And we come to the final inning of the 2025 MLB season. Game 7 of the World Series has been filled with ups and downs for both teams, and the 11th inning would, fittingly, continue that trend. History awaits as the Los Angeles Dodgers pursue back-to-back titles, while the Toronto Blue Jays are looking for their first championship since winning two in a row in 1992 and 1993.
For the previous recaps, check out innings 1-5 here, innings 6-8 here, the ninth inning here, and the 10th inning here.
Where We Left Off
After escaping bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, in which they threw out the winning run at the plate and needed an amazing catch by defensive replacement Andy Pages at the wall in left-center field, the Dodgers kept up the pressure in the 10th. They also loaded the bases, but were denied scoring the go-ahead run on a grounder to shortstop. Then, a grounder to first base was filled with drama as reliever Seranthony Dominguez got his feet tangled up before tagging first base just before Enrique Hernández got there. That sent this game to the 11th inning tied 4-4, the third Game 7 to reach this point (1924, 1997).
11th Inning
Right-hander Shane Bieber was the choice by Blue Jays manager John Schneider for the 11th. Acquired at the trade deadline from the Cleveland Guardians while in the final stages of coming back from Tommy John surgery, Bieber was the sixth reliever used by the Jays, who, like the Dodgers, were running on bullpen fumes at this point. Bieber had pitched in just one World Series game and three other games this postseason, all as a starter.
The first batter Bieber faced was Miguel Rojas, whose place in World Series history was already etched with his game-tying homer in the top of the ninth and his awkward throw home in the bottom of that inning to prevent the winning run from scoring. There wouldn’t be another huge hit for Rojas as he grounded an 85.5 mph slider on a 1-0 pitch to third baseman Ernie Clement for the first out. That turned the lineup over for Shohei Ohtani, who began the game as the starting pitcher and also was 2-for-4. Ohtani jumped on the first pitch, an 88 mph cutter off the inside corner, and hit a broken-bat grounder to Isiah Kiner-Falefa at second base for an easy (and huge) second out.
That brought up Will Smith, who had already set a record by catching every inning in this World Series. The workhorse catcher was nearly an inauspicious part of World Series lore on the play at the plate in the ninth inning, where his right foot briefly came off the plate, but he quickly got it back down for the out. While Smith is terrific defensively, he is a difference-maker because he can hit, which is why he was in the No. 2 spot in the lineup for Game 7. Smith had doubled and scored in the fourth inning, but was hitless since then when he came up to face Bieber. Bieber started Smith off with an 85.3 mph slider in the dirt, then a 82.5 mph knuckle curve nearly in the same place, low and outside.
Needing to get back into the count, Bieber turned back to his slider, which he hung on the inside third of the plate, and Smith whacked the 84.4 mph offering 366 feet into the Jays’ left-field bullpen for a go-ahead homer and a 5-4 Dodgers lead. It was the first time in Game 7 that the Dodgers had led. It was the latest clutch moment for Smith, who hit the go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning of Game 2 and a tying double in the third inning of Game 6, the inning in which all four of the game’s runs were scored.
Bieber got the final out of the inning after battling Freddie Freeman to a full count before inducing a grounder to shortstop Andrés Giménez.
That set the stage for the Jays, who had shown fight throughout this postseason and, in particular, this World Series. The Dodgers made a few defensive changes, with Justin Dean going into center, Pages moving from center to right for Teoscar Hernández, and Hyeseong Kim replacing Rojas at second base.
Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto remained in, having already tossed 21 pitches over 1.2 innings a day after throwing 96 pitches over six innings in Game 6. Now, he faced the heart of the Jays’ lineup with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. leading off. Yamamoto quickly fell behind Guerrero with two low and outside pitches, a 91.1 mph cutter, and a 92.1 mph splitter. Guerrero then took a juicy 2-1 cutter at 91.2 mph for a strike, then a 96.2 mph four-seamer on the inside corner to even the count 2-2. Yamamoto came back with a 91.3 mph splitter a bit up and inside that was off the plate, running the count full. On the 3-2 pitch, Yamamoto threw a 96.9 mph four-seamer also up and in with Guerrero pulling his hands in and hooking the ball down the left-field line for a double and igniting the Rogers Centre fans. Kiner-Falefa, who replaced Bo Bichette as a pinch-runner in the ninth and was the runner thrown out at home, put down a perfect sacrifice bunt down the third-base line that Yamamoto fielded and threw to first for the out, moving Guerrero to third.
Addison Barger was up next, and Yamamoto pitched to the right fielder like he didn’t want any piece of him. Barger, who was famously doubled off second base for the final out of Game 6, entered the at-bat 12-for-25 in the World Series and 2-for-4 in Game 7. With the infield in, Yamamoto stuck with his splitter against the left-handed-hitting Barger, missing high and outside at 90.9 mph just barely, then 91.7 mph and 90.8 mph. Yamamoto didn’t even throw a token strike that Barger could have pounced on to drive in Guerrero, finishing the four-pitch walk with a 90.9 mph splitter low.
Runners were now on the corners, with Guerrero on third and Barger on first, with one out. Alejandro Kirk got his turn in the spotlight, with the infield moving back to possibly turn a double play on the slow Blue Jays catcher. The right-handed hitter fouled off the first pitch, a 92.8 mph cutter. Yamamoto followed up with an 80.3 mph curveball on the inside third to make it an 0-2 count. The third pitch was a 92.1 mph splitter on the outer third of the plate that Kirk had to swing at and broke his bat as he hit a chopper up the middle that shortstop Mookie Betts fielded after two hops, took a couple of steps to his left, and stepped on second and rifled a throw to Freeman at first for a Series-ending double play.
The celebration was on, with the Dodgers becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Series since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1999-2001. On the other side, there were solemn faces for the Jays, who parlayed Guerrero’s huge contract in the spring into an unexpected worst-to-first run in the AL East and the best record in the AL.
Yamamoto was the obvious choice for World Series MVP, with three appearances and two starts covering 17.2 innings, earning the win in all three games while allowing two runs.
The most dramatic Game 7 in quite some time and perhaps ever was over. A season that started with the Dodgers beating the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo ended with the Dodgers beating the Blue Jays in Toronto, both games won by Yamamoto.
A game and a World Series that will always be remembered.
This photo. Wow. #WorldSeries
