Dodgers 4 Blue Jays 11
When you get nine runs in one inning, you generally win.
The sixth inning was all we would really need. The sixth inning went:
- Bo Bichette walk. He was removed for a pinch runner, Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Bo looked good today.
- Alejandro Kirk singled.
- Daulton Varsho was hit by pitch, high up on the back.
- Ernie Clement singled on a pitch that would have bounced, bringing in one. 4-3 Jays.
- Nathan Lukes, pinch-hitting for Myles Straw, walked in another run. 5-3.
- Andrés Giménez singled home another. 6-3.
- George Springer ground out 5-2, cutting off the run at the plate but keeping the bases loaded.
- Addison Barger came in to pinch-hit for Davis Schneider, with a right-handed pitcher on the mound. The Dodgers went with a lefty, but Barger still hit a grand slam home run. Apparently, the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history. 9-2
- Vlad started things up again with a pop fly single.
- Kirk homered. 11-2 Jays.
Just a terrific inning. Most runs scored in a single inning in the
World Series since 1968.
Trey Yesavage didn’t have his best stuff, but he kept the game close, and got through four innings. He allowed four hits, two earned, three walks with five strikeouts. He had a great first inning, striking out Shohei Ohtani in to start the game, part of a clean inning. In the second, he gave up a walk and three singles, but just one run. He was a bit unlucky. A couple of ground ball singles that missed fielders. And he started the third with two walks and a single, putting the Dodgers up 2-0. But Freddie Freeman was thrown out going for third and Trey got a ground out and a strikeout. Yesavage had a quick fourth, with two strikeouts.
That was the game for him. If Ohtani wasn’t the leadoff hitting in the fifth, they might have left Trey in, but no reason to give Ohtani a third look at him, in a (then) tied game.
Mason Fluharty got Ohtani to strike out in the fifth. Then gave up a single and a fly out. When right-hander Will Smith coming up, John went to Seranthony Dominguez to end the inning.
Dominguez pitched a quick sixth, with two strikeouts. I thought he might get the seventh, but when we scored the nine runs in the bottom of the sixth, Dominguez was sitting too long.
Braydon Fisher gave up a two-run homer in the seventh, Ohtani can homer anytime we are up by nine.
Chris Bassitt pitched a scoreless eighth and Eric Lauer a scoreless ninth. He almost picked Ohtani off first base to end the game, but the challenge umpires didn’t give it to us.
The Jays got their first two runs in the fourth, Kirk singled and Varsho hit the first home run, by a left-handed hitter, off Blake Snell this year. That tied the game at 2.
The Jays had 14 hits. Every starter had a hit except for Schneider (0 for 3) and Straw (0 for 2), who both came out for pinch hitters. Kirk had three hits. Springer, Vlad, Barger and Clement had two.
Barger had four RBI. Kirk and Varsho two.
Jays of the Day: Varsho (.232 WPA), Kirk (.151), and Dominguez (.105). And I’m giving one to Barger (.048, because we were already well ahead) because a grand slam is a grand slam.
Other Award: Davis had the number (-.139), but we won big, so I’m letting him off the hook.
ONE DOWN, THREE TO GO!
