After a Addison Barger hit, the ball gets stuck in the wall during the ninth inning of the World Series Game 6 between the Blue Jays and Dodgers.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Blue Jays seemed on the verge of another one of their stunning comebacks in Game 6 of the World Series on Friday.
Though they trailed 3-1 in the ninth inning, Roki Sasaki, the Dodgers’ closer, hit Toronto’s leadoff batter, Alejandro Kirk.
Kirk was then replaced by the speedy Myles Straw, who came on as a pinch runner. Addison Barger laced a double to left-centre field, but the ball landed at the bottom of the wall and got momentarily wedged beneath it.
As the crowd at Rogers Centre roared, Straw and Barger rounded the bases for an apparent 3-3 tie. However, the ball was declared dead, and the play was declared a ground-rule double. Straw was sent back to third and Barger to second.
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“We were feeling really good,” Straw said afterward in a very quiet Blue Jays clubhouse. “I definitely liked our chances. Somehow it didn’t work out.”
Tyler Glasnow, who was lined up to start in Game 7 on Saturday, was called on to relieve Sasaki and retired Ernie Clement on an infield pop-up. With one out and both runners still in scoring position, Andres Gimenez scalded a line drive to left that looked like it would drop in, but it was caught by outfielder Kike Hernandez. He threw to second and caught Barger off the bag for a double play.
Game over, 3-1.
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“I thought the ball hit by Andres was going to drop and I didn’t want to get thrown out at third,” Barger said.
On his double, Barger said he did not see where the ball had landed. He didn’t realize anything unusual had happened until he saw the umpires waving their hands and calling time out.
Daulton Varsho, Toronto’s centrefielder, said the walls at Rogers Centre are very hard and almost always the ball caroms out.
This time, he said, it landed in a seam at the very bottom and got struck like a mouse in a glue trap.
“That is probably the only spot where that could have happened,” Varsho said. “It was a crazy inning. A couple of pitches and then it was over.”
Toronto got into the Dodgers’ bullpen in the seventh after six strong innings from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Los Angeles relievers have been dicey and the door suddenly appeared to open.
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Sasaki, who throws nearly 100 miles per hour, allowed two batters to reach in the eighth and then the first two in the ninth.
The crowd of 44,000 stood on its feet but was silenced by a bit of good fortune for Los Angeles.
Toronto players shrugged off the defeat. Although they lost on a night where they could have eliminated the Dodgers, they still have another chance.
“We just have to move on to tomorrow, just like we have all year,” Varsho said.