Monday night’s — and Tuesday morning’s — Game 3 of the 2025 World Series was one for the history books. Or more accurately, the history-repeating-itself books.
On Oct. 26, 2018, the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers played an 18-inning Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. That was the longest World Series game ever played. Almost exactly seven years later, on Oct. 27, 2025, Dodger Stadium saw another 18-inning World Series Game 3. The Dodgers won again, on a walk-off home run just like in 2018, after the calendar had turned to the following day for much of the country.
This time, the Toronto Blue Jays were on the other side. The 2018 game, at 7 hours and 20 minutes, was actually longer in terms of duration. Thanks most likely to the pitch clock, Monday’s World Series classic came in at 6 hours, 39 minutes.
But the whole marathon affair may never have happened if not for a conspicuously missed strike call by home plate umpire Mark Wegner way back in the second inning.
With Toronto’s Bo Bichette on first base with a leadoff single and a 3-1 count on hitter Daulton Varsho, Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow delivered a pitch that appeared, and tracking data showed, was at least 2 inches clear of the strike zone’s upper limit — as Baseball America editor-in-chief JJ Cooper showed on his social media account — even with a strike zone specifically adjusted for Varsho.
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But Wegner called the pitch a strike, and his call was so belated that Varsho had already started toward first base with what he believed was a walk. That appeared to confuse Bichette, who was stranded off first and easily picked off by Glasnow.
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Varsho then drew a walk anyway, but with Bichette erased from the basepaths, the Blue Jays failed to score in the inning.
Fans were understandably outraged, with some claiming the game was “rigged.”
“I’ve lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money,” one fan wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account. “Or ratings I’m not sure which. I won’t be silent.”
“Mark Wegner having an all-time stinker slanted entirely towards the Dodgers and I’m supposed to believe this whole series isn’t rigged?” wrote another fan.
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Data from the Umpire Scorecards online account, however, showed that Wegner did not actually have a “stinker” of a game. In fact, he made 3.4 more correct calls than an average MLB umpire, calling 271 of 291 taken pitches in the game correctly. But Umpire Scorecards did note a slight bias in favor of the Dodgers, with the umpire’s calls favoring Los Angeles by 0.41 runs.
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Another fan noticed, however, that the call marked the second time in the postseason that Wegner missed a ball-strike call in the Dodgers’ favor. In the seventh inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series, Wegner called a pitch from Philadelphia Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez a ball when it appeared to be in the strike zone.
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The Dodgers ended up winning the game in 11 innings, sending them to the NL Championship Series and subsequently, the World Series. Sánchez later said that Wegner admitted to him that he missed the call.
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