Photo: Mark Blinch / Getty Images Sport / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Dodgers will face the Toronto Blue Jays in the decisive seventh game of the World Series Saturday in Toronto, seeking their first back-to-back World Series championships.
The Dodgers' starting pitcher Saturday is "TBD" manager Dave Roberts said in the news conference that followed his team's 3-1 victory in Game 6 Friday that tied the best-of-seven series at three games a piece.
All Dodger pitchers will be available Saturday, except for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was Friday's winning pitcher, allowing one run and five hits in six innings, striking out six and walking one for the victory that improved his record in the postseason to 4-1.
Shohei Ohtani is "going to pitch, I just don't know when," Roberts said on MLB Network's postgame show.
Ohtani would be pitching on three days rest for the second time in his six seasons as a major league pitcher.
The only time he pitched on three days rest was in on April 21, 2023, when he pitched seven shutout innings against the Oakland Athletics, limiting them to two hits, striking out 11 batters and walking two in the Angels' 2-0 victory, four days after he was removed from a start after two innings and throwing 31 pitches because of a rain delay at Boston's Fenway Park.
When asked if he was confident to send Ohtani to the mound on three days rest, Roberts replied, "I am. I am. We all are. This is Game 7, so there's a lot of things that people haven't done, and you've just got to trust your players and try to win a baseball game."
Right-hander Max Scherzer will pitch for the Blue Jays, manager John Schneider said.
"No better guy to have on the mound to kind of navigate the emotions, the stuff," Schneider said in his postgame news conference. "Max has been getting ready for Game 7 when he knew he was pitching Game 3. So all the confidence in the world in him and everyone tomorrow."
Scherzer was the Game 7 starter for the Washington Nationals in the 2019 World Series, the most recent previous time the Series went the distance. Scherzer did not figure in the decision after being relieved after pitching five innings and the Nationals trailing 2-0 before scoring six runs in the final three innings of a 6-2 victory.
The first pitch is set for 5:08 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The game will be televised on Fox, broadcast in English by KLAC-AM (570) and in Spanish by KTNQ-AM (1020).
Facing elimination for the first time in the 2025 postseason Friday, Tyler Glasnow pitched out a ninth-inning jam for his first major league save and Mookie Betts drove in two runs with a third-inning single.
Glasnow entered the game with runners on second and third and no outs in the ninth. Ernie Clement popped out on Glasnow's first pitch.
Two pitches later, Andrés Giménez hit a line drive to Kiké Hernández, the Dodgers' left fielder, who caught the ball and threw on one hop to Miguel Rojas, the Dodgers' second baseman, who touched the base before Addison Barger could safely return to complete the game-ending double play.
It was the first 7-4 game-ending double play according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Major League Baseball's official statistician.
As the ball went off Giménez's bat, Roberts said what was going through his mind was "Stay up in the air. Stay up in the air."
Will Smith, the Dodgers' catcher, said Hernandez "made a really good play, really good read on that ball."
"He was playing a little shallower just because of the situation," Smith said. "Barger probably got a little giddy and wanted to score a tying run. Miggy made one heck of a pick. That was awesome."
The inning began with Roki Sasaki hitting Alejandro Kirk on his left had with an 0-2 splitter. Myles Straw ran for Kirk, who told reporters after the game X-rays did not show a fracture and said he would be ready to play Saturday.
Five pitches later, Barger hit a ball that landed at the base of the wall in center field and became lodged under the padding. Rookie center fielder Justin Dean, who had entered the game at the start of the bottom of the ninth, put his hands up, signaling that the ball was stuck.
The play was ruled a ground-rule double, likely taking a run away from Straw, who had to stay at third.
"Been here a long time. I haven't seen a ball get lodged ever," said Schneider, who has been Toronto's manager since July 13, 2022 after being a Blue Jays' coach since 2019.
"Just caught a tough break there. He put a really good swing on that pitch and ultimately ended up second and third with nobody out with guys that make contact and just didn't get it done."
Glasnow then relieved Sasaki.
The Dodgers scored all their runs in the third after Kevin Gausman retired each of their first eight hitters, striking out five.
Tommy Edman doubled with one out. Ohtani was intentionally walked one out later. Smith doubled in Edman, Freddie Freeman walked. Betts singled in Ohtani and Smith.
Toronto responded with a run in its half of the third.
The Dodgers were retired in order in all but the third and eighth innings and were out-hit, 8-4, in front of a sell-out crowd at Rogers Centre announced at 44,710.
The Dodgers were 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left five runners on base.
The Blue Jays were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base.
Gausman (2-3), the first of five Toronto pitchers, was charged with the loss, allowing three runs on three hits in six innings, striking out eight and walking two.
The road team has won four of the six games of the Series. The Dodgers have won two of three games at Rogers Centre while the Blue Jays won two of three at Dodger Stadium.
This will be the seventh time the Dodgers have played in a World Series Game 7. Their only wins came in 1955 over the New York Yankees for their only championship in Brooklyn, and 1965 over the Minnesota Twins.
This is the third time the Dodgers have reached the World Series after winning it the previous season. They lost in seven games to the Yankees in 1956 and were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in four games in 1966.