The Fall Classic has come a long way, but no matter where it is, the Dodgers have relied heavily on Yoshinobu Yamamoto to lead the team to victory, and he delivered again on Friday night. After three games in Los Angeles, the World Series returns to Toronto for Game 6. Despite returning home, the Blue Jays lost 3-1 to the Dodgers, meaning the Canadians will face Los Angeles in the deciding Game 7 on Saturday night.
The faster we fall, the more we stop and become stagnant,
We’re going in circles again.
Just when things are getting better, you say it’s not good enough,
But we’ll still try again.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman seemed to have trouble dealing with the first seven batters he faced. His distribution worked exactly as it was supposed to—appearing as a mid-cut fastball that then dived too deep for hitters to reach—and resulted in plenty of swings and misses. As he gets deeper into the game, Gausman mixes up his slider more, which earns him some quick outs on weak contact. For the most part, he managed six innings and 93 pitches. Mostly.
With the Dodgers offense struggling and Gausman sealing the victory early, even with Yamamoto on the mound, things were starting to look hopeless for Los Angeles.
Like Harrison Ford, I went crazy.
It feels like at least a week has passed since the Dodgers were hit with a runner in scoring position. Although a week is a bit exaggerated, it is only a small week. The last time this happened was on Monday. In the fourth inning of Game 3, a nearly seven-hour marathon, Freddie Freeman hit an RBI single to score Shohei Ohtani at second. Over the next 34 innings, the Dodgers allowed 0 runners in scoring position, in part because they only had six chances over the next two games.
But with two outs in the third inning of Game 6, Will Smith loaded the bases on a two-run single by center fielder Tommy Edman and an intentional walk by Ohtani. Smith hit an outside slider on first pitch, and then Gausman lobbed one down the lane, looking to add to his total, which by then had reached 13 points. Instead, Smith hunkered down and hit the ball all the way to the outfield wall, just inside the left field line. Edman scored, but Ohtani moved to third, perhaps out of respect for the strong arm of Nathan Lukes in left field, perhaps because Freeman came on next, perhaps because the Dodgers didn’t want to risk a collision at the plate with their likely starting pitcher in Game 7. But for a team striving for big success, playing conservatively feels risky.
Freeman followed Smith’s double with a walk, which brought Mookie Betts to the plate. Betts started the day hitting just .234/.319/.328 in 72 postseason games, and his performance in the World Series was even worse, with just 3 runs on 23 shots in the first five games of the Fall Classic. As a result, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts moved Betts down the rankings. That means Betts is cleaning up at bat, which is typical for sluggish hitters. His World Series bat tracking data shows that he has moved away from the swing that made him so successful in August and September and instead committed the cardinal sin of “trying to do too much.”
you came suddenly
Dress up like someone else.
Where you are is not where it is
Look, you let me
When you strike a pose, laugh.
Take off all your preppy clothes.
You know you’re not lying
anyone when you become
There are other people around other people.
You stared at your back, seemingly unable to relax.
you try to act cool
You look like a fool to me.
On Fox’s postgame show, Bates admitted that he overcomplicated things, so he chose to calm down and follow his wife’s advice to live in the moment rather than worry about what happened earlier in the series. With the bases loaded, Betts saw the first two pitches from Gausman, a slider and a pitcher. Gausman then threw three consecutive fastballs to him, targeting the upper third of the zone. Betts had a swing error on the first pitch and a foul on the second, but on the third he hit a grounder single to the left side of the infield. Ohtani and Smith scored, and Betts scored the first two RBIs of the series.
Although their three-run third gave hope that the bats might heat up, the Dodgers went scoreless the rest of the game, leaving only Yamamoto and other pitchers to extend their lead. After back-to-back complete games in his first two starts, it would be reasonable for Yamamoto to potentially give the bullpen another night of rest. He pitched well again on Friday, allowing just one run in six innings, but five hits, a walk and six strikeouts brought his pitch count to 96, putting the thought of a third straight complete game out of reach.
I deal with business every day,
Taking care of all aspects of business.
I’ve been taking care of business; it’s all mine
Take care of business and work overtime – exercise.
Despite not having the best day at the office, at least not by his own incredibly high standards, Yamamoto still showed up and got the job done, and really only broke a sweat in the third and sixth innings — the only one in which a baserunner was contested against him. After the Blue Jays retired the first six pitches, seventh-hole batter Addison Barger hit a double on a poorly placed fastball to take the lead. Yamamoto then struck out third baseman Ernie Clement on three pitches, but he needed six pitches to get shortstop Andres Jimenez out. Then the lineup flipped and George Springer came off the bench for the second time. In his first at-bat, Springer saw seven pitches from Yamamoto but eventually rolled a curveball, his first at-bat since exiting Game 3 with an oblique injury. Despite the pained look on Springer’s face every time he moved his bat toward home plate, he was still able to make a 3-0 cut into right field in the third inning and score Toronto’s only run of the night.
From that point on, things went smoothly for Yamamoto. He allowed one run in the fourth and fifth innings and struck out the first two batters in the sixth before playoff prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a double on a curve ball just outside the plate. Bo Bichette followed with a noticeable decline in his fastball command, and Yamamoto ended his inning by allowing Daulton Varsho to hit four straight balls.
I know some people who think they’re smart
But you have to take an art seriously.
You thought you were a genius, but you pushed me into a corner
You are a common original, a know-it-all.
Oh oh, you think you’re special,
Oh oh, you thought you were something else.
Okay, so you’re a rocket scientist –
This didn’t impress me too much.
Yamamoto put in a skilled effort, but it wasn’t without help from his defense. The brightest defensive gem in the game came from Miguel Rojas, who had started just two games (Game 2 of the NFC Wild Card Series and Game 2 of the NFC Wild Card Series) before Game 6 of the playoffs. His last appearance came as a reliever in the 13th inning of Game 3, and prior to that he had not seen a game since Game 3 of the NLDS. Rojas is arguably the Dodgers’ best secondary backer, and to paraphrase Roberts’ comments on the subject before and after the game, the hope is that Rojas can bring about a shift in atmosphere and inject some energy into this do-or-die game in Los Angeles.
In the aftermath of Game 6, Roberts looked pretty smart. Rojas made at least four key plays in the game, including a rough chop with his bare hands that set up Barger’s second out in the seventh inning.
I can’t feel my face when I’m with you
But I like it.
But I like it very much
I can’t feel my face when I’m with you
But I like it.
But I like it very much.
Of course, the defensive crown jewel of this game came in the bottom of the ninth inning, and as fans of both teams were thinking, “Postseason baseball will be the death of me.”
Roki Sasaki started the inning for the Dodgers after a sluggish, scoreless eighth inning. Alejandro Kirk scored first for the Jayhawks and made it 0-2, but the ball went up instead of down and collided with Kirk’s wrist. Toronto went with Myles Straw as backup for Kirk. Bugg followed with a double that would have likely scored the fast-paced Straws from the start, unless the ball caught under the padding at the bottom of the wall on its flight and got stuck there. Defensive backup center fielder Justin Dean wisely put his hands up rather than try to pry it away. In this chaotic game, not only did Straw score, but Barger surged around the bases and hit what most of the Rogers Center crowd thought was a game-tying home run. Alas, the ball was ruled dead, with Straw on third and Barger on second, and the score was still 3-1. Still, the Dodgers were under pressure, with Sasaki exiting the game with runners on second and third with no outs, Clemente and his .403 postseason average coming to the plate, and Tyler Glasnow (who would have started Game 7 if needed) jogging out of the bullpen to end the game.
I said, oh, I was blinded by the light,
No, I can’t sleep unless I feel your touch (touch).
I said, oh, I’m drowning in the night,
Oh, you’re the one I trust when I’m like this.
Glasnow needed just three pitches to seal the victory for the Dodgers, but the thought of three quick pitches belied the anxious tension that shook the stadium and echoed on television screens around the world. On his first pitch, Glasnow got Clement to pop up a sinker, keeping it infield and stopping the runner in his tracks. His second was a curveball to Jimenez that missed. His third pitch was a sinker in the outside corner that Jimenez deflected to left field and into the glove of the oncoming Enrique Hernandez. After the game, Hernandez told Ken Rosenthal that he played shallower than the defensive card called for and, based on his own recollection, Jimenez didn’t have as many pops. When Jimenez made contact with the ball, Hernandez heard the snap of the bat and started to attack, but admitted to Rosenthal that he couldn’t actually see the ball; it was obscured by the stadium lights. He continued running in, but joked he was worried the ball would hit him directly in the face. Instead, it fell from the light into his glove. At some point along the way, Hernandez also noticed that Barger was already halfway to third, so as the ball dropped into his glove, he immediately snatched it out and threw it to second, where who but Rojas was waiting to dig the ball out of the dirt for a double play.
But you, you’re not allowed.
You came uninvited,
Unfortunately slightly.
Not only did the tag team win in the end, but it also allowed Springer to leave an unforgettable presence on the deck.
The legend has been passed down from the Chippewa River
They called this large lake Gitche Gumee.
It is said that the lake will never give up on her death
When the skies turn gloomy in November.
Loading more than 26,000 tons of iron ore
Better than Edmund Fitzgerald.
That good ship and truth is a bone to chew
The November winds come early.
As a result, the Dodgers defeated the Blue Jays in Game 6, forcing a Game 7 scheduled for Saturday night, November 1, in Toronto.
Everyone is working on weekends
Everyone wants a new relationship,
Everyone is heading towards the abyss,
Everyone needs a second chance.
