TORONTO -- The landing spot was a familiar one for this building in this setting. But the prevailing sound as Will Smith rounded the bases was that of silence.
Smith’s go-ahead solo shot off Shane Bieber in the top of the 11th stunned the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre crowd Saturday night, as the Dodgers broke hearts and broached dynasty status with a comeback 5-4 victory in a Game 7 of the World Series that lived up to its lofty billing and merited its own month on the MLB calendar.
The Dodgers are repeat champs, thanks to both Smith, who smacked the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all in World Series history, and Miguel Rojas, who tied the tilt with a solo shot in the top of the ninth, hitting heroic homers to virtually the same spot where Joe Carter had once ended a Toronto title triumph. And thanks to the durable Yoshinobu Yamamoto -- named World Series MVP -- coming on in relief on zero days’ rest and stranding the tying run at third in a scoreless bottom of the 11th.
Alejandro Kirk hit into the game-ending double play, which the Dodgers turned before meeting near the mound for a well-earned celebration at the conclusion of an epic World Series.
"Man, this is a special group of guys," Smith said. "We just never gave up, kept fighting, pitching our [butts] off, hitting, taking great at-bats, finally punched through there. Man, that was a fight for seven games -- that’s a really good Toronto Blue Jays team. Oh, man. I’m just excited. There’s nothing better than this.”
The Blue Jays had come so close to capping their first crown since Carter and Co. won it all in 1992-93, but instead it was the Dodgers becoming the first MLB club to mount a successful title defense since the 1998-2000 Yankees.
Rojas’ game-tying blast off Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman in the top of the ninth ultimately made this just the sixth Game 7 in history – and the first since the Cubs-Cleveland classic in 2016 – to go to extra innings. It was a fitting end to a World Series in which these two evenly matched teams had exhausted each other for 18 innings in Game 3.
The finale was baseball at its best, two evenly matched teams going the distance in the Series and in Game 7 itself to determine a champion.
Heavily favored coming in, the loaded Dodgers wound up having to pull out all the stops – and all the starters – to take down a tough Toronto team that had been just two outs from glory.
Bo Bichette’s three-run blast off Shohei Ohtani in the third had Rogers Centre rocking, and Ernie Clement slid in at home with a valuable sixth-inning insurance run on an Andrés Giménez double, just two innings after tensions flared and benches and bullpens cleared when Giménez was plunked by a pitch.
The Dodgers, though, came up with the late- and extra-inning answers.
This Game 7 had pitted two compromised future Cooperstowners against each other: Ohtani going on short rest after, you know, also DH’ing a night earlier, and Max Scherzer, at 41, becoming the oldest Game 7 starter in history.
So no one was expecting the second coming of 1991 Jack Morris to take place (though Morris, along with Paul Molitor, did throw out a ceremonial first pitch).
Still, it was fascinating to watch these luminaries try to gut through Game 7 as long as their managers would let them.
Scherzer immediately surrendered an Ohtani leadoff single in the first and recorded some loud outs in the first two innings, but it was Ohtani who blinked first by surrendering the Bichette blast that knocked him out of the ballgame.
An inning prior to his homer heroics, Bichette had led off the second with a walk and advanced to second on an Addison Barger single. But two outs later, when Clement ripped his 28th hit of the postseason, Bichette, still compromised by the bum left knee that had him off the Blue Jays’ ALDS and ALCS rosters, was only able to advance to third. It cost Toronto a run, as Ohtani struck out Giménez with the bases loaded.
In the third, though, Bichette would not need to run. Ohtani gave up a leadoff single to George Springer, who moved to second on Nathan Lukes’ sacrifice bunt. With first-base open, Ohtani – in a change in roles, after he himself had been intentionally walked five times in this Series – gave Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a fast pass to first.
So up came Bichette, the pending free-agent who paired with Guerrero as a cornerstone callup in 2019. Whereas Guerrero is locked in for life, Bichette’s future with the Jays is unknown. Except that now he’ll be remembered here forever for what he did to Ohtani’s first-pitch slider.
Bichette obliterated the ball, 442 feet to left-center, then watched it fly as he slowly inched toward first and emphatically dropped his bat. It was the third-longest home run of Bichette’s career and the second-longest Ohtani, whose night on the mound was now over, has allowed in his career.
As for the sound in Rogers Centre as Bichette trotted home with the 3-0 lead, well, that can’t be calculated. But even with the roof above, you could probably hear it across the border in Buffalo.
It would take much more than that to win this one, though.
Scherzer pitched himself into a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, but manager John Schneider trusted the veteran to get out of it, and all Scherzer allowed was the Teoscar Hernández sacrifice fly to center that made it 3-1. The inning showcased the Blue Jays’ MLB-best defense, with Daulton Varsho making a terrific diving catch in center on the Hernández liner to prevent extra bases, and Guerrero making a great pick in foul territory near first of a Tommy Edman liner to escape the inning.
Things got testy in the bottom of the fourth, when Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski threw up and in on three consecutive pitches to Giménez. When the last one plunked Giménez, he and Wrobleski jawed at each other, and both benches cleared. Warnings were issued to both teams.
Though the Dodgers would keep pressing by manufacturing another run off Chris Bassitt on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, Giménez, perhaps channeling his emotion from earlier, gave the Jays some needed separation in the bottom of the inning.
After Clement, who would go on to set a new single postseason hits record (31), led off with a single off Tyler Glasnow and stole second, Giménez smacked a line-drive double to right, and Clement lost his helmet as he hustled home and slid in safely to make it 4-2.
The Jays turned to their rookie wonder Trey Yesavage to protect that lead in the seventh, and, after walking Ohtani, he got help from his defense when Guerrero fielded a Freddie Freeman grounder and gamely initiated a 3-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Plays like that were monumental in a nip-and-tuck nail-biter befitting its Game 7 stature. Yesavage bent a bit when Max Muncy pounded his splitter out to right for a solo shot in the eighth to make it 4-3, but he quickly shook that off to retire Hernández for the second out of the inning before turning it over to Hoffman for the four-out save opportunity.
Hoffman retired Edman on a groundout to end the eighth, and he got Kiké Hernández swinging for the first out of the ninth.
But after working the count full, Rojas added yet another layer of drama to this epic Series with his solo swat to left. As the ball landed in roughly the same spot as Carter’s famous blast from ‘93, the Dodger dugout erupted and the home crowd groaned.
It was a brand new ballgame going into the bottom of the ninth.
"Yeah, I wasn’t trying to hit a home run," Rojas said. " I think this is my first home run against a right-handed pitcher during the whole year, and it came to the biggest part of my life and my career, in front of these fans and the city of L.A. and my teammates. Kinda like, battling and I can’t really describe right now the emotions that I feel, not just starting the game but giving the opportunity to bring Yamamoto for another spectacular performance. That guy is everything you can ask for. I have to put my teammates in front of me because I wouldn’t have been able to do whatever I did today without the confidence of Doc, my teammates and everybody that believed in me."
Though ninth-inning leadoff man Guerrero’s bid to cap his epic postseason with a walk-off winner died just in front of the warning track in center, Bichette came through again with a one-out single off Games 1 and 5 starter Blake Snell to set the table. Barger then drew a walk, and the Dodgers turned to yet another one of their starters – Yamamoto, who had shined in Games 2 and 6 – on precisely zero days’ rest.
Yamamoto immediately plunked catcher Alejandro Kirk with a pitch to load the bases. Varsho ripped a ground ball to second base, but Rojas added to his great game with a great play, firing home in time to nab pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa. A replay review upheld the out.
And when Clement came up with two outs and gave the ball a ride to left-center, Andy Pages was able to run it down and make the catch despite colliding with teammate Kiké Hernández to end the inning and send it off to extras.
It was tight in the top of the 10th. The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out against Seranthony Domínguez. But Pages grounded to short, and Giménez fielded it and made a perfect strike home to nab Mookie Betts with the second out. Then, when Kiké Hernández bounced one to the right-hand side, Guerrero fielded it and flipped to Domínguez covering at first just in time for Domínguez to get his left foot on the bag for the third out.
The room exhaled, momentarily.
But after Yamamoto kept the Jays quiet in the bottom of the 10th, Toronto turned to starter Bieber in the 11th. Bieber got the first two outs, but he hung a slider over the middle to Smith, who swung hard and forever etched his name into October lore.