The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions again, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 5–4 in an 11-inning Game 7 thriller at Rogers Centre. The victory made them the first repeat champion in 25 years, a feat last achieved by the New York Yankees in 2000. Shohei Ohtani started the decisive game on the mound, returning to two-way play on baseball's largest stage.
A two-way gamble on three days' rest
Manager Dave Roberts handed Ohtani the ball on short rest after his Game 4 start, pitting him against Toronto's Max Scherzer, the oldest pitcher ever to open a winner-take-all World Series game. Ohtani began the night with a leadoff single as the designated hitter, took second and third, then sprinted to the dugout and warmed up in under five minutes to take the mound.
The command was not sharp. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second by striking out Andrés Giménez swinging on a 99 mph fastball, but had already thrown 42 pitches through two innings.
Bichette's blast and a ninth-inning rescue
George Springer led off the third with a base hit. After a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, Roberts intentionally walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Bo Bichette crushed a first-pitch slider 443 feet to center field. Ohtani's night on the mound ended at 2⅓ innings.
Down to their final outs in the ninth, it was No. 9 hitter Miguel Rojas — a lineup addition only since Game 6 — who tied the score with a home run. Then the Dodgers survived chaos: Rojas made a force play at home that beat the runner by half an inch, and Andy Pages ran over Enrique Hernández to catch a drive at the outfield wall, forcing extra innings.
A dynasty cemented
The title is the franchise's ninth and caps a historic stretch for Ohtani. He entered the series as the reigning unanimous National League MVP — his fourth such award, an MLB record — and had already authored the sport's first 50-home run, 50-stolen base season the year prior. This championship marks his second ring in as many seasons with the Dodgers.
"This is Game 7," Roberts had said before first pitch. "There's a lot of things that people haven't done, and you've just got to trust your players and try to win a baseball game." Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named World Series MVP after the Dodgers sealed the win in the 11th.
Before 44,713 fans in Toronto, a club that waited 31 years for another title watched the Dodgers close the door on a repeat that the sport had not seen in a generation.
