The Los Angeles Dodgers won the second longest game in World Series history on Monday, Oct. 27, walking off the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 in the 18th inning on a solo home run from Freddie Freeman in Game 3. The Dodgers and Blue Jays combined to send 19 different pitchers to the mound, throwing 609 pitches across 151 plate appearances in a game that lasted for six hours and 39 minutes.
Both teams’ starters left in the fifth inning, putting the onus on their bullpens for the long haul, and Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs and reached base nine times, tying an all-time MLB record and obliterating its postseason counterpart in the process.
Here are the winners and losers as Los Angeles took a 2-1 series lead.
Winner: Freddie Freeman
Freddie Freeman went 2-for-7 with two walks and the second walk-off home run of his World Series career, bringing the house down with the count full in the 18th inning. Toronto left-hander Brendon Little hung a sinker over the heart of the plate, and Freeman crushed it to center field.
Freeman also tied the game in the fifth inning, roping a single to left to plate Shohei Ohtani. It’s been a rough postseason for the veteran first baseman — those RBI marked just his second and third across 13 games played — but he managed to come through with another signature October moment when the Dodgers needed him most, their bullpen utterly exhausted and forcing Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched nine innings on Saturday, to get ready to take the mound.
Winner: Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani put together one of the best games in postseason history, hitting two doubles and two home runs in the first seven innings. The Blue Jays didn’t dare pitch to Ohtani with a walk-off in the cards, sticking him with intentional walks in the ninth, 11th, 13th and 15th innings, and the bases were empty on three of those occasions.
When Toronto finally did decide to pitch to him, with one on and two out in the 17th, Brendon Little didn’t give him anything to hit, spiking three knuckle curves in the dirt on the way to a four-pitch walk. Ohtani’s nine times on base matches an MLB regular season record; the previous postseason record was six times on base.
Up next, he’ll make his World Series debut as a pitcher in Game 4.
Pyrrhic Victory: Both Bullpens
Both bullpens — yes, even Toronto’s — deserve credit for the performance they put on in Game 3. Not only did they go blow for blow for most of nine extra innings, a full second game’s worth of playing time: they also started the night at a disadvantage after both Dodgers’ starter Tyler Glasnow and Blue Jays’ starter Max Scherzer couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning.
Each of the nine players listed in the bullpen on the Dodgers’ World Series roster made an appearance, while the Blue Jays sent eight arms, including occasional starter Eric Lauer, to the mound.
Dodgers legend (and notorious postseason choke artist) Clayton Kershaw took the mound with the bases loaded in the 12th inning, forcing a groundout on a payoff pitch to exorcise some of his October demons during the final playoff run of his career.
The bad news for both bullpens is that they’ll have to do it all again barely 15 hours after the last game ended… and for Toronto, they don’t even have a win to show for their troubles.
Loser: Bunting
In an era of baseball where the three true outcomes are king, old school tactics like bunting have gone the way of the dodo — at least in the court of public opinion. The analytics nerds were proved right in Game 3.
Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk drew a leadoff walk in the 12th inning, and Myles Straw tried to lay down a bunt to move his pinch-runner, backup backstop Tyler Heineman, into scoring position. Instead, he lined out to first base, burning one valuable out. Naturally, Toronto went on to load the bases, but without another out in their back pocket, nothing came of the rally.
The Dodgers made the same mistake in the bottom of the 13th inning, which Tommy Edman led off with a double. Miguel Rojas bunted Edman over to third base, and Los Angeles promptly stranded him there. Had either team decided to ignore conventional wisdom (always a touchy proposition in a game like baseball), they could’ve spared their bullpens and gifted viewers with an earlier bedtime.
