TORONTO — Heading into Game 7 of the World Series on Saturday night, the Blue Jays felt good about where they were from a pitching standpoint. The belief was that, if Max Scherzer could just start them off on the right foot, there was more than enough firepower in the bullpen with all of their top arms available.
Scherzer did his part by holding the Dodgers to one run in 4 1/3 innings and handed it off to Louis Varland, who in making his 15th appearance set the record for most games by a pitcher in a single postseason, to finish the fifth. The Blue Jays’ offense supplied an early lead in the form of Bo Bichette’s three-run home run off Shohei Ohtani in the third. And yet, in the end, the Blue Jays suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 loss in 11 innings, largely the result of three homers surrendered by a trio of Toronto pitchers who had previously turned in heroic performances throughout this postseason – Trey Yesavage, Jeff Hoffman and Shane Bieber.
Let’s take a look at each crucial moment:
Yesavage in the eighth
Three days after almost single-handedly pushing Los Angeles to the brink of elimination with his 12-strikeout gem at Dodger Stadium, Yesavage was summoned by manager John Schneider to begin the seventh holding a 4-2 lead after Andrés Giménez provided a little extra breathing room in the sixth with an RBI double.
Yesavage navigated the top of the Dodgers’ lineup with relative ease, negating a leadoff walk to Ohtani by inducing an inning-ending double play from Freddie Freeman to get through the scoreless frame on 12 pitches.
Back out for the eighth, Yesavage retired Mookie Betts for the first out, but a 1-1 splitter left up in the zone to Max Muncy was swatted over the wall in right field, shrinking Toronto’s lead to one run.
Hoffman’s ninth
After replacing Yesavage for the final out of the eighth, Hoffman returned for the ninth with a one-run lead and was three outs away from living out the childhood dream he played out so often in his head of closing out a World Series for his team. By this point, everyone inside Rogers Centre was keeping track of Ohtani’s spot in the order and knew he was due up third. But disaster struck before even getting to that point.
After a strikeout of Kiké Hernández to begin the ninth, Hoffman got to a full count against No. 9 hitter Miguel Rojas. On the seventh pitch, he left a slider over the middle of the plate that was clobbered by Rojas – who hit just seven home runs during the regular season, only two of them in the second half – for a solo shot to left.
It was only the second game-tying or go-ahead home run in the ninth inning of a winner-take-all World Series game, joining Bill Mazeroski’s historic home run 65 years ago in 1960. Rojas’ unlikely blast off Hoffman, who had not allowed a home run in any of his first nine appearances this postseason and notched a save in the ALDS and ALCS clinchers, left the raucous crowd inside Rogers Centre stunned.
“It just sucks,” Hoffman said. “It was supposed to end differently. Just one pitch. … I cost everybody in here a World Series ring. So, it feels pretty [expletive]. I just have to execute better in that spot and not let that happen.”
Hoffman bounced back to retire his next two batters and keep the game tied at 4-4, but it was impossible not to feel the momentum shifting.
“I mean, no shade to Miggy Rojas, but nobody’s really expecting a homer there from Miggy Rojas, and he did,” said Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts. “It was one of those things where, like, we believe in him, but we didn’t know about a homer, right? And he hits that homer like that, and it’s just fitting.”
Bieber’s 11th
Seranthony Domínguez, who had warmed up a couple of times hours before in the earlier innings, worked in and out of a bases-loaded jam for a scoreless 10th to keep it tied with the help of stellar defense from Giménez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Enter Bieber, one of the heroes in Toronto’s Game 4 win after setting the tone with 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball.
With the heart of Toronto’s lineup – Guerrero, Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who entered as a pinch-runner for Bo Bichette in the ninth) and Addison Barger – due up in the bottom half of the 11th, it was imperative that Bieber keep the Dodgers off the board in the top half. He retired Rojas and Ohtani on groundouts, but after falling behind in the count against Will Smith with two outs and Freddie Freeman looming on deck, Bieber hung a 2-0 slider for a go-ahead solo shot that sailed over the Dodgers’ bullpen in left.
“I hung a slider to a great hitter that hits the slider well,” Bieber said. “It was 2-0, and he was looking for it. I didn’t execute.”
“I’m just trying to get on base for Freddie,” said Smith. “Pass the baton, keep the offense moving. I was able to give it a good swing, get it in the air, and it went out.”
The aftermath
It probably shouldn’t have come down to this. But with the Blue Jays’ offense failing to add on much – they left 14 runners on base, went 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position and scored just one run after Bichette’s homer – there was no choice for the bullpen but to be perfect in the late innings.
Toronto does not get to the World Series without the massive contributions – both regular season and playoffs – from Yesavage, Hoffman and Bieber. In the end, however, three home runs against three of their most trusted pitchers made all the difference in a deciding Game 7 that will painfully be remembered in Toronto as the championship that slipped away.
“It was pretty quiet in here for a little bit,” Bieber said. “I think we all have our emotions that we need to sort through. I think we’re wearing this one together. We succeed and fail together.”
