With saving home runs from Venezuelan Miguel Rojas and Will Smith, the Los Angeles Dodgers achieved an agonizing 5×4 victory this Saturday in the eleventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays with which they revalidated the World Series title.
The team led by Shohei Ohtani won the tie 4-3 on aggregate and is the first two-time champion of the Major League Baseball since the New York Yankees’ triplet (1998-2000).
The most exciting World Series in recent years was resolved in extra innings after the Blue Jays let a 4×2 lead slip away.
In the ninth inning, two outs from defeat, Venezuelan Miguel Rojas tied the score with a saving home run for the Dodgers.
The Venezuelan’s home run, which had not hit it out of the park in the playoffs since 2020, lifted the current champions off the canvas and ended up ruining Toronto’s dream of achieving its first crown since 1993.
“I wasn’t trying to hit a home run,” Rojas said. “I think this is the first one against a right-handed pitcher all year and it came at the most important time in my life and my career.”
The Dodgers, who had already avoided defeat in the sixth inning on Friday, entrusted themselves for the opening to an Ohtani with little rest, who had to be retired after allowing a three-run home run by Bo Bichette.
The hero of the mound ended up being his compatriot Yoshinobu Yamamoto who, less than 24 hours after starting the sixth game, blanked the Blue Jays in the final 2.2 innings.
Ohtani removed from mound
After Friday’s disappointment, almost 45,000 Canadian fans once again created an electric atmosphere at the Rogers Center.
With adrenaline at the highest level, the stands followed each pitch of the night standing, starting with the first duel between veteran Max Scherzer and Ohtani.
Toronto stalked the Japanese from the beginning, putting up to five runners on base in the first two innings.
The Angeleno starter escaped those ambushes but his wear and tear was increasing and Bo Bichette made him pay with a 135-meter torpedo that put Toronto three runs ahead.
After giving up five hits, Ohtani was removed from the mound by the Dodgers who needed all their power at bat for the comeback.
Rojas, the unexpected hero
The champions scored in the fourth inning through Will Smith after a sacrifice by Dominican Teoscar Hernández.
This was the only score that Scherzer allowed, retired under a thunderous applause from the public.
Tension took over the field when Los Angeles reliever Justin Wrobleski hit Venezuelan Andrés Giménez on the hand with a fastball. Both faced each other while the banks jumped in an episode that ended in a fight.
Mookie Betts and Clement traded runs for the Dodgers and Blue Jays before the visitors accelerated the chase.
A home run by Max Muncy brought the Dodgers back within one run with one last inning left.
Just two outs away from the title, the Rogers Center stands fell into silence with Rojas’ home run that tied the score.
The Venezuelan, 36 years old, was the threat that the locals least expected.
The Blue Jays had bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth but an extraordinary defensive action by Rojas and an agonizing catch by Cuban Andy Pages along the wall extended the World Series to extra innings.
Japan’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto, called up after his 96 pitches on Friday, protected the Dodgers until Will Smith hit the winning home run in the eleventh inning.
