World Series Update: Dodgers Repeat in All-Time Classic
- emeredith55
- Nov 2
- 3 min read
by Elias Meredith 11/2/25 Sportz Nation
“It’s going to go down as one for the ages.” This is what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after a thrilling 5-4 Game 7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Dodgers are the first team to win back-to-back World Series since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. The Dodgers showed their championship pedigree in the back end of this series, after dropping two games at home.
It was Ohtani versus Scherzer to start Game 7 for their respective teams. With all hands on deck, they served more as openers, as both managers were never too far away from the bullpen phone just in case their starter got into trouble.
Ohtani was the first to experience some turbulence on the mound. Going into the third inning, he already had 43 pitches and just got out of a bases loaded jam in the second.
In the third, the Blue Jays struck first. Blue Jays designated hitter Bo Bichette drilled a three-run home run to put the Blue Jays ahead early and chase Ohtani from the game.
In the fourth, the Dodgers immediately got one run back after one of the most entertaining sacrifice flies of the entire series. Outfielder Teoscar Hernandez drilled a line drive to center field, and Blue Jays center fielder Dalton Varsho made a full extension catch to rob Hernandez of an extra base hit, but in the process, Dodgers catcher Will Smith scored from third on a sacrifice fly to score the Dodgers first run of the game.
In the sixth, both teams pushed across runs in their half of the inning to keep it a two run game going into the eighth.
In the eighth, Dodger veteran Max Muncy hit his franchise-leading 16th postseason home run to put his club within one. In the bottom half of the inning, the Dodger bullpen provided a huge shut down inning. After Dodger reliever Emmet Sheehan let up an Ernie Clement double to start the inning, Blake Snell came in and ended the threat, striking out two of three batters in the inning, and keeping it a one-run game heading into the ninth.
The Dodgers were down one heading into their half of the ninth. Kiké Hernandez, Miguel Rojas, and Shohei Ohtani were due up to start the inning. One of those guys came up clutch to extend the Dodgers season for at least another half inning, and it was not Ohtani. The ninth hitter in the lineup, Miguel Rojas, who has not had a hit in exactly one month, tied the game at four, hitting a solo home run after a gritty seven pitch at-bat.
Blake Snell would start the bottom of the ninth, but after two of the first three batters got on to start the inning. Yoshinobu Yamamoto came in for relief and was the epitome of “all hands on deck”. 24 hours before this relief appearance, Yamamoto threw 96 pitches in a Game 6 win, and now looked to win his second World Series in his first two years at the Major League level in a Herculean effort.
Defensively, the Dodgers stepped up hugely. Rojas was not done making plays, as he flashed the leather at second base, snagging an in-between hop ground ball that put him on his heels and firing to home to cut down the game-winning run at home. Then defensive substitution Andy Pages was immediately tested. Ernie Clement golfed a Yamamoto curveball to deep left center field, and Pages tracked it down, running over left fielder Kiké Hernandez in the process and pushing Game 7 to extra innings.
The game would stay deadlocked at four until Dodger catcher Will Smith punished a hanging slider by Shane Bieber and deposited it into the Blue Jays bullpen to make it a 5-4 ball game heading into the bottom half of the eleventh.
Yamamoto would close the door in the eleventh. His signature splitter would induce the inning-ending double play and give the Dodgers their ninth World Series win in franchise history. Yamamoto would also be named the Willie Mays World Series MVP, becoming the first pitcher to win the award since Stephen Strasburg did it in 2019.
A Fall Classic for the ages that was so entertaining, nobody wanted it to end, but as the 2025 MLB Season comes to a close, the quality of play seen in this series would be cherished by sports fans all around the world.
Thank you for reading!
Elias Meredith (@EAM_55)
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