🔗 Share this article

The World Series is headed to a final seventh game after the Los Angeles Dodgers kept alive their repeat hopes alive on Friday with a 3–1 victory over the Blue Jays in Game 6.

The reigning title holders ended Toronto’s ninth-inning rally with a dramatic final twin killing, stunning a home audience that had come ready to celebrate the team's first title in 32 years.

Game 6 Summary

Los Angeles produced all of their scoring in the third inning. With two away, Ohtani was purposely passed before Will Smith hit a two-bagger to left field to bring home Edman. Freeman earned a base on balls to load the bases, and Mookie Betts came through with a two-RBI hit to the opposite field, handing the Dodgers a 3–0 advantage.

Betts’ hit broke a playoff dry spell and revived the defending champions’ hopes of becoming the first repeat championship winners since the Yankees captured three straight from 1998 to 2000.

Pitching Battle

Gausman had been dominant to that stage, fanning half a dozen of the first seven Dodgers he confronted. He struck out eight through three frames, matching a World Series mark, but the third-inning barrage proved costly. The Toronto ace finished with eight strikeouts over six innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits and two free passes.

Yamamoto, meanwhile, was solid again under stress. The 27-year-old right-hander outpitched his counterpart for the second time in a week, allowing one run on five base hits over six innings with six Ks. He improved to four wins and one loss this postseason with a 1.56 ERA.

The only run against him resulted from Springer’s two-out single in the third inning, scoring Barger, who had hit a double earlier in the inning. Springer’s hit provided a brief spark in his return to the lineup after missing a pair of contests with an oblique injury.

Relief Heroics

After that, the Los Angeles relievers took over. Rookie Wrobleski escaped a tight spot in the seventh inning, and another rookie Sasaki worked into the ninth before plunking Kirk to start the frame. Addison Barger then hit a double that got stuck under the outfield wall, obliging runners to hold at second and third.

Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers' Game 3 starting pitcher, came on in relief and induced a popout before Andrés Giménez lined to left. Hernández made the catch and threw to second base to double off Barger, sealing the victory and giving the pitcher his first-ever save.

Next Up: Seventh Game

The best-of-seven now boils down to one game. Scherzer will take the mound for the Blue Jays, making him the only living pitcher to pitch in more than one seventh games of the World Series after accomplishing that in 2019 with the Nationals. The veteran signed a single-season contract to chase one more title and has been a outspoken presence throughout this playoff run.

The Dodgers, aiming to be baseball’s first back-to-back champions in nearly a quarter-century, are expected to rely on Shohei Ohtani for a short outing.