TORONTO — And lo, throughout the land those magical words – really, the most magical in the vocabulary of sports – could be heard:
“Game Seven.”
(Well, maybe not so magical in the Dominion of Canada, at least for now.)
The Dodgers are still alive, as is their quest to be Major League Baseball’s first repeat champion in 25 years. And it figured that Kiké Hernández – or, if you prefer, Señor Octubre – would make the decisive play to end a crazy ninth inning on Friday night and assure that we’d all be back at Rogers Centre on Saturday night for the deciding game.
If you are rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t still like your chances. The Dodgers pulled off their 3-1 high-wire act in Game 6 with the minimum offense required, scratching out four hits, scoring all of their runs in the third inning and then having 14 hitters in a row retired before a rally in the eighth that went pfft.
Even with a redesigned lineup that included Mookie Betts dropping to the No. 4 slot and Miguel Rojas making his first start of the series, they were 2 for 6 with runners in scoring position for the evening, though 2 for 4 of that came in the third inning on an RBI double by Will Smith and a two-run single by Betts. Can the Dodgers withstand such offensive sputtering against Max Scherzer, confirmed as Toronto’s Game 7 starter?
“No better guy to have on the mound to kind of navigate the emotions, the stuff,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the game. “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.”
The Dodgers’ starter?
“T-B-A,” Manager Dave Roberts said. He and pitching coach Mark Prior might be sleeping on this one, but everyone knows it will be an all-hands-on-deck game, and it seems obvious – at least to those of us on the outside – that if Shohei Ohtani is going to pitch anyway, the most logical and prudent course would be to use him as an opener and keep his bat in the lineup after the parade from the bullpen begins.
Remember, because of the rule specifically tailored for him as a two-way player, if he’s used in relief, he’d either have to go to another position (the outfield?) when he was done, or he’d come out of the game and the Dodgers would lose his bat (and the DH spot entirely).
When asked following the game about Ohtani as a starter/opener, because of that rule, Roberts said: “It’s a possibility. We are not certain, but it’s a possibility.”
The only catch is that he would be starting on three days’ rest, far less than he’s used to. (And yes, I know, Koufax on two days’ rest in 1965, etc. But this is a different era, a pitcher coming off a second elbow surgery, and the one thing we can predict is that Ohtani is definitely not going nine.)
As for the bullpen that has caused so much angst among Dodger fans? That all-hands-on-deck necessity will test it mightily.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto made it through six innings and 96 pitches in Game 6. Justin Wrobleski got the Dodgers through the seventh, and the idea at that point was that Roki Sasaki could get through the last two innings. He didn’t, throwing 33 high-stress pitches and coming out with one out in the ninth for Tyler Glasnow.
The list of relievers that Roberts really trusts – or at least should trust – seems to be smaller by the day. In the cauldron of a Game 7, that alone is a scary thought.
Sasaki’s last pitch was a drive to left center by Addison Barger that, in an incredible stroke of luck for the Dodgers, got stuck at the bottom of the fence. Center fielder Justin Dean, who entered the game that inning for defensive purposes, had the presence of mind to hold his hands up to indicate the ball was stuck and second base umpire Adrian Johnson confirmed it was a ground rule double and sent Barger back to second and the runner ahead of him, Myles Straw, back to third.
Out came Sasaki and in came Glasnow, who got Ernie Clement to pop up to Freddie Freeman for the first out. And then … well, you had to see it in real time to believe it, and even then there was doubt until the replay was reviewed.
Andres Giménez hit a sinking liner to left, Barger strayed off second – expecting to at least get to third if the ball dropped in – but Hernández made the catch and threw on the run to second, with Miguel Rojas catching the ball for the game-ending double play just before Barger could get back to the bag.
Rojas then fell backward and pumped his fists, screaming with joy. And moments later, the replay made it official, reminding us all that you don’t need a bat in your hand to have an impact in October.
Now, how are they going to top all of this Saturday night? It is hard, and often premature, to label any playoff series in any sport a classic while it’s still in progress. But can we stipulate that this one is careening toward that status at full speed? The hope is that a classic game will wrap up a classic series.
“I don’t think that the pressure, the moment’s going to be too big for us,” Roberts said. “We got to go out there and win one baseball game. We’ve done that all year. Everyone’s bought in. So I don’t know how the game’s going to play out, but … I couldn’t be more excited to get to sleep and wake up to play a baseball game tomorrow.”
Still on the table: The Dodgers’ opportunity to win Games 6 and 7 on the road and win another Commissioner’s Trophy.
And, thanks to some sharp-eyed readers, we were reminded that the list in this space Friday morning of teams to have previously done so was as half as long as it should have been. So here’s the updated list of those who have won Games 6 and 7 on the road and with them a championship:
The 1926 St. Louis Cardinals over the New York Yankees, the 1934 Cardinals over the Detroit Tigers, the 1952 Yankees over the Brooklyn Dodgers, the 1958 Yankees over the then-Milwaukee Braves, the Tigers over the Cardinals in 1968, the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Baltimore Orioles in 1979, the Chicago Cubs over Cleveland in 2016 and the Washington Nationals over the Houston Astros in 2019.
(Scherzer, incidentally, pitched Game 7 for Washington in 2019.)
“It’s the two best words in sports: Game Seven,” Schneider said.
On that, regardless of your loyalties, I’m sure we can all agree.
jalexander@scng.com
