TORONTO — There are no easy wins in the World Series, and the Los Angeles Dodgers certainly know that. Since 2017, no team has played in more World Series games than the Dodgers, and with their season on the line, none was more important than Game 6.

And holding on to a 3-1 in the ninth inning Friday, one play helped save the Dodgers’ season. With a chance for things to go horribly wrong, everything instead went right. Kiké Hernández’s heads-up double play to end the Blue Jays’ ninth-inning rally sent his team to a 3-1 victory in Game 6, giving L.A. an opportunity to play in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday.

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“This is what we dream of. Ever since we were little kids, we always put ourselves in the backyard in Game 7 of the World Series,” Hernández said afterward. “And I think baseball deserves a Game 7. This has been a great World Series. The fact that we’re getting a Game 7 is well-deserved, and both teams have played their butts off.

“Tomorrow is just going to be a one-game series, and see who plays better tomorrow to win a World Series.”

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Given how bad things looked for the Dodgers prior to Game 6, L.A. came into this game knowing exactly what needed to be done. And with hopes of forcing Game 7, who better to have on the mound than ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto?

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The Dodgers’ superstar right-hander has answered the bell at every turn this fall. After pitching one of the best games in World Series history in Game 2 and then warming up and making himself available to pitch in Game 3’s 18-inning marathon, Yamamoto once again gave the Dodgers a great chance to win in Game 6.

But the Blue Jays didn’t make it easy on the right-hander. Like they’ve done the entirety of this series, they grinded out at-bats, making Yamamoto work to get them out and, unlike in Game 2, racking up his pitch count. No matter. Yamamoto wasn’t going to be rattled by the pressure.

“Every game I go out and pitch, I always feel that I don’t want to lose,” he said through an interpreter of his mentality going into Game 6. “We can’t afford to lose.”

In the sixth inning, Yamamoto found himself in real trouble for the first time since the NLDS against the Phillies. After allowing a double to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a walk to Bo Bichette, Yamamoto looked like he was at the end of his line against Daulton Varsho.

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So he went to his best pitch to get himself out of trouble, unleashing four straight splitters, the last of which got Varsho swinging on strike three and Yamamoto out of the inning unscathed. He finished his night with six scoreless innings, allowing just five hits with one walk and six strikeouts.

“The last outing I was in trouble early on. So today … I was trying to be a little more careful,” the Dodgers’ right-hander said afterward. “As the game went on, even though I had to pitch with runners on, I think I did a good job.”

Yamamoto has given his team everything they could’ve asked for in the regular season and postseason, and he has taken things to another level in the World Series. But unlike his teammate Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto doesn’t also swing the bat, and on Friday, the Dodgers’ offense, which came into the game struggling mightily, needed to get rolling to support their ace.

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And while the reality is they didn’t do much, the Dodgers were able to put more runs on the board than the Blue Jays. In doing so, they potentially gave one of their biggest and most important superstars a confidence boost going into Game 7.

In the top of the third inning with the Dodgers leading 1-0, Mookie Betts came up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs. Betts, despite his lengthy playoff résumé and three World Series rings, has been dreadful this postseason. His .130 World Series batting average entering Friday led Roberts to move Betts down in the lineup ahead of Game 6, after already doing so before Game 5. Betts described himself as “terrible” following his team’s Game 5 loss, and it was clear the confidence just has not been there.

But one swing could change that for the Dodgers’ shortstop, and after he fell behind 1-2 to Kevin Gausman, Betts got a fastball up in the zone and ripped it into left field, scoring Ohtani and Will Smith to give L.A. a 3-0 lead. It was not only Betts’ first two RBI of this World Series but also the first time in the series that the Dodgers scored more than two runs in an inning.

“It felt great to come through for the boys,” Betts said postgame. “Obviously, I would love to play well for myself. But that’s kind of irrelevant. I want to play well for the boys. I love everybody in there. I know how much we lean on each other. And when they lean on me, I want to come through for them.”

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With the victory in Game 6 secured and Game 7 on the schedule, the Dodgers’ next mission is to win it all. Yet again, that starts with their pitching.

After Tyler Glasnow put out the fire for Roki Sasaki in the ninth, recording his first save for the Dodgers, Ohtani is likely in the driver’s seat to start Game 7. The best player in the sport was likely always going to be the choice, given that coming in as a reliever would require him to be removed from the game as a hitter once he left the mound. On Saturday, Ohtani would be pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his career. But these are the things that happen in a Game 7, and L.A. probably wouldn’t want it any other way.

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While Roberts didn’t confirm anything after the game, the manager did say that Ohtani is a possibility to start and that every Dodgers pitcher outside Yamamoto will be available. He also expressed confidence in Ohtani, should he be the one to take the ball.

“This is Game 7, so there’s a lot of things that people haven’t done, and you’ve just got to trust your players and try to win a baseball game,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers’ depth of postseason experience has helped them get to this point. After taking a gut punch from the Jays in Game 5 and coming into a hostile environment such as Rogers Centre for Game 6, a less experienced team might have folded.

Not the Dodgers. They’ve put the pressure back on Toronto, which was unable to put the reigning World Series champs away on Friday. That might matter in the end; it also might not. But one thing is for sure: If the Blue Jays are going to win this World Series, the Dodgers are going to make them take it from them.

“It all kind of resets,” Betts said of Game 7. “It’s one game. May the best man win. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”