Eight innings in the books for Game 7 of the World Series and the Toronto Blue Jays are just three outs from their first World Series championship since winning back-to-back in 1992 and 1993. The Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to repeat. But now we hit all the dramatic moments, not that there haven’t been any to this point.
You could write a book just on the ninth inning alone. There is so much to cover, with the little things becoming magnified in the moment.
To catch up on the recaps, innings 1-5 are here and innings 6-8 are here.
Where We Left Off
The Jays, on the strength of Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third inning, now hold a 4-3 advantage entering the ninth inning. That came after Max Muncy’s solo homer in the top of the eighth inning off Jays rookie Trey Yesavage. The Jays had an insurance run on second with one out in the eighth, but two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell came on in relief to escape the jam.
Ninth Inning
The fans at Rogers Centre have been on their feet for at least the last inning. For good reason. Their team is now just three outs from winning a championship. Closer Jeff Hoffman, who has had a checkered season, is back for the ninth after getting the final out of the eighth. One defensive adjustment for the Jays: Myles Straw came in to play left after Davis Schneider pinch-hit for Nathan Lukes in the eighth.
Enrique Hernández led off the top of the ninth, but struck out on four pitches, chasing a low, outside 87.1 mph slider for the first out. Miguel Rojas stepped up to the plate. As a refresher, Rojas had started only two postseason games before manager Dave Roberts inserted him at second base for Game 6. On the tail end of his career, the 36-year-old is beloved in the Dodgers’ clubhouse and thought to be a future manager. But he knows his role as an emergency infielder and pinch-hitter. After going 0-for-3 in Game 6, Rojas had a fifth-inning single off Jays starter Max Scherzer. It was his first hit in exactly a month.
Retiring Rojas, the No. 9 hitter, is key for the Jays as Shohei Ohtani is on deck. Hoffman gets Rojas to chase an 86.4 mph slider low and away for strike one. An 86.8 mph slider was bounced in front of the plate and evened the count 1-1. The third pitch was a 96.7 four-seamer low and inside to give Rojas the edge at 2-1. Rojas then fouled off back-to-back four-seamers on the outer third of the zone to even the count and find his timing. Hoffman went back to the slider on the 2-2 pitch, but 85.8 mph offering was just high and inside, missing to run the count full. Again, with Ohtani on deck and one out, not allowing Rojas to reach was huge. Hoffman stuck with the slider and his 86.3 mph pitch was on the inner third and just below middle, with Rojas turning on it and driving it to left for a shocking home run.
The game was tied 4-4. It was just the second homer of Rojas’ postseason career, the other coming in 2020. Rojas also had only seven homers during the regular season, his last coming Sept. 19. His previous homer to that was July 19. Rojas became the second player in World Series history to hit a tying or winning home run in the ninth inning of Game 7, joining Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates who beat the New York Yankees on a walk-off homer.
Hoffman had to quickly recover as Ohtani was up. The left-handed-hitting slugger jumped on Hoffman’s first pitch, an 88.6 mph slider, and drove it deep to left, but just missed it as Straw grabbed it on the warning track. Hoffman finished off the top of the ninth by striking out Will Smith looking. But that damage was done. The Dodgers, two outs from elimination, suddenly had life. The Jays, two outs from a title, had the air sucked out of Rogers Centre.
After getting the final two outs of the eighth, Snell came back for the bottom of the ninth and faced the Jays’ best player in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Not wanting to make a mistake to a hitter who has been fantastic throughout this postseason, Snell missed outside with an 83.9 mph changeup, then low with a 90.1 mph slider to run the count to 2-0. Snell came back with another slider, but the 88.8 mph pitch was low and inside and Guerrero was sitting pretty at 3-0. The mind games were going and Snell chose to throw an 85.5 mph changeup that was just on the outside of the zone and a bit up. Guerrero, sensing it might be the only pitch he would get to swing at, connected and drove the ball deep to center field. While the Rogers Centre crowd was momentarily electrified with the potential of Guerrero joining 1993 World Series walk-off hero Joe Carter, Guerrero knew almost immediately it didn’t have enough and he slammed his bat down as he trotted toward first and center fielder Tommy Edman collected the ball on the warning track for the first out.
Bichette came up and lined a 2-1 pitch to left field in what would turn out to be his last hit as a Blue Jay. Isiah Kiner-Falefa pinch-ran due to Bichette’s knee injury. Addison Barger, after fouling a ball off his left foot on a 2-2 pitch, fouled off two more pitches before Snell missed low with an 80.9 mph curveball to run the count full and then Barger took a 96.1 mph four-seamer just off the inside corner to draw a walk and move Kiner-Falefa to second. That marked the end of the day for Snell, with Roberts turning to right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto to finish the inning.
Yamamoto was the fourth of the Dodgers’ four postseason starters to appear in the game (Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Snell the others) and was coming off a six-inning start in Game 6 in which he threw 96 pitches. Yamamoto became the third Game 6 starter to come on in relief in Game 7 in World Series history, joining Grover Cleveland Alexander of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1926 and Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. The first batter Yamamoto faced was the lefty-hitting Alejandro Kirk. After calmly taking strike one on the inside third, Kirk was plunked on the right forearm just above the wrist, loading the bases with Kiner-Falefa going to third and Barger to second.
Roberts made an unusual defensive move — unusual being the timing, not the substitution — by swapping in Andy Pages for Edman in center field. Pages has a much stronger arm than Edman, also an infielder, and is a natural center fielder.
Daulton Varsho was the next Jays batter, perhaps the weakest link in the starting lineup, shown by his 5-for-30 (.167) performance in the World Series and 17-for-75 (.227) in this postseason entering the at-bat. The lefty-hitting Varsho got down 1-2 in the count to Yamamoto. Just wanting to make any contact, the son of former MLB player Gary Varsho got his bat on a 93.1 mph splitter, the third one he saw in the AB, and got enough to send a grounder toward a drawn-in Rojas at second base. Rojas fielded the two-hopper cleanly, but briefly stumbled back and went down to one knee before recovering and firing a bullet to home to Smith in time to prevent Kiner-Falefa from scoring the World Series-winning run. But to make it even more dramatic, replays showed that Smith’s right foot came off the plate for a split-second and got his toe back on the first-base corner of the plate just in time. The play underwent a replay review and upheld the call of out at the plate.
MIGUEL ROJAS GETS HIM AT THE PLATE
However, that was only the second out and the bases remained loaded, with Barger now at third, Kirk at second and Varsho at first. It was Clement’s turn to hit. Already with an MLB postseason record for hits (30), Clement ambushed Yamamoto’s first pitch, which was the first curveball of the day from the right-hander, and drilled the 78.5 mph offering deep to left-center field. Hernandez, the left fielder, seemed to be tracking the ball when Pages suddenly burst in and caught the ball as he crashed into his teammate right at the wall. It was the second straight defensive gem that denied the Jays from a World Series Game 7 walk-off. Clement, having reached first after witnessing Pages’ catch, could only stand there in the moment, hands to head in disbelief.
OH MY GOODNESS WE ARE GOING TO EXTRAS
It was a stunning and fantastic finish to what was a stunning and fantastic ninth inning.
Now, extra innings await.
