TORONTO — The Los Angeles Dodgers are the first repeat champion in 25 years, a back-to-back team that shook up baseball by winning Game 7 on a wild night of see-sawing emotions. The Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in the 11th inning, a victory that sealed the championship for the club in a World Series that will be remembered for its dramatic conclusion.
The Series was billed as an epic 18-inning marathon and delivered that and more in a matchup of two teams with the best rosters in baseball. The series was played out on a stage of unprecedented drama, from Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer in Game 3 to the awe-inspiring hitting of Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts in Games 4 and 5.
Despite a slow start by both sides, the teams were locked at 2 apiece going into a game that was the kind of spectacle kids dream up in backyards. It featured a retaliation-inspired near-fight (it wasn’t a fight, but benches seldom clear these days) and a series-clinching home run by Max Muncy.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who entered the series with zero complete games stateside, threw six innings of gems before escaping a bases-loaded jam in the ninth. Then came a crazy play at the plate, as Miguel Rojas caught a fly ball and made a heady throw to double an aggressive young player off second base. The resulting double play set the stage for the dramatic finish, one of the wildest in Series history.