In the end, the comeback team just couldn’t muster one more.
The Toronto Blue Jays lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 in 11 innings on Saturday in Toronto, marking the Dodgers’ second straight championship.
In the other dugout, the Blue Jays were vying for their first title in 32 years. But it wasn’t to be, as Will Smith’s 11th-inning home run to left field ultimately proved to be the difference.
During the regular season, the Blue Jays led MLB with 49 comeback wins — a stat they wore as a badge of honour, a statement of their never-say-die attitude.
And so even when their 3-0 lead had evaporated into a 5-4 deficit in the 11th, they could plausibly still employ the classic line: got ‘em right where we want ‘em.
Instead, the Blue Jays let their final opportunity slip through their fingers.
“We had our chances. We had our chances to beat them soundly. But we didn’t. And that’s baseball,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said, fighting back tears while he battled through his post-game press conference.
The Blue Jays were two outs from glory in the ninth inning when the Dodgers’ No. 9 hitter Miguel Rojas hit one of the most shocking home runs in baseball history, tying the game at four against Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman.
“It’s supposed to end differently,” Hoffman said. “I cost everybody in here a World Series ring.”
With the damage limited there, the Blue Jays loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, only for a groundout and deep flyout to prevent the winning run from scoring.
The Jays escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 10th, but went down quietly in their half.
Then, the Smith homer.
Once again, in the 11th inning, the Blue Jays had their chances — even against Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched one day after tossing six strong innings in Game 6. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off with a double, and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. Addison Barger walked, putting the winning run on base.
But Alejandro Kirk hit a ground ball to shortstop Mookie Betts. It had the looks of a tailor-made double play — and, indeed, it was.
Rogers Centre fell silent. Blue Jays’ heads sunk. What had felt like a dream season was now ending in the most painful way possible — a Game 7 loss in the World Series on their home field.
“That hurts,” an usher said moments after the final out.
Indeed.
Yamamoto, who earned three wins during the series, was named World Series MVP.
“It’s unheard of. There’s a mind component, there’s a delivery, which is a flawless delivery, and there’s an unwavering will. I just haven’t seen it. I really haven’t,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto’s performance for the ages.
The Blue Jays enjoyed such a smooth-sailing regular season that Schneider didn’t once call a team meeting — a move typically saved for a team in peril, on the brink of disaster.
His first came in the embers of the Game 7 loss.
“I said, ‘Thank you.’ I said ‘thank you’ probably about 10 times. I said, ‘I’m sorry that we’re feeling this way right now.’ It definitely could have been the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of emotions,” Schneider said.
“This is a group that I’m never going to forget. They’re going to have a place in my heart, every single one of ’em. So that was the gist of it.”
Heading into this World Series, some billed it as David vs. Goliath — the Dodgers being the monolith with the league-high payroll and stars dotted across their roster.
Roberts credited his team for coming through against a difficult Blue Jays side.
“I could just go on and on about the big plays, the big performances, and it’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever been a part of, and this whole series and what the Blue Jays did and they gave us everything they had,” he said.
Scheider said he never saw the series as a mismatch.
“We played our game, and our game is one of the best in baseball. David vs. Goliath? It’s not even f–king close,” he said.
By the thinnest of margins, their game wasn’t good enough.
Bo Bichette, clearly bothered by a knee injury, put the Blue Jays ahead 3-0 with a blast to deep centre field in the third inning, sparking Rogers Centre into a frenzy.
For a while, it seemed he had authored his own Kirk Gibson moment. An inning earlier, he might have cost the team a run due to his lack of speed on the bases resulting from the injury. Now, he was making up for it all and then some.
“What he did this year is nothing short of amazing. What he did to get back is nothing short of amazing. He’s playing on one leg. So in the moment, it felt right,” Schneider said.
Slowly, though, the Dodgers clawed back.
Sacrifice flies in the fourth and sixth innings pulled them within one, but the Blue Jays got one back in the bottom of the sixth, when Ernie Clement’s MLB-record 30th hit of this post-season came around to score on another double off the bat of Andrés Giménez.
But Max Muncy hit a home run in the eighth inning off Trey Yesavage, the rookie phenom who had been so stellar for the Blue Jays all post-season.
Then, Rojas stunned everyone in the ninth. He hit seven homers all season, and had just three prior hits in these playoffs.
Here, he played the role of unlikely hero, blasting a ball to right field off Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman. There always seems to be one.
For the Blue Jays, it could have been Clement. He personified this Blue Jays team — the guy who came out of nowhere to set records, possibly win awards and produce big moments time and time again.
He seemed to feel the weight of that after the game.
“I’ve been crying for an hour. I thought I was done with the tears. I just love these guys so much. It was so fun coming to work every day,” he said.
So many little moments conspired to turn the game in the away team’s favour — Bichette’s inability to score early. Isiah Kiner-Falefa being thrown out at home in the ninth. Clement’s fly ball one play later under which two Dodgers nearly collided, only to record the out.
The Blue Jays had their moments — Daulton Varsho and Guerrero Jr. each made incredible defensive plays to escape jams.
There was the Bichette homer, too, which Guerrero Jr. said he might have enjoyed more than Bichette himself.
“I wish we could have won it together,” Bichette said. “I wish we could have shared it together.”
They were two outs away.
“At the end of the day, players can become legends or they can be this close,” Schneider said. “We were this close.”
In the 11th inning, Schneider called upon Shane Bieber, the former Cy Young winner, who the team had acquired for exactly these moments.
He got two quick outs. Then, Smith struck.
“We win and we lose together. That’s why we were such a great team all year,” Bichette said.
The Blue Jays lived as a team all season. Now, they’ll die as one, too.
