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Toronto Blue Jays’ Isiah Kiner-Falefa speaks prior to Game 4 of baseball’s World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Ashley Landis)<\/p>\nFORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 Few players reported to spring training this week more eager for a fresh start than new Red Sox utility-man Isiah Kiner-Falefa.<\/p>\n
Last October, the Blue Jays were as close to a championship as a team can be: Game 7, the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the ninth, a chance to walk off and bring Toronto its first World Series trophy since 1993.<\/p>\n
Then, Daulton Varsho grounded a ball to Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas, and the throw to catcher Will Smith was just in time to nail the pinch-running Kiner-Falefa. Upon review, the force-out was upheld. Ernie Clement flew out to end the inning, and the Dodgers won it all in the 11th.<\/p>\n
Though far from the Blue Jays\u2019 only misstep in one of the most exquisite tug-of-war Fall Classics in recent memory \u2013 a series which included an 18-inning Game 3 that matched the Dodgers and Red Sox\u2019s record-breaking stalemate in 2018 \u2013 it\u2019s the moment fans, media members, even then-Jays bench coach Don Mattingly pinpointed as the difference between triumph and heartbreak.<\/p>\n
Notably absent from the conversation was the man himself.<\/p>\n
Kiner-Falefa weighed in at last on Tuesday, after his one-year Red Sox contract became official.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long offseason,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI learned so much through that run, about the emotions and the way things can swing in a series, and to go seven games in the ALCS and the World Series, you can\u2019t get that experience back. \u2026 But yeah, I mean, it was heartbreaking. It was definitely heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Kiner-Falefa\u2019s first media availability, not only of spring training and his Red Sox tenure, but since that night in October. That, in and of itself, is the chief source of frustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest regret was there were no cameras in my face after the game,\u201d Kiner-Falefa said. \u201cIf it was gonna be such a big deal, it would have been nice to have the camera in my face and have a chance to speak, but it blew up without me getting a proper interview, so I thought that was unfair\u2026 everybody just kind of going off with it without me really being able to talk about the play.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what happened in Game 7, in Kiner-Falefa\u2019s own words?<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to break up a double play,\u201d he explained. \u201cIn my mind I thought, with a routine groundball to second, they\u2019re going to go home to one, so I went in hard to slide. That was my intention off the bat, and Ernie Clement was our best hitter at the time besides Vladdy (Guerrero Jr.), and to hit into a double play there and not get Ernie up would have been terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really see the trip and all the little things,\u201d Kiner-Falefa said of Rojas\u2019 stumble before throwing home. \u201cI was initially just thinking, break up that double play right there and get our best, hottest hitter up at the time, and it almost paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto Blue Jays’ Isiah Kiner-Falefa speaks prior to Game 4 of baseball’s World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Ashley Landis)<\/p>\n
It was also what Kiner-Falefa, and Blue Jays manager John Schneider, said he was told to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel so bad for Izzy for getting all the blame,\u201d Schneider said at the MLB Winter Meetings in December. \u201cWhat\u2019s not talked about, I think, enough is the fact that Smith likes to back-pick to third with left-handed hitters up. It\u2019s something we talked about before the series, something that (third-base coach Carlos Febles) reminded Izzy of. \u2026 I don\u2019t really think (Kiner-Falefa) could have done much more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did what I was told, and it was an organizational policy,\u201d echoed Kiner-Falefa. \u201cAnd we win as a team, we lose as a team, and there was a lot of opportunities to win before that, and we didn\u2019t do it. So that wasn\u2019t the sole reason we lost. Seven-game series, a lot happened before that, and it\u2019s a great learning experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could do it over, I definitely would have got a couple steps out, but you gotta do what the organization wants,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd if you saw the situation from the game before, Miles Straw was on third and he did the exact same thing I did, but nobody looked at him because everybody\u2019s looking at (Addison) Barger getting doubled off. \u2026 It\u2019s not Carlos\u2019 fault either, it\u2019s no one\u2019s fault. It\u2019s just that\u2019s what they did all season long.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the World Series, the Hawaii native became a free agent and went home to surround himself with loved ones who could \u201cpick me up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good refresh,\u201d Kiner-Falefa said. \u201cI just wish I could have talked about it after. \u2026 It would have been nice to just get it all out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, he made an assiduous effort to retool his social media algorithms, so as to avoid being bombarded with reminders of the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh man, my algorithm on my social media is pretty good now,\u201d Kiner-Falefa said with a smile. \u201cThere is no baseball in my algorithm, a lot of blocks, and a lot of (tapping) \u2018Not Interested.\u2019 \u2026 It was just nonstop, so I found a way to make my algorithm no baseball, and ever since then, I haven\u2019t seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though his World Series moment didn\u2019t occur with the Red Sox, the experience could lend insight into his new organization, which spent 86 years racking up similarly stunning last-second heartbreaks and unanswerable what-ifs.<\/p>\n
Did Johnny Pesky hold the ball too long in 1946?<\/p>\n
What if Jim Rice had been healthy for the 1975 World Series?<\/p>\n
Bill Buckner.<\/p>\n
Those moments still sting, but they paved the way for the Red Sox to do some truly, transcendently spectacular things.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the same will be true for Kiner-Falefa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want a chance to get back there,\u201d he said. \u201cI won\u2019t ever get over that. It\u2019s more of, how can I get back? So I see this being a great opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Extra innings<\/p>\n
Kristian Campbell will get most of his reps in the outfield but will continue to do infield work with coach Jos\u00e9 Flores. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to play the infield, he\u2019s going to play mostly outfield,\u201d Cora said. \u201cBut we cannot forget about the infield part of it, because you never know what can happen.\u201d \u2026 Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, and Anthony Seidler, the three players from Sunday\u2019s Brewers trade, are expected to arrive in Fort Myers on Tuesday night. Durbin and Marcelo Mayer will get reps at second, as the Red Sox begin to assess infield roles for a bevy of candidates. \u2026 The pitchers who are set to participate in next month\u2019s World Baseball Classic threw live batting practice Tuesday to give them a head start before they depart camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 Few players reported to spring training this week more eager for a fresh start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,48,39,2057,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4,151,70,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-565360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston-red-sox","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-isiah-kiner-falefa","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-dodgers","14":"tag-ladodgers","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-losangelesdodgers","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-spring-training","21":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","22":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116049678536390988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}