Game 3 of the World Series was like none other in the history of baseball.
When the dust settled on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 6-5, 18-inning marathon win over the Blue Jays Monday night (Tuesday morning Toronto time), it was tied for the longest game in World Series history in terms of innings.
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It didn’t, however, set the record for total time in a World Series game. The other 18-inning World Series game in which the Dodgers also won in walk-off fashion against the Boston Red Sox in 2018 — also at home in Game 3 — took 7 hours, 20 minutes to complete. That game was played before the pitch clock existed.
But Monday’s Game 3 was plenty long at 6:39. And multiple records were set along the way on a historic night for baseball. As usual, Shohei Ohtani was among those etching his name into the record book.
Shohei Ohtani’s epic postseason continued Monday with another historic effort in Game 3.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)Another brilliant night for Shohei Ohtani
The Dodgers’ superstar led off the game with a double. He hit a solo home run in his second at-bat. His third at-bat produced another double, this time with an RBI to cut the Blue Jays’ lead to 4-3. His next at-bat produced another solo home run to tie the game at 5-5.
And that was the last time he saw a pitch until the 17th inning. The Blue Jays intentionally walked Ohtani for the rest of the game whenever first base was open. His third consecutive intentional walk in the 13th inning made him the first player in postseason history to reach base seven times in a single game.
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That record lasted two innings. In the 15th, the Blue Jays gave him another free pass for his eighth time reaching base, extending his record. It also gave him another record. No player in postseason history had been intentionally walked four times in a single game until then.
When Ohtani came up in the 17th, first base was not open. Pinch hitter Alex Call delivered a two-out single out of the 9-hole ahead of him. And Brendon Little — Toronto’s ninth pitcher of the night — pitched to Ohtani.
But the end result was the same. Ohtani walked for a fifth straight time. And he became the fourth player player since 1925 to reach base nine times in an MLB game, regular season or postseason, per MLB’s Sarah Langs. The last to do so? Chicago Cubs All-Star Stan Hack in 1942.
When he was done, Ohtani was 4 for 4 at the plate with two home runs, three RBI, three runs scored and five walks. And he’ll start on the mound in Tuesday’s Game 4.
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Freddie Freeman caps game with record of his own
And there were more records in Tuesday’s 6:39 hour epic. Will Klein entered the game in the 14th inning as the Dodgers’ 10th pitcher of the night. That’s the first time in World Series history a single team used 10 pitchers in a game.
When Little took the mound for the Blue Jays in the 17th, he was the ninth Toronto pitcher of the night. Thus marked the first time in World Series history that 19 pitchers total had been used. A 20th pitcher, however, did not reach the mound.
Had the game gone to the 19th, it appeared as if the Dodgers were ready to use Game 2 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched a complete game victory just two nights prior. But Freeman ensured that that would not be necessary.
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The reigning World Series MVP hit a walk-off solo home run over the center field wall off Little to secure the Dodgers’ win and further cement his name in World Series lore.
In last year’s World Series win over the Yankees, Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam to secure Game 1. And with Monday’s blast, he became the first player with two walk-off home runs in World Series history.
What a night. What a game.