The Los Angeles Dodgers forced a decisive Game 7 of the World Series with their 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Friday’s Game 6. The outcome was in doubt until the instant the game ended, and that’s because of a bottom of the ninth that was as bizarre as it was tense.Â
To open the frame, Toronto catcher Alejandro Kirk reached when an 0-2 splitter got away from Dodgers relief ace Roki Sasaki and struck Kirk on the hand (X-rays were negative). Next man up Addison Barger then scalded a double to the wall in left-center that likely would’ve scored the hasty Myles Straw, who was pinch-running for Kirk, had things unfolded in standard fashion. Things, though, did not unfold in standard fashion:Â
Barger’s ringer immediately upon landing got stuck between the bottom of the wall and the warning track, which made it a dead ball. Dodgers fly-catchers Justin Dean and Kiké Hernández promptly signaled as much, and the umpires agreed, which made it a rulebook double. That, in turn, meant that Straw was allowed to advance just two bases, and that placed him at third and probably took a Toronto run off the board. The ruling was upheld on review.Â
Unlucky ball placement notwithstanding, the Jays were still in strong position. At the start of the home half of the ninth, the Jays, down two runs with three offensive outs to go, had just an 8.9% chance of winning Game 6 and closing out the series, per basic win expectancy. With runners on second and third and no outs, however, that figure was up to 43%. That’s not quite coin-flip territory, but it’s close to it.
At that point, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts summoned Tyler Glasnow, his Game 3 starter, from the bullpen to make a (very) high-leverage bullpen appearance. Straightaway, he retired Ernie Clement on a first-pitch foul pop. That brought No. 9 hitter Andrés Giménez to the dish. Glasnow threw him a 1-0 sinker on the outer edge, and Giménez put a decent swing on it. He lifted it to shallow left — 247 feet from home plate — and into the perilous dead zone where batted balls so often find grass between outgoing infielders and incoming outfielders. In the case of Giménez’s struck ball, Statcast gave it an expected batting average of .710. In other words, the Jays had a seven in 10 chance of either tying the game or having the tying run 90 feet away with one out.Â
Before we roll tape, here’s how two of this writer’s CBS Sports colleagues reacted in real time to what you’re about to see:Â
Expectations were defied:
Out in left, Kiké Hernández said he was “playing a little more shallow than the [defensive positioning] card wanted me to” on account of Barger’s speed at second base. As well, Hernández noted that Giménez had more power to hill pull side, which to his very prescient thinking justified his decision to play more in. The already unlikely snare was even more improbable than you might think. Hernández also said this postgame on the broadcast:
“Somehow I was able to hear that the bat broke, even with that crowd. The crazy thing is I had no idea where the ball was ’cause it was in the lights the whole time.”
Perhaps the Hernández catch should be promoted to miracle territory.
That, though, was merely the second out. Back at second base, Barger, no doubt wanting to improve his chances at scoring on what he surely read as a single to left, hustled too far off the bag. That gave Hernández enough time to heave the ball to second. There, Miguel Rojas — in Roberts’ starting lineup for the first time since NLDS Game 2 on Oct. 6 — made an athletic pick that was probably about as difficult as Hernández’s catch. Barger was out by inches and, once replay confirmed, Game 6 was over and Game 7 was a reality.Â
“I was pretty surprised he got to it,” Barger explained after the game. “Off the bat, I thought it was going to go over the shortstop’s head. I didn’t think it was going to travel that far. It was kind of a bad read.”
Those “coin-flip” odds the Jays approached earlier in the inning? In the span of three Glasnow pitches, those odds were down to zero.Â
There are many such unforgettable high-intrigue late innings in the annals of World Series history, and this one surely merits a place among them. The Jays did all they could with those final three outs, but the inches, percentage points, miscalculations, and Dodger defense all conspired against a comeback.Â
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