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toronto blue jays Most teams had to wait longer to return world Series But they made up for lost time by defeating the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers 11–4 in a best-of-seven championship game.
And history was made in Canada as Addison Barger became the first man to crush a pinch-hit grand slam in the World Series, coming off the bench to break up the game in a devastating sixth inning.
Much of the talk in the build-up to the opening pitch was about how the Dodgers, a super-team featuring Japanese two-way standouts shohei ohtaniwere the clear favorites mlbChampions again for the first time in 25 years.
But the Blue Jays, who posted the eighth-longest active streak in MLB between World Series games played, cared little for that narrative and showed they were up to the task as they left the Dodgers wondering what went wrong.
For the Blue Jays, who opened the game with a nine-run sixth inning that included Barger’s first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, it was as perfect a start as any team could have hoped for.
“That’s how we work,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “They were some very brilliant batsmen all up and down the order.”
The Dodgers struck first as Max Muncy and Enrique Hernandez hit singles to capitalize on a leadoff walk that put Los Angeles ahead 1–0 in the second inning. They doubled their lead in the third when Mookie Betts scored on a single to the opposite field by Will Smith.
But the Blue Jays responded in the fourth, where Alejandro Kirk hit a leadoff single before Daulton Varsho sent the next pitch over the center-field wall for a two-run homer, tying the game.
Toronto opened the floodgates with three runs in the sixth, before Barger sent the sellout crowd of 44,353 into delirium with a four-run blast into center-field. After this, Alejandro Kirk added two runs to put Toronto ahead 11-2.
“I was just trying to put the ball in play, hopefully get home a run,” Barger said. “That was kind of my only goal and it ended up working out even better than that.”
Ohtani, who is expected to make his World Series pitching debut in Game 4 in Los Angeles on Tuesday, hit his sixth home run of the postseason in the seventh to cut Toronto’s lead, but it was too little, too late.
The Dodgers came into the game after a full week off after defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in four games, while the Blue Jays came into the game four days later after falling behind in seven games.
But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he did not think the long layoff would have any impact on the game.
“We didn’t make pitches when we needed to keep the game close,” Roberts said.
The Blue Jays’ victory also brought some cheer to Canadians to counter the economic gloom after months of political conflict with their next-door neighbor.
reuters