For 32 years, the Toronto Blue Jays waited for an evening like this — a Sport 7 underneath the lights, town electrical, the air trembling with perception. And when it lastly got here on a brisk November Saturday, it unfolded like a fever dream. Historical past dangled by a thread. Each pitch, each heartbeat, each sound of leather-based assembly wooden felt prefer it may tilt the universe.
And when it was over — when Yoshinobu Yamamoto snapped off one ultimate splitter, when Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s knees buckled and the Dodgers spilled out of the dugout in a tidal wave of blue — it was the Los Angeles Dodgers who stood atop the baseball world as soon as once more.
The defending champions had carried out it.
Trailing by three runs early within the sport, the Los Angeles Dodgers mounted a comeback for the ages, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in further innings of Sport 7 of the 2025 World Sequence, crowning the Dodgers as the primary back-to-back champions for the reason that Yankees of 1998-2000.
However this one — this one is perhaps remembered eternally.
“This was one of many best video games I’ve ever been part of,” stated a champagne-soaked Dodgers’ supervisor Dave Roberts after the sport. “We have simply carried out one thing that hasn’t been carried out in many years.”
However earlier than the celebration in Los Angeles, earlier than the heartbreak in Toronto, earlier than the pandemonium and chaos, there was Bo Bichette.
Within the backside of the third, with one swing, he turned Toronto’s hope into thunder. Shohei Ohtani, working on fumes and three days’ relaxation, hung a splitter that spun within the chilly mild like a balloon, and Bichette crushed it 443 ft into the second deck. Three runs. Three many years of frustration exhaled in a single, defiant roar.
The Rogers Centre shook like a stress cooker coming to a boil — the roof quivering, the group delirious. Canada believed once more.
“That was proper up there with George’s [Springer] homer in opposition to Seattle. He went lifeless middle on the primary pitch, it was simply so becoming,” stated Blue Jays supervisor John Schneider of Bichette’s large homer. “What Bo did this 12 months is nothing in need of wonderful. In that second, it felt proper.”
Ohtani, the worldwide icon, regarded human — mortal underneath the burden of the second. His night time ended within the third, three runs down, head bowed, his eyes tracing the bottom as Dave Roberts made the stroll to get him. The Jays had seized management, and for the primary time, the Dodgers regarded rattled.
“Shohei has the burden of the world on his shoulders in terms of expectations,” stated Roberts of his famous person. “He is the face of baseball, and he’ll be the MVP within the Nationwide League. It is actually particular what he is carried out. He is an awesome individual and an awesome competitor. He simply did not have it tonight.”
Max Scherzer, 41 years previous and burning with the acquainted fireplace of October, took the mound like a person chasing another miracle. His grey hair peeked beneath the cap, his eyes — one blue, one brown — nonetheless wild as ever.
Six years in the past, he’d received Sport 7 for the Nationals. On this night time, he got here again to put in writing another chapter.
For 4⅓ innings, he was every little thing Toronto wanted him to be — gritty, fearless, unrelenting. He scattered 4 hits, allowed a single run, and left to a standing ovation that might be heard throughout the skyline. Scherzer pounded his chest, lifted his cap, and disappeared into the dugout, his face streaked with emotion.
The previous warhorse had given them an opportunity.
“I assumed Max was actually good. He was precisely what we thought he could be in an enormous sport,” stated Schneider of his beginning pitcher. “He is 41 years previous and throwing 96 miles per hour. I assumed he was superior. There isn’t any one I trusted greater than Max in that state of affairs. He gave us precisely what we would have liked.”
Stress was inevitable. By the fourth inning, it boiled over.
After Justin Wrobleski plunked Andrés Giménez on the arms, phrases become shoves, and each benches emptied. The bullpens sprinted throughout the outfield. The noise was deafening — fury wrapped in adrenaline. No punches, no ejections, however the warning was clear. Yet one more slip, and somebody would stroll.
Sport 7 was now not only a contest. It was survival. And the reigning champions wouldn’t go down with out one final battle.
The Dodgers scratched throughout runs within the fourth and sixth innings, clawing inside attain. However each time Los Angeles stirred, Toronto’s protection slammed the door — diving stops, double performs, and completely executed pitches with runners on base. The Dodgers stranded ten runners, their bats caught in a fog of frustration that almost by no means lifted.
In distinction, Toronto thrived within the small moments. Within the sixth, Ernie Clement — their unlikely October hero — ripped a single to tie the all-time postseason hits document with 29. He broke it with a leadoff double within the backside of the eighth, his thirtieth hit of the 2025 playoffs. Moments later, Giménez doubled to the hole in left-center, plating a essential insurance coverage run. It was the sort of bottom-of-the-order magic that defines champions. The group started to dream.
“There’s numerous stuff that has to occur in an effort to win the World Sequence,” stated Schneider of his beloved Blue Jays staff. “We did every little thing we would have liked to do, it felt like. I feel that is why it stings just a bit bit extra.”
Then got here the prodigy — 22-year-old Trey Yesavage — summoned from the bullpen within the seventh to protect the lead. The identical rookie who carved up the Dodgers with 12 strikeouts in Sport 5 now discovered himself on the point of immortality.
He walked Ohtani to start out the inning, however then induced Freddie Freeman right into a tailored double play, the group swelling to its ft as if lifted by the identical collective heartbeat.
Within the eighth, Max Muncy turned on a fastball and despatched it screaming into the right-field seats. 4–3. The stress thickened. The Dodgers weren’t carried out. Would that Blue Jays insurance coverage run show to be as essential as air within the lungs of a runner chasing the end line?
And within the ninth, with one out and Toronto two outs away from a parade, Miguel Rojas — the journeyman, the backup infielder, the person who didn’t even begin till Sport 6 — took a slider from Jeff Hoffman and launched it into eternity.
A game-tying residence run. The primary ever within the ninth inning of a Sport 7.
Rogers Centre fell silent, like a metropolis holding its breath underwater.
“I used to be simply making an attempt to get on base for Shohei [Ohtani],” stated Rojas of his historic game-tying homer. “I put a very good swing on a slider and was in a position to hit it over the wall and provides us a chance to win the sport.”
The Dodgers bench erupted as new life was breathed into L.A.’s lungs. The group gasped and threw their arms over their eyes.
However the Blue Jays wouldn’t yield. They loaded the bases within the backside of the ninth with one out. Sport 1 and Sport 5 starter Blake Snell was pulled from the sport, for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, pitching on actually no relaxation.
“I pitched two days in a row. To be trustworthy, once I was warming up within the bullpen, I used to be unsure if I may pitch to the very best of my capability,” admitted Yamamoto via a translator about doubting if he may come into the sport in aid. “I began making somewhat little bit of an adjustment, after which I began pondering I can go on this sport and do that.”
Yamamoto, who threw 96 pitches and bought the win in Sport 6 to power Saturday’s Sport 7 wanted a miracle to flee the jam. Fortunately for him, miracles are actual.
Daulton Varsho hit a grounder to second base and Rojas snagged it and threw residence for the power out. Two outs.
Clement was subsequent, the postseason’s single best hitter, and precisely the person the Blue Jays wished on the plate. He despatched a Yamamoto curveball almost 400-feet into the deepest a part of the park. Dodgers’ outfielders Andy Pages, and Kiké Hernandez collided and fell to the turf.
Sport 7 of the World Sequence was heading to further innings for less than the sixth time in its 121-year historical past. Everlasting echoes.
From there, time dissolved.
The tenth inning arrived like a drumbeat in the dead of night. Each groups loaded the bases. Each escaped by inches. Each out felt like a lifetime.
After which, within the eleventh, Will Smith — regular, stoic, virtually mechanical in his precision — turned on a Shane Bieber slider and despatched it into the left-field seats. 5–4 Dodgers. His teammates erupted, spilling from the dugout, fists raised, their echoes swallowed by the shocked crowd.
Toronto had one final likelihood. Guerrero Jr. doubled, a spark of perception. A sacrifice bunt moved him to 3rd. Ninety ft away from tying it once more.
Yamamoto, on no relaxation, dug deep into reserves few mortals possess. He coaxed a double play — the ultimate two outs of a marathon masterpiece.
The Dodgers, exhausted and ecstatic, poured onto the sphere. Gamers hugged, cried, screamed into the night time. Ohtani, tears streaking his face, wrapped his arms round Yamamoto close to the mound, all of them did. Roberts raised his arms to the heavens.
“What Yoshi [Yoshinobu Yamamoto] did tonight is unprecedented in trendy baseball,” stated a relieved Roberts of Yamamoto, the 2025 World Sequence MVP. “We would have liked a next-level efficiency from Yamamoto and we bought it. I simply trusted him and he got here up large once more.”
For the primary time in 25 years, Main League Baseball had a repeat champion.
Because the confetti fluttered down and the roar of celebration carried via the chilly Toronto air, the Blue Jays lingered within the dugout — their faces drained however proud. That they had pushed the giants of baseball to the brink.
Max Scherzer sat on the highest step, cap in hand, staring into the blur of blue and white. Throughout the sphere, the Dodgers danced, the kings of baseball as soon as extra.
Some losses final eternally. Others grow to be the soil for what’s subsequent.
On this night time, Toronto fell simply brief. However within the roar of that dome, within the electrical energy that coursed via a metropolis starved for baseball glory, one thing modified.
The Dodgers left as champions. The Blue Jays — as believers.
Hear from Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow and extra after the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays in Sport 7 to win the 2025 World Sequence.
