Freeman's homer in 18th inning
lifts Dodgers over Blue Jays 6-5 in World Series classic
[October 28, 2025]
By BETH HARRIS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eighteen innings in Game 3 of the World Series at
Dodger Stadium again.
And this Hollywood rerun had a similar ending.
Freddie Freeman homered leading off the bottom of the 18th, Shohei
Ohtani went deep twice during another record-setting performance and
the Los Angeles Dodgers outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 in an
instant classic Monday night.
The defending champion Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven
matchup and still have a chance to win the title at home — something
they haven't done since 1963.
“That could go down as one of the greatest games of all time,”
manager Dave Roberts said.
Freeman drove left-hander Brendon Little's full-count sinker 406
feet to straightaway center field, finally ending a baseball
marathon that lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, and matched the longest by
innings in postseason history.
“Oh gosh, just pure excitement,” he said. “That’s as good as it
gets.”
The only other World Series contest to go 18 innings was Game 3 at
Dodger Stadium seven years ago. Freeman’s current teammate, Max
Muncy, won that one for Los Angeles with an 18th-inning homer
against the Boston Red Sox in a game that took 7 hours, 20 minutes.
It was Freeman’s second World Series walk-off homer in two years.
The star first baseman hit the first game-ending grand slam in
Series history to win Game 1 in 10 innings last season against the
New York Yankees.
“This one took a little longer," Freeman said. “But this game was
incredible. Our bullpen was absolutely incredible.”
Will Klein, the last reliever left for the Dodgers, got the biggest
win of his career. He allowed one hit over four shutout innings and
threw 72 pitches — twice as many as his previous high in the majors.
“We weren’t losing that game,” Klein said, “and so I had to keep
going back out there.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 105 pitches Saturday at Toronto in his
second consecutive complete game, was warming up in the bullpen as
Klein worked out of trouble in the top of the 18th.
“I don’t know how I kept going, but I just knew every inning that I
went out there, it was going to be another zero. If I had to keep
going out, there were going to be more zeros,” Klein said. "I was
sitting at home in Arizona last month, you know? This is crazy.”
A total of 19 pitchers — 10 for the Dodgers — combined to throw 609
pitches in a game that ended at 11:50 p.m. on the West Coast.
Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw came out of the LA
bullpen to escape a bases-loaded jam in the 12th, pitching in extra
innings for the first time in his illustrious career.
“The Dodgers didn’t win a World Series today,” Blue Jays manager
John Schneider cautioned. “They won a game.”
As the hours crept by, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. munched on an apple at
the dugout railing. A staffer brought a fruit tray onto the bench
and the Toronto slugger helped himself to another piece.
“We tried. We did everything we could. They did the same thing,”
Guerrero said through a translator. “But in the end, they came away
with the victory.”
Most fans in the crowd of 52,654 who stuck around were on their feet
throughout, including 89-year-old Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, and
only sat down between innings.
Will Smith flied out to the left-center fence leading off the bottom
of the 14th. Long drives by Freeman and teammate Teoscar Hernández
also died on the warning track in extra innings, with the
temperature dropping in Chavez Ravine as the night grew late.
[to top of second column] |
Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman celebrates his walk off home
run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the 18th inning in Game 3
of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los
Angeles.(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Ohtani’s second solo homer tied it 5-all in the
seventh. The two-way superstar, scheduled to start Game 4 on the
mound Tuesday, also doubled twice and became the second player with
four extra-base hits in a World Series game. Frank Isbell had four
doubles for the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 against the Chicago Cubs
in 1906.
After getting four hits in the first seven innings, Ohtani drew five
consecutive walks — four intentional. That made him the first major
leaguer in 83 years to reach base safely nine times in a game.
Nobody else has done it even seven times in a postseason game.
“What matters the most is we won," Ohtani said through a translator.
"What matters the most is we flip the page and play the next game.
... I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I can get ready.”
Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki induced consecutive groundouts with two
runners aboard to end the eighth. He stranded two runners in the
ninth, too, after second baseman Tommy Edman made a terrific
defensive play for the second out of the inning.
Edman also threw out a runner at home plate to end the 10th on a
perfect relay from Hernández in right field, as pinch-runner Davis
Schneider tried to score from first on a double by Nathan Lukes.
“Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy game,” Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer
said.
With two outs in the Toronto seventh, Guerrero singled off reliever
Blake Treinen and scored from first on Bo Bichette’s sharp single
down the right-field line for a 5-4 lead.
The ball appeared to deflect off a television sound man along the
low retaining wall in foul territory before caroming into shallow
right field. Hernández’s throw home was wide, and Guerrero narrowly
beat Smith’s tag by slapping the plate with his hand for a 5-4 lead.
Scherzer went 4 1/3 innings and became the first pitcher to appear
in the World Series with four teams. His first Fall Classic came in
2012 with Detroit.
“We came out on the wrong side of this and it stings and it burns,”
Scherzer said. “You want to win that game, but so proud of
everybody’s effort.”
Home runs by Hernández in the second and Ohtani in the third staked
the Dodgers to a 2-0 lead.
Toronto rallied with four runs — two unearned because of Edman’s
error — to take a 4-2 lead in the fourth.
Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer off Dodgers starter Tyler
Glasnow and dashed excitedly through the Blue Jays dugout holding
their home run jacket. Andrés Giménez added a sacrifice fly before
Glasnow completed a 29-pitch inning.
Los Angeles tied it at 4 in the fifth.
Kiké Hernández singled leading off against Scherzer and scored on
Ohtani’s double to left-center off reliever Mason Fluharty. Ohtani
came around on Freeman’s single down the right-field line.
Up next
Toronto RHP Shane Bieber makes his first World Series start and
fourth of this postseason in Game 4 on Tuesday.
Ohtani hit three homers and struck out 10 batters over six-plus
scoreless innings in Game 4 of the National League
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