World Series Game Three: Let's Play Two!

I am very late with this recap of Game Three, but it's with a great reason: the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays decided to take the words of the late, great Ernie Banks seriously.

The Fall Classic shifted from Eastern Canada to Southern California, and it started out with Tyler Glasnow on the mound against Max Scherzer. Teoscar Hernandez homered in the 2nd to make it 1-0, and Shohei Ohtani's knock made it 2-0. Alejandro Kirk's three-run homer in the fourth capped off a four run inning that put the Jays up 4-2, but the fifth inning saw Ohtani drive in Enrique Hernandez, and then Ohtani was driven in by Freddie Freeman. Tie game. Jays took the lead 5-4, but Ohtani tied it with his second homer of the game.

Score was tied at 5 after seven innings. What happened next was a doozy.

Game went to extra innings. Then more extra innings. Both teams had close calls. One of the closest was Will Smith's shot barely dying at the warning track. We also saw Ohtani and Mookie Betts walked in one inning to face Freeman. The sound you heard was Yankees fans saying, "I've seen this before." Freeman hit his shot. This time, caught at the warning track. The sound you later heard was Yankees fans saying, "Where was this last year?"

As the game reached the 16th and 17th innings, I immediately thought about 2018. That year was the World Series between the Red Sox and Dodgers, which went 18 innings. Max Muncy led off the bottom of the 18th that night with a walk-off home run, resulting in Joe Buck's "Night, night" call. That was the only game the Dodgers won in that year's Series. This game, in 2025, actually reached 18 innings, and I did find myself hoping for a 19th. After a good attempt by the Jays was halted, Freddie Freeman led off the bottom of the 18th, and ended it. Walk-off shot to center, and at 11:50PM (ten minutes to midnight) Pacific Standard Time, Game Three was over.

The Los Angeles Dodgers won Game Three of the World Series, 6-5, in eighteen innings! Let's take a look at the numbers here. This was the second-ever World Series game to reach 18 innings--the equivalent of two games played. Even crazier: both historic games were played at Dodger Stadium. While both games matched the longest in innings played, the game in 2018 remains the longest in elapsed time. Game Three in 2018 lasted seven hours and 20 minutes. This game lasted six hours and 50 minutes.

Similar to how marathon Stanley Cup Playoff games make goalies look great, the same goes for marathon baseball games doing the same for pitchers, especially in the postseason. When Ohtani hit his second homer of the game in the 7th inning, that was the last run until Freeman's walk-off. The Dodgers bullpen, which had been battered and beleaguered for pretty much the entire year? 13 2/3 innings, 10 hits, nine strikeouts, one earned run. Mind you, that pen gave up six runs in one inning in Game One. Clayton Kershaw (in his final World Series appearance this year) was part of this. They almost put Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the game had it reached a 19th inning!

As for the hitters, long games like that were hell for them. Mookie Betts went 1-for-8. Freeman, despite his walk-off, went 2-for-7. Max Muncy (who was actually set to bat in that inning and potentially pull off another 18-inning walk-off) had no hits in seven at bats. As for Ohtani, he went 4-for-4 and was on base nine times because the Jays decided to stop pitching to him, while Teoscar Hernandez went 4-for-8. For the Jays, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. went 2-for-7, while Ernie Clement and Nathan Lukes each went 1-for-8. Holy moley!

So it took the equivalent of two games, but the Dodgers won Game Three and now take a 2-1 Series lead. The Dodgers are two wins away from repeating as World Champions, and Game Four is later tonight in Dodger Stadium. I hope Ohtani is well rested, because he's starting on the mound tonight for the Dodgers.

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