After we stopped blogging Game Three, the Dodgers and Blue Jays played for another nine innings. A lot happened. Here are some key moments.
In the top of the tenth, the Dodgers sent out Emmet Sheehan to pitch. Sheehan was consistently terrible in the Series. He threw four innings against the Blue Jays. In those four innings, he allowed seven hits, three walks, and three earned runs, for an ERA of 6.75. He was bad here. After retiring Ernie Clement and Andres Gimenes, he allowed a single to Ty France (who had replaced the injured George Springer). The Blue Jays sent in Davis Schneider to pinch run for France. The next batter was Nathan Lukes, who went a miserable 4-23 in the Series. Time and time again, Lukes -- who normally batted between Springer and Guerrero Jr. -- would help the Dodgers by making a key out between those two red-hot sluggers. And I think Dave Roberts, the Dodgers' manager, expected him to do so again. Otherwise he would not have left Sheehan on the mound. But Sheehan was obviously the pitcher Lukes had been waiting to see. He ripped a double to right field. My immediate reaction was: "Oh, no, that will put runners on second and third for Guerrero." Because the ball was hit too hard to score a runner from first -- it got to Teoscar Hernandez too quickly in right field. Teoscar whipped a throw to Edman, and when Edman threw home I realized that Schneider was actually trying to score. But he had no chance, and Edman had another assist. At the time, I thought that this was a catastrophic blunder by the Blue Jays, and the more I think about it, the worse it was. The Blue Jays really needed to win Game Three -- they needed to put the Dodgers away before Yamamoto could take the mound for Game Six -- and, in a very real sense, they lost the Series when they failed to score in extra innings. This was a golden chance, and they lost it.
In the bottom of the eleventh, the Blue Jays walked Ohtani with two out and no one on base. (They gave him four intentional walks and an unintentional walk in this game). Betts singled to put runners on first and second. Now Freeman could win the game with a single, but he went for a home run and flew out to center.
In the top of the twelfth, Sheehan got into more trouble. He walked Alejandro Kirk, who was replaced by Tyler Heineman as a pinch runner. Myles Straw tried to bunt Heineman to second, but lined out to Freeman. Clement did advance Heineman to second with a grounder to short. Sheehan now walked Gimenez to pitch to Schneider, who beat out a ground ball to third -- loading the bases for Lukes. At this point, the Dodgers brought in Clayton Kershaw (!) to make the absolute final appearance of his baseball career. It was like a scene out of a movie -- and even more so when Kershaw got Lukes to ground out to second and end the inning.
In the bottom of the thirteenth, Tommy Edman led off with a double, and Miguel Rojas bunted him to third. Alex Call could have won the game, but he popped up. With two outs and a runner on third, the Blue Jays walked Ohtani and Betts to pitch to Freeman with the bases loaded. I wanted Freeman to draw a walk, but instead he drilled a ball to deep center, where it died and was caught to end the inning.
By this point, it was clear that a lot of guys on both sides were playing Home Run Derby. In the bottom of the fourteenth, Will Smith -- who, to be fair, pretty much always swings for the fences -- absolutely crushed a pitch from Eric Lauer. Everyone thought the game was over. Kershaw climbed out of the dugout to begin the celebration. But, once again, the ball died at the wall. It had cooled down in Dodger Stadium, and the ball just wasn't carrying. At this point, I realized that if these guys kept swinging for the fences, they could be there a long time.
And they were. Again, to me the nine extra innings were the worst stretch of baseball played by both teams. The Blue Jays, in particular, had a golden chance to feast on the Dodger bullpen, and could not take advantage of it. Consider these facts. Dodger pitchers threw 73 innings in the World Series and allowed 32 earned runs, for an ERA of 3.95. But if you take away the 17 2/3 innings pitched by Yamamoto, and the nine extra innings of Game Three, then the Dodger pitchers allowed 30 earned runs in 46 1/3 innings. That's an ERA of 5.83. In other words, when Yamamoto wasn't on the mound, the Blue Jays were scoring almost six runs every nine innings. In fact, they scored five runs in the first nine innings of Game Three, six runs in Game Four, and six runs in Game Five. But in the nine extra innings of Game Three, they scored zero runs -- even though they didn't face a single Dodger Ace. Here's how the Dodgers covered those nine innings:
2 2/3 innings from Emmet Sheehan (0 runs, 3 hits)
1/3 inning from Clayton Kershaw (0 runs, 0 hits)
2 innings from Edgardo Henriquez (0 runs, 0 hits)
4 innings from Will Klein (0 runs, 1 hit)
That's a nine-inning, four-hit shutout from the bottom of the Dodgers' bullpen. All credit to Will Klein, but he only threw 15 1/3 innings all year. If you're the Blue Jays, and you want to win the World Series, you have to score off of that guy.
But they did not. They really had only one more chance. In the top of the eighteenth, Klein wisely walked Guerrero with one out. Kiner-Falefa forced Guerrero at second, and then Klein walked Daulton Varsho. A wild pitch put runners on second and third. The next batter should have been Alejandro Kirk. But you will recall that he had been pulled for Heineman, who struck out to end the inning.
By now it was very late. The Dodgers had Yamamoto warming up in the bullpen, as Klein couldn't go any longer and there weren't any good options left. The teams had been playing for six hours and thirty-nine minutes. It was almost midnight in Los Angeles, and almost three A.M. on the East Coast. I had finally given up and gone to bed after Betts had popped up to end the seventeenth. But in the bottom of the eighteenth, Freddy Freeman kept swinging for the fences. And on the videos, you can see the fans perk up when he sends yet another fly toward that center field fence where Varsho's glove had already swallowed so many Dodger efforts. But there's a moment where the crowd realizes that this time, Varsho isn't just camped at the foot of the wall, waiting for the ball to drop. This time, Varsho is trying to time a leap -- but he can't quite make it, and the ball is gone and game is finally over. Wild, exultant celebrations for the Dodgers -- and justified celebrations, because they have managed to win a game without Yamamoto. It will turn out to be the only time in the Series that they do this.
But it also turned out that they only needed to do it once.
