After a couple of opposing games to open up the 2025 Fall Classic, the Dodgers and Blue Jays found themselves knotted up in a 1-1 tie. Despite the nature of this World Series’ first two games, Game 3 would be a nailbiter all the way through. There were no pinch-hit grand slams or complete games, but this one had plenty more in store.
World Series Game 3
Los Angeles Dodgers 6, Toronto Blue Jays 5
(Dodgers lead Series, 2-1)
Advertisement
Game 3 featured a high quality right-handed pitching matchup, with Toronto’s Max Scherzer toeing the rubber opposite of Tyler Glasnow for the Dodgers. Despite the solid resumes for both hurlers, neither of them went without taking their punches in this one, though the game was decided long after either of them left the ballgame.
After a quiet first inning, Los Angeles made their mark in the run column first. On a hanging 2-2 breaking ball, Teoscar Hernández teed off for a booming solo homer off of Scherzer. The former Blue Jay’s fifth homer of the postseason had the Dodgers up 1-0 early on.
An inning later, Shohei Ohtani doubled the Dodger lead with a solo blast of his own — the likely NL MVP’s seventh on this playoff run in L.A.
Advertisement
While the solo homers built up a lead, Glasnow kept things in check through the first few innings of the game. Outside of a few unrealized baserunners, the Blue Jays had little going early on. That would change in the fourth inning after Vlad Guerrero Jr. led the inning off with a walk, and Bo Bichette reached on an error. The Jays would not miss their chance against Glasnow, as Alejandro Kirk turned a first-pitch breaking ball into a three-run shot that gave Toronto a sudden lead in Game 3.
By the time the inning was done, the Jays were proud owners of a 4-2 lead. With the pressure on, the Dodgers countered with a pair of timely hits from their dangerous duo of Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, which brought everything back to square one, tied up at four runs a piece.
Advertisement
These two pennant winners traded punches again in the seventh, when the Jays plated a run thanks to a well-placed single down the right field line, and some nifty baserunning from Guerrero Jr. The lead was short-lived, however, as in the bottom half, the ever impactful Ohtani did it once again.
The blast not only tied this game yet again at 5-5, but also made him the first player to tally three multi-homer games in the same postseason. The Jays threatened in the eighth inning, getting runners to second and third, but Roki Sasaki induced a comebacker with two outs that got him out of the jam.
The ninth inning would not move the needle either direction, as both squads ran into outs on the bases in their half of the inning. For the Jays, Isiah Kiner-Falefa was thrown out trying to take an extra base at third, before Ohtani was thrown out attempting to steal second base in the bottom half. Nine innings was not enough for these two squads.
Advertisement
The trend of this ballgame continued into extra innings, as in the top of the tenth, with pinch-runner Davis Schneider on first base, Nathan Lukes shot a double down the right field line. Despite Schneider’s full-steam-ahead approach to home plate, a perfect relay starting with Hernández nabbed him at the plate, and helped to send this game even further into Monday night.
In the 11th, the Blue Jays went down 1-2-3 for the first time in what felt like ages, while the Dodgers were unable to cash in on a couple of baserunners with Freeman at the plate — on we marched.
In the 12th, the Jays had perhaps their best opportunity to bust it open when they loaded the bases with two outs. Dave Roberts and the Dodgers turned to a graying Clayton Kerhsaw, in his last season, to escape the jam. The three-time Cy Young Award winner and 18-year vet got the job done with a weak ground ball.
Advertisement
Plenty of pitching changes, substitutions, and Ohtani intentional walks later, this game pressed on, still tied. The Dodgers gave a scare in the 14th, when Will Smith swatted a ball to deep center (a first of several), which seemed like a ticket to a 2-1 series lead off the bat, only to be caught in center just short of the wall.
As the ever-helpful Matt Ferenchick recommended, here is what happened in innings 15-17.
Flash forward to the 18th.
Will Klein was on the bump for the Dodgers, having thrown twice as many innings and twice as many pitches as he had ever thrown. He struck out Taylor Heineman, the last player available that was used a while back off of the Toronto bench, finishing the top of the 18th inning with things still knotted up at 5-5. Things were on the brink of unraveling in a number of ways, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shane Bieber warming in both bullpens.
Advertisement
To lead off the bottom of 18th inning, familiar World Series hero Freddie Freeman stepped to the plate. He took a 3-2 pitch from Brendon Little, and muscled it through the damp air in Los Angeles, eventually carrying over the wall in center field and causing and eruption in Dodger Stadium.
After 18 innings, 19 different pitchers, and over six and a half hours, Game 3 came to a close. Both squads will have a lot to figure out come Game 5, but after what felt like an eternity, the Dodgers lead this World Series 2-1.