A two-run lead was starting to slip away from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the ninth inning on Friday — along with their chance to force the MLB World Series to Game 7, but Hernandez “Kike” Hernandez turned what might have been a tying, two-run single by Andres Gimenez into the first game-ending left field-to-second base double-play in post-season history in the major leagues.
“The crazy thing is I had no idea where the ball was because it was in the lights the whole time,” Hernandez said after preserving a 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6.
Instead of getting a World Series-winning, three-run homer like the one Joe Carter hit off the Philadelphia Phillies’ Mitch Williams to capture the title in Game 6 in 1993, the Blue Jays were pushed to Game 7 and the Dodgers kept alive their chance to become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.
hoto: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images
Max Scherzer is to start Game 7 for Toronto against a Dodgers pitcher still to be determined — perhaps two-way star Shohei Ohtani, perhaps Tyler Glasnow. The October Classic will end in November for the 10th time.
“It’s the two best words in sports: Game 7,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto beat Toronto for the second time in a week by allowing one run in six innings, while slumping Mookie Betts hit a two-run single in a three-run third inning against Kevin Gausman that included Will Smith’s go-ahead double.
Photo: AFP
George Springer, back after missing two games with a sore right side, hit an RBI single in the bottom half and the Dodgers held the 3-1 lead going to the ninth inning.
Roki Sasaki hit Alejandro Kirk on the left wrist with an 0-2 splitter leading off and Addison Barger followed with a drive that landed at the base of the left-center wall. In a seldom-seen rarity, the ball lodged there instead of caroming back into play.
Both runners crossed the plate as many in the Rogers Centre crowd initially thought Toronto had tied the game, but the rule book is clear that a ball lodged in a fence is a ground-rule double. The runners were placed at second and third, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought in Glasnow, who was lined up to start Game 7 on normal rest.
Photo: AFP
“I just felt that Roki wasn’t as sharp, and I just felt we needed some swing-and-miss and Glasnow was the guy. So I had him loose, kind of looming,” Roberts said.
Glasnow escaped with just three pitches, earning the first save of the series.
Ernie Clement popped up his initial offering to first base.
Photo: AFP
Gimenez took a ball and hit the next to the opposite field, in short left.
Hernandez said he decided to play more shallow than the Dodgers’ scouting card called for. He ran about 20m and while on the run made a catch that had only a 40 percent probability, then delivered a one-hop throw to second baseman Miguel Rojas that doubled up Barger.
“For a split second as Glasnow threw the ball, the crowd got quiet and I was able to hear that the bat broke,” Hernandez said. “So I just got a really good jump on the ball and I came in and halfway there, the ball got in the lights. And I was just like: ‘Not the right time to stop to see where the ball is, just keep going.’”
“It’s going to hit me in the face — but I’m not stopping,” Hernandez remembered thinking. “I’m not pulling up. And at the very end, the ball came out of the lights and went into my glove.”
Barger had gotten about halfway to third before scrambling back and he reached second base too late with his headfirst slide.
“I was being too aggressive, trying to score, try to tie that game if that ball drops,” Barger said.
Even after the umpire signaled out, players had to wait 60 seconds for the call to be upheld by the replay room in New York.
Rojas had been inserted into the lineup for his first start since Oct. 6 in an effort by Roberts to spark the Dodgers’ offense, who are batting .191 after winning with just four hits.
“Pretty epic ending there,” Rojas said.
Yamamoto was not quite as sharp as in his Game 2 four-hitter, the first World Series complete game in a decade. Rookie reliever Justin Wrobleski struck out Gimenez to strand a runner at second in the seventh inning and Sasaki got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth when Bo Bichette fouled out and Daulton Varsho grounded out.
Then came the first game-ending double play in World Series history in which an outfielder had a putout or assist, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“Man, we live for Game 7, so here we go,” Roberts said.
Yamamoto, winner of three Most Valuable Player awards in Japan, improved to 4-1 with a 1.56 ERA in five post-season starts in the MLB and has a 1.20 ERA in his two World Series outings.
Tommy Edman doubled with one out in the third inning for the Dodgers’ first hit. Ohtani was intentionally walked for the fifth time in the series and Smith hit an RBI double off the left-field wall on a high splitter. Freddie Freeman walked, bringing up Betts.
With Los Angeles seeking their third title in six seasons, Roberts dropped the slumping Betts from second to third in the batting order in Game 5 and then to fourth in Game 6 — the lowest Betts had hit since 2017.
Betts fell behind 1-2 in the count, fouled off two pitches and laced Gausman’s third straight fastball between shortstop and third for a 3-0 lead. That ended a zero-for-13 stretch with the bases loaded for the Dodgers that dated to their division series.
“He could hit me seventh, I don’t care. I just want to win,” said Betts, already a three-time champion. “Whatever we do, however we get there, I’ll jump on whoever’s back to go. We all get a ring, that’s all I care about.”
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
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