing mattering. There was Shohei Ohtani’s record-setting night. Alejandro Kirk taking yet another star turn. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette with their moments. Jeff Hoffman and Braydon Fisher and Eric Lauer. Emmet Sheehan and Clayton Kershaw and Will Klein. So many main characters. So many twists and turns. So many plays made and opportunities missed and runners stranded.
The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers fought and fought and emptied their bullpens and exhausted their rosters and pushed themselves, and each other, to the very limit for six hours and 39 minutes Monday night until the visitors finally broke. Freddie Freeman, whose walk-off grand slam ended Game 1 of the World Series last year, took Brendon Little, out for a second inning of work, deep to open the bottom of the 18thinning, ending what is now tied for longest game ever in the post-season.
Final, 6-5, in 18 long, gutsy, draining frames, those who remained from the crowd of 52,652 exploding in joy as the Dodgers mobbed Freeman in elation, all as the Blue Jays exited the field in dejection.
“You don’t want to play a game like that, right,” Guerrero said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “We tried everything we could. They did the same thing. But at the end, they came out with the victory.”
The Dodgers now lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. Shane Bieber, who was next up in the bullpen if this one went any longer, goes against Ohtani, starting after a monster two-homer, two-double, five-walk, four-intentional performance, in Game 4 Tuesday night (Sportsnet, 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT).
Berserk, all of it.
“I hope we don’t lose sight of our starting pitcher tomorrow getting on base nine times – just incredible,” said Freeman, adding later: “He’s a unicorn. There are no more adjectives (that) can describe Shohei. … We’re still running out of words to describe a once-in-a-10-generational player.”
The Blue Jays are also running out of ways to handle Ohtani, which is why a game they led 4-2 through four and 5-4 in the seventh ended up turning into an inadvertent doubleheader.
Ohtani doubled in the first, homered in the third, doubled home one run and scored another during a two-run fifth that tied the game, homered again in the seventh – when Seranthony Dominguez was supposed to pitch around him but unwisely left a fastball middle-middle – and then was walked in five straight trips up, the first four intentionally.
No one had reached base that often in a post-season game before, Ohtani surpassing the pervious of high of six by Kerry Carpenter (2025 ALDS Game 5); Kenny Lofton (1995 World Series Game 3) and Stan Hack (1945 World Series Game 6).
“He had a great game, he’s great player,” said Schneider, “but after (the homer in the seventh), you just kind of take the bat out of his hands.”
Expect the same approach Tuesday?
“Yeah,” he replied bluntly.
Both teams also need to worry about their bullpens – Eric Lauer threw 4.2 shutout frames, his most since Aug. 27, when he was still a starter, before giving way to Little, while Klein threw four clean to get the win. But the Blue Jays will also anxiously await word on an MRI for George Springer, who left the game in the seventh with right side discomfort after fouling off a pitch.
“It sucks,” said Schneider. “We’ll see how it comes back and see how he wakes up.”
Time and again this season, the Blue Jays have had their mettle tested and they’ll need to lean into that resilience once again after matching Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, also won by the Dodgers in the 18thinning on Max Muncy’s walk-off homer, the only post-season game to go longer than this one in terms of time (7:20).
“It was a crazy game,” said Davis Schneider, who ran for Ty France, who had taken over from Springer, after a single in the 10th, getting thrown out at the plate after a Nathan Lukes double. “I mean, Ohtani getting on base nine times has got to be a record. We had some opportunities to score, we just didn’t come through. … Just one of those games where you look back at it like, damn, that was crazy.”
Said Ernie Clement: “We grinded. Battled our tails off. Tired as hell. Credit to them. They kind of just outlasted and made the big play when they needed to. I expect us to come out firing tomorrow.”
Added John Schneider: “This group is going to be ready to play. Longest game in World Series history, whatever it is, tied for it. I mean, these guys are enjoying it. They were in the right mindset and the right headspace the entire time. It sucks that it’s late right now, we got to come back and do it again, but these guys are going to be more than ready. The Dodgers didn’t win the World Series today. They won a game. These guys are going to be ready to go.”
How quickly each team recovers, and how well the Blue Jays turn the page, will certainly play a role in how that plays out.
They had seemingly seized control of the game in the fourth when Kirk timed up a Tyler Glasnow curveball and blasted it over the wall in centre for a three-run homer that erased an early 2-0 deficit. Andres Gimenez added a sacrifice fly later in the inning.
Then, after the Dodgers tied it, the Blue Jays took the lead again in the seventh when Guerrero singled off Blake Treinen with two out and then scored from first when Bichette shot a single up the right-field line, carefully tapping the plate around Will Smith’s attempted tag.
They had chances to score in the ninth, the 10th, the 12th — when Kershaw came out of the bullpen to get Lukes to ground out — and the 18th, when Tyler Heineman, who’d come in to run for Kirk six innings earlier, struck out with runners on second and third.
Little, the last of eight relievers used, then left a full-count sinker middle-middle to Freeman, who launched it 406 feet into the cool and heavy air of the night, ending what had been the second set of nine innings after what had been an already full first nine, when Max Scherzer again turned back the clock to get up to 96.4 m.p.h., Glasnow grinded, Bichette got picked off on a weird play when there was confusion around what should have been Ball 4 to Daulton Varsho but wasn’t and umpire Mark Wegner’s slow calls.
“It was a lot, man,” said John Schneider. “I love the way we played. I love the way we fought. I think every single player had the right intentions on both sides. There are a lot of things you look at. We had chances to score, they had chances to score. Yeah, a lot to digest.”
In a short amount of time, too, as the next day always comes up fast in the World Series, especially when the previous day ends unhappily just as that next day begins.
