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This year's World Series is going to a final seventh game after the Dodgers kept alive their title defense dreams alive Friday night with a 3–1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6.

The defending champions halted Toronto’s late-game comeback with a thrilling game-ending double play, silencing a home crowd that had arrived prepared to cheer the team's first title in 32 years.

Game 6 Recap

Los Angeles generated all of their scoring in the third frame. With two outs, Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked before Smith doubled to left field to bring home Tommy Edman. Freeman earned a base on balls to load the bases, and Mookie Betts delivered with a two-RBI hit to the opposite field, giving the Dodgers a three-run lead.

Betts’ hit snapped a postseason slump and rekindled the defending champions’ hopes of being the initial back-to-back championship victors since the New York Yankees captured three consecutive from 1998 to 2000.

Mound Battle

Kevin Gausman had been nearly unhittable to that stage, fanning half a dozen of the first seven Dodgers he confronted. He fanned 8 through three frames, matching a Fall Classic mark, but the third-inning barrage proved costly. The Blue Jays' star ended with eight strikeouts over six innings, yielding three runs on three safeties and two walks.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, meanwhile, was solid again under pressure. The righty outdueled his counterpart for the second occasion in a week, giving up one run on five hits over six frames with six strikeouts. He improved to four wins and one loss this playoffs with a 1.56 ERA.

The only run against him came on Springer’s two-out single in the third inning, driving in Addison Barger, who had doubled previously in the frame. That single provided a brief spark in his comeback to the starting nine after missing a pair of contests with an oblique injury.

Bullpen Effort

After that, the Los Angeles relievers took over. First-year pitcher Wrobleski escaped a jam in the seventh, and fellow rookie Sasaki worked into the ninth before hitting Alejandro Kirk to start the frame. Barger then hit a double that became wedged under the left-center-field fence, obliging base runners to hold at second and third base.

Tyler Glasnow, Los Angeles’ third game starter, came on in relief and induced a popout before Giménez hit a line drive to left. Hernández made the catch and fired to second to double off Barger, sealing the victory and earning Glasnow his first-ever successful save.

Looking Ahead: Seventh Game

The series now comes down to one game. Scherzer will take the mound for the Blue Jays, making him the only living pitcher to start more than one seventh games of the World Series after doing so in 2019 with the Nationals. The veteran inked a one-year deal to chase another championship and has been a vocal leader throughout this playoff run.

The Los Angeles squad, aiming to become baseball’s initial repeat champions in nearly a quarter-century, are expected to lean on their two-way star for a brief appearance.