Welcome to the second installment of my look back at Game 7 of the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, one of the best winner-take-all games in MLB history. The first part was a little chunkier because of the setup and the number of innings covered. This one will be shorter, I promise.
Check out the recap of innings 1-5 here.
Where We Left Off
The first five innings featured Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third inning, a sacrifice line drive by the Dodgers in the top of the fourth and a benches-clearing incident in the bottom half. Not to mention 41-year-old Max Scherzer turning in a fantastic start and Shohei Ohtani not sharp in his role as starting pitcher. That all added up to the Jays holding a 3-1 lead through five innings at Rogers Centre.
Sixth Inning
The Jays brought in their first starting pitcher for a relief role as right-hander Chris Bassitt replaced rubber-armed right-handed reliever Louis Varland. Bassitt has served in a relief role the entire postseason, with this being his seventh appearance — all in the seventh inning or later. Entering Game 7, he hadn’t allowed a run and only one hit in 7⅔ innings. But Bassitt quickly got into trouble.
Mookie Betts drew a five-pitch leadoff walk and Max Muncy ripped a single to right on the second pitch he saw, moving Betts to second. Teoscar Hernández then drilled the fifth sinker of the at-bat into the ground and hit a high chopper back to Bassitt, who caught it and threw to second to nab Muncy. There was no chance for a double play, so shortstop Andrés Giménez just hung onto the ball as Betts advanced to third. Tommy Edman, after seeing two sinkers, then hit a 93.3 mph four-seamer to center fielder Daulton Varsho. With Betts tagging, Varsho’s throw wasn’t good and was offline as it was snagged by Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. near the third-base side of the mound. Betts scored easily and the Dodgers now trailed 3-2.
Tommy Edman drives home Mookie Betts to make it a 1-run game in Toronto 👀
Enrique Hernández then had an opposite-field single, with Teoscar Hernandez going to second. With Ohtani on deck, Bassitt faced Miguel Rojas, who hit a roller up the first-base line that Bassitt fielded and tagged out Rojas.
Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers’ right-handed starter who came on for the final out of the fifth inning, came back out for the sixth. One of the Jays’ many postseason stars, Ernie Clement, did what he did so often in this run and lined a 96.1 four-seamer to left field for a single, his 29th hit of the postseason, tying the MLB record set in 2020 by Randy Arozarena of the Tampa Bay Rays. Clement then stole second on a 3-1 four-seamer to Gimenez, who was taking all the way. Gimenez then laced a 3-2 slider to right-center that sent Clement scurrying for home, first flipping off his helmet as he approached third and then triumphantly sliding, legs high, into home to put the Jays back up by a pair at 4-2.
Andrés adds another! #WANTITALL
— Toronto Blue Jays (Bot) (@bluejaysbot.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T02:27:25.000Z
For Gimenez, the double made him 8-for-19 with runners in scoring position. George Springer, who was 3-for-3 at this point, struck out for the first out of the inning. Nathan Lukes then flew out deep to center and Guerrero, hitless in his first four plate appearances, grounded out to third to end the sixth.
Seventh Inning
As the game officially moves into the late innings, the Jays brought in rookie right-handed starter Trey Yesavage for his first MLB relief appearance. Remember, Yesavage only had three regular season starts before becoming a postseason sensation and making five more starts, including striking out a World Series rookie-record 12 in Game 5. Yesavage never looked overwhelmed at any moment. That might not have been true internally after he walked Ohtani on five pitches to begin the seventh, but Yesavage settled back in and got Will Smith to fly out to center. Freddie Freeman was next and he hit a hot chopper to Guerrero at first. Guerrero quickly fired to Gimenez at second to get Ohtani and the relay was in time to get Freeman for the inning-ending double play, with a bolt of emotion coming from Guerrero as Rogers Centre erupted.
Right-hander Emmet Sheehan took over for Glasnow to start the bottom of the seventh. Sheehan, making his sixth relief appearance of this postseason, struck out Bichette and induced a grounder to first base by Addison Barger. Alejandro Kirk perked up the crowd by lining a single to right that Teoscar Hernandez had to range to his right to cut off before reaching the wall and thus preventing extra bases. But that was it as Varsho struck out.
Eighth Inning
Yesavage stayed in for the eighth inning, still protecting a 4-2 lead. Betts grounded out to short on an 0-2 pitch. Facing Muncy, Yesavage got a fortunate strike call on an 82.4 mph splitter above the zone, then put a 87.8 mph slider in the dirt to even the count at 1-1. The next pitch was an 83.1 mph splitter that was too good for Muncy to pass up and he mashed it down the right-field line off the second-deck facade for a solo homer, his third of this postseason and 16th of his postseason career. That pulled the Dodgers within 4-3.
Teoscar Hernandez followed with a squibber to the shortstop side of second that Bichette, bad knee and all, ranged over, fielded and threw to first like he had been playing second base his entire life. That was the last pitch for Yesavage as closer Jeff Hoffman came on, with Edman grounding out to second to end the inning. But the Dodgers were now just a run away from tying it.
Sheehan returned for his second inning of work, but had to face Clement to lead off the bottom of the eighth. True to form, Clement gave the never-say-die Jays another fighting chance with a leadoff double, his record-breaking 30th hit of the postseason. That forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to bring in left-handed starter Blake Snell. The two-time Cy Young Award winner needed some work to be done to the mound, which caused a brief delay, but then Snell retired the Jays in order, with Gimenez smoking a liner at a drawn-in Muncy at third, Springer striking out and Davis Schneider, pinch-hitter for the lefty-hitting Lukes, struck out.
That sent the game to the ninth with the Jays just three outs from their first World Series championship since going back-to-back in 1992 and 1993.
