Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off homer in the 18th inning as the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 6-5 in the longest World Series game ever. Shohei Ohtani reached base 9 times.
The game that lasted almost seven hours ended at 11:50 PM Monday night in Los Angeles. And honestly? Nobody wanted to leave.
What we just witnessed was one of the greatest World Series games in baseball history. Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the 18th inning to give the Dodgers a 6-5 win over the Blue Jays, tying the record for the longest World Series game ever played.
The Dodgers now lead the series 2-1, with Game 4 scheduled for tonight at 8 PM ET, and here’s the kicker – Shohei Ohtani, who reached base a record nine times in this marathon, is pitching Game 4 on less than 24 hours of rest.
How This Epic Game Unfolded
Game 3 started like a normal playoff game. Teoscar Hernández gave the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead with a solo homer off Max Scherzer in the second inning. Ohtani added another with his first homer of the night in the third.
Then things got interesting.
In the fourth inning, the Blue Jays exploded. After Tommy Edman committed an error that put two runners on base, Alejandro Kirk absolutely crushed a hanging curveball from Tyler Glasnow for a three-run bomb that put Toronto up 3-2. Kirk sprinted to the dugout holding the Blue Jays’ home run jacket, and suddenly this game had a pulse.
The Dodgers tied it in the fifth. Ohtani ripped an opposite-field RBI double – his third extra-base hit of the night – to make it 4-3. Then Freeman singled home Ohtani to tie the game at 4-4.
Bo Bichette gave Toronto the lead back in the seventh with a single that scored Vladimir Guerrero Jr, who had hustled all the way from first base with an absolutely insane slide at home plate to avoid the tag. 5-4 Blue Jays.
That’s when Ohtani said, “Not today.”
He crushed a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh off Seranthony Domínguez to tie the game at 5-5. And then… the real marathon began.
11 Innings of Scoreless Baseball
After Ohtani’s game-tying homer, both teams went scoreless for the next eleven innings. That’s right – eleven straight innings without a run despite both bullpens being notoriously shaky all season.
The Dodgers had chances. Freeman came up with the bases loaded in the 13th and hit a ball to the warning track that just died in the marine layer. In the 14th, Will Smith crushed one that looked gone off the bat but stayed in the park.
The Blue Jays had their opportunities too. They left 19 runners on base – a World Series record. They got men in scoring position multiple times but couldn’t capitalise against a Dodgers bullpen that suddenly found another gear.
Freddie Freeman Does It Again
Freeman has become the king of World Series walk-offs.
Last year against the Yankees, he hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history to win Game 1. Monday night, he became the first player ever to hit multiple walk-off homers in World Series play.
The at-bat against Brendon Little went to a 3-2 count. Little left a sinker right down the middle. Freeman crushed it 406 feet over the centre-field wall, just over the outstretched glove of diving centre fielder Daulton Varsho.
Dodger Stadium erupted. Freeman’s teammates mobbed him at home plate. And a game that featured 609 pitches, 19 pitchers, 37 runners left on base, and 25 position players finally ended after 6 hours and 39 minutes.
“My swings were getting better as the game was going on,” Freeman said afterward. “I thought I had a couple hits in — I don’t know — 21 innings ago.”
