Toronto Blue Jays' Addison Barger is dejected walking back to the dugout after their loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The Toronto Blue Jays didn’t have to win the World Series on Friday night. But what they couldn’t afford to do was go down in such a way that it convinced the Los Angeles Dodgers that they were back.
What’d the Blue Jays do? Convince the Dodgers that they’re back.
How else would you describe the wild sequence of events that cost the Jays their ninth-inning comeback?
With Toronto trailing by two runs, Dodgers closer Roki Sasaki was out for his second inning of work. He missed several pitches by large margins in the warm-up. You could feel the tension coming off him from the second deck.
Sasaki started by hitting Alejandro Kirk, who was replaced by Myles Straw. Then Sasaki gave up a monster shot to Addison Barger. The ball headed at speed toward the centre-field wall. Had it bounced, Straw would have scored. Instead, the ball embedded itself at the foot of the wall. Dodgers defensive sub Justin Dean had the presence of mind not to touch it. He signalled to the umpires. An official marched out into centre field with his hand up while Barger crossed the plate and the crowd went wild. Barger was sent back to second, Straw to third.
Justin Dean after the ball gets stuck in the wall on a Addison Barger hit.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Cosmically, not great. Still, the Jays had men at second and third with no one out.
Ernie Clement, a man who has been an automatic hit whenever the Jays needed one in the last month, was up next. Sasaki was gone and starter Tyler Glasnow was in. Clement popped up in the infield.
L.A. Dodgers force deciding Game 7
Still, two more chances. Andres Gimenez and then American League Championship Series hero George Springer, back from injury.
Gimenez lined one into the outfield. It was caught on the run by Kike Hernandez. Though Hernandez had a bead on it the whole way, and his body language said so, Barger was miles off the bag at second.
“It’s a tough read,” manager John Schneider said afterward.
Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher Kevin Gausman looks on as Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith runs to second after hitting an RBI double in the third inning.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
It’s a tough read in June. There’s no such thing as a tough read in Game 6 of the World Series.
Hernandez was staring straight at Barger the whole way to the ball. He caught and threw with a single motion, catching the Toronto man diving back. Game over. Springer never got his shot.
There are worse ways to lose a game that would have won you a championship, but I am pressed to think of one at the moment. Contest cancelled after a partial roof collapse, maybe?
Max Scherzer set to start Game 7
Ahead of the game, the Jays were loose. Goofing around before batting practice. A few of them came up with a little amusement where Davis Schneider sat on the ground with his legs splayed, while teammates tried to toss balls at his you know what.
So maybe a little too loose.
As you would expect, the crowd was wired. That energy spread contagiously to the Jays in the early going. A lot of big, bad swings looking to end it in the first half hour.
No problem. Starter Kevin Gausman looked great. Splitter working. Dodger hitters looking like they were trying to nail a spike into the ground sideways. Game clipping along.
It went wrong in the third, and in a hurry. It started with a Tommy Edman double – the first hit by either team in the game. Shohei Ohtani was then intentionally walked.
In the first five games, this is the point at which the Dodgers’ engine stalls. Mookie Betts was going so poorly he’d been moved from second to third and eventually fourth in the order.
Will Smith hit a double. One run in. Freddie Freeman walked. Bases loaded, and Betts up.
If things had continued on the way they’d been going, this is where Betts swings and misses at a ball being thrown to the mound by the catcher.
Instead, Betts hit a darting single through the left side of the infield – his first RBIs of the series.
Everyone in the building was having the same idea at once: ‘Oh no, they’re awake.’
That didn’t happen. The Dodgers went back to nibbling at the Jays’ pitching. Instead of making anyone feel better, it made the way it ended feel much worse.
L.A.'s Miguel Rojas, Enrique Hernández and Mookie Betts celebrate after defeating Toronto in Game 6.Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Game 7s are a toss-up, always. Momentum goes out the window, until someone scores, and then momentum’s the only thing that matters. The team that thinks it’s going to win often does. That’s certainly how the Jays beat Seattle in the ALCS. They trailed the whole time and you just knew they knew. When Springer homered, it wasn’t a relief, so much as a confirmation that what you were feeling about this team was real.
Does it feel that way to you this time?
The Jays will push out 41-year-old Max Scherzer, hoping that he has one more post-season magic trick to play.
The Dodgers will throw out everyone, including Shohei Ohtani. Their great weakness this series has been threefold – their pitching, their hitting and themselves.
In L.A., the Jays had their way with the Dodgers. They humiliated them in front of their home fans. I am as sure as I can be of anything that had Game 6 been played in California on Thursday, this thing would be over now.
But back in Canada, the Dodgers had the chance to reverse the trick. Friday night felt like a celebration. Saturday night’s Game 7 will feel like sitting up against an open socket. If you go behind, the home crowd starts to work against you.
That and the sudden turnaround, the Jays offence going cold, bad luck and a brain cramp shutting down the comeback make it advantage: L.A. now.
“Baseball happens fast,” Schneider said Friday.
It’s happening very fast for the Jays now. Too fast, maybe. This team has found a way to play from behind all year long. Maybe it wasn’t meant to lead from the front. Maybe it was always going to have to catch up to win.