{"id":267118,"date":"2025-11-02T15:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T15:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/267118\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T15:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T15:28:11","slug":"the-game-7-this-world-series-deserved-plus-these-dodgers-showed-grit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/267118\/","title":{"rendered":"The Game 7 this World Series deserved. Plus: These Dodgers showed grit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB<\/a> newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Every World Series is memorable, but this was an all-timer. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the first repeat champs since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees (and the first NL team since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds) \u2014 I\u2019m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to (a special Sunday edition of) The Windup!<\/p>\n

Epics: This game had everything<\/p>\n

No offense to June baseball, which I also love. But in a normal month of June, you\u2019ll get one or two moments that make you fully abandon all else, lean in and think, \u201cOh man, this is special.\u201d<\/p>\n

With apologies to Blue Jays fans, who \u2014 I dunno guys, you might just wanna skip this Windup, and just read\u00a0Mitch Bannon here<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 there were so. many. moments last night that will warrant years of \u201cOh man, do you remember when ________?\u201d<\/p>\n

How often do we see the\u00a0benches clear in Game 7<\/a> of a World Series? That happened in the fourth inning, when Justin Wrobleski hit Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez after it appeared that Gim\u00e9nez had thrown a hand out in an attempt to get hit on the previous pitch.
\nWho takes the mound\u00a0the day after he threw 96 pitches?!\u00a0AND THEN THROWS 34 MORE PITCHES TO CLOSE OUT THE GAME?!\u00a0Because Yoshinobu Yamamoto\u00a0did that<\/a>. Two days, two games, two wins, 130 pitches and a total of one run allowed on six hits. (And yes, he absolutely did\u00a0earn World Series MVP<\/a> for his efforts.)
\nWe saw a veritable All-Star roster of pitchers in one game. All of these starting pitchers made appearances: Shohei Ohtani, Max Scherzer, Tyler Glasnow, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Blake Snell and Yamamoto. All in one game.
\nHow about Miguel Rojas? On a Los Angeles roster of mega-stars, the No. 9 hitter\u00a0launched a solo home run<\/a> in the ninth to tie the game, then \u2014 with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth \u2014 made a throw home to keep it tied, beating Isiah Kiner-Falefa by the slimmest of margins. Another two inches of speed by Kiner-Falefa, and the World Series would have ended on a replay review.
\nRemember one play later, when Andy Pages\u00a0absolutely trucked Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> to (also) save the World Series and send Game 7 to extra innings?
\nAnd then \u2014 a half-inning after Rojas\u2019 throw \u2014\u00a0 almost the same scenario played out in the top of the 10th, with Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez throwing out Mookie Betts to (for the time being) keep the Dodgers from taking the lead.
\nThey did take the lead, though. Will Smith\u2019s\u00a0solo home run in the 11th<\/a>\u00a0gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead for good. It was the first extra-innings home run in a winner-take-all Game 7 in MLB history.<\/p>\n

And we didn\u2019t even mention Bo Bichette\u2019s three-run homer. Or the 41-year-old Scherzer allowing just one run over 4 1\/3 innings, as he started the first World Series Game 7 since \u2026 he started the 2019 finale for the Washington Nationals (against now-teammate George Springer\u2019s Astros).<\/p>\n

Or Daulton Varsho\u2019s\u00a0immaculate catch<\/a>\u00a0in the fourth inning. Or Ernie Clement setting a record with his 30th hit in one postseason. Or Max Muncy\u2019s eighth-inning home run to pull the Dodgers to within one. Or any number of brilliant defensive plays.<\/p>\n

Those were, frankly, all too normal to get their own bullet point in a section about this absolutely bonkers Game 7. Just look at this win expectancy chart. Any time it starts looking like a heart monitor that late in the game \u2026 well, that\u2019s pretty appropriate, actually.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

More Game 7:<\/p>\n

Leave it to Andy McCullough to encapsulate a game like that in\u00a0just one story<\/a>.
\nAnd of course, when a series gets weird and\/or wild, nobody\u00a0finds the little details<\/a> like Jayson Stark.
\nAlso, I absolutely love Patrick Dubuque\u2019s prose.\u00a0Here\u2019s his recap<\/a>\u00a0over at Baseball Prospectus (free with a basic sub).
\nKen\u2019s Notebook: Dodgers showcase passion, perseverance and grit<\/p>\n

TORONTO \u2014 Before the thrilling Game 7 that concluded one of the best World Series in recent memory, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was pondering the meaning of grit.<\/p>\n

Roberts said the best definition he heard was from researcher and podcaster Bren\u00e9 Brown. Actually, it was from psychologist Angela Duckworth. Whatever, Roberts liked the characterization, the description of grit as a combination of passion and perseverance for a singularly important goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what this team exemplifies,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

You can despise the Dodgers for escalating their payroll to almost $400 million. You can despise them for cornering the market on Japanese stars. You can even accuse them of ruining baseball.<\/p>\n

But after their 5-4 victory in 11 innings last night in Game 7 of the World Series, you have to admire the way they became the first back-to-back champions since the 1998 to 2000 Yankees.<\/p>\n

With passion, perseverance and, yes, grit.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays were the better team for most of the Series. They outscored the Dodgers, 34-26. Held them to a .203 batting average. And in Game 7, led 3-0 after three innings and were two outs away from their first Series title since 1993.<\/p>\n

Somehow, the Dodgers prevailed, becoming only the ninth team out of 32 to win Games 6 and 7 on the road in a best-of-seven World Series.<\/p>\n

More on this\u00a0in my latest column<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rewind: Game 6 was dramatic, too<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t even talked about Game 6, and buddy:\u00a0That was also a pretty wild one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, striking out eight Dodgers in the first three innings, but being undone by that third inning, when Betts \u2014\u00a0who had been dropped in the lineup, down to the cleanup spot \u2014\u00a0followed a Smith RBI double with a two-run single to make it 3-0 Dodgers.<\/p>\n

But the\u00a0bottom of the ninth<\/a>\u00a0is what we\u2019ll remember.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll remember the ball getting stuck below the pad in the wall, with Hern\u00e1ndez and Justin Dean doing exactly what coaches tell outfielders to do if the ball is lodged under a pad: immediately put your hands up; it\u2019s a ground-rule double. Doing so meant the Jays only had runners at second and third, rather than a run home and the tying run at third base.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest: As the final sands began to run out of the Game 6 hourglass, with Gim\u00e9nez at the plate, my mind started thinking back to 1993. (I\u00a0wasn\u2019t the only one<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Ninth inning. One out. Two on. A guy who used to play for Cleveland at the plate. Baseball does love its symmetry from time to time \u2014\u00a0were we about to see Joe Carter II?<\/p>\n

Nah, we got a double play to end the game: Dodgers 3, Blue Jays 1. So often a postseason hero with the bat, Hern\u00e1ndez had\u00a0his signature moment<\/a>\u00a0with the glove:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What a special series this was. (Again, not for Blue Jays fans. This was excruciating and heartbreaking, and they will never forgive the Dodgers for anything for the rest of time, as is custom in sports fandom.)<\/p>\n

Handshakes and High Fives<\/p>\n

Evan Drellich has a wild one: Inside the text messages of the agent who\u00a0became a \u201cmole\u201d for Rob Manfred<\/a>\u00a0and MLB.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, federal investigators are\u00a0probing a youth baseball arm of the MLBPA<\/a>. So things are really going great in the off-field aspects of the sport.<\/p>\n

I loved this: Sam Blum spoke to former umpire Dale Scott about what it\u2019s like to\u00a0ump a World Series Game 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chad Jennings has our\u00a0All Playoffs Team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s end it with one more Dodgers link: Here\u2019s\u00a0a collection of our stories<\/a>\u00a0from the Dodgers\u2019 most pivotal moments in 2025.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love The Windup? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-267118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}