LOS ANGELES – For Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, it wasn’t hard to describe what he witnessed on Monday night at Dodger Stadium.
It was a game for the ages, a contest that went 18 innings and lasted 6:39 as Los Angeles edged the Blue Jays, 6-5, on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run to begin the 18th, marking the 64th walk-off win in World Series history and the first since Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 against the Yankees last year.
It was the longest game since Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, which lasted 7:20, with the Dodgers beating the Red Sox on Max Muncy’s walk-off home run in – you guessed it – the 18th inning. The game had it all. Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani reached base nine times, setting a postseason record. The Blue Jays stranded a record-setting 19 baseruners.
Both teams had to empty their benches. Overall, 44 players – batters & pitchers – were used in Monday’s game (23 by Toronto and 21 by Los Angeles), marking the second-most in a World Series game, per Elias. A record 46 players were used in Game 3 of the ‘18 Fall Classic with Los Angeles and Boston each deploying 23 players.
The 19 pitchers used in Monday’s game are the most in World Series history, surpassing 2018 when the Red Sox and Dodgers each used nine pitchers. The Dodgers used 10 pitchers in Monday’s game, setting a World Series record. The biggest hero on the hill was winning pitcher Will Klein, who gave them four shutout innings and struck out five batters.
“Yeah, it’s one of the greatest World Series games of all time. Emotional. I’m spent, emotionally. We got a ball game later tonight, which is crazy,” Roberts said. “Yeah, there’s just a lot of heroes tonight. Obviously, Freddie put the exclamation mark on the game, but you see what Will Klein did. You saw what Edgardo [Henriquez] did. [Justin] Wrobleski. Clayton [Kershaw] came in. … Just across the board, everyone just had huge nights – big nights. They just kept fighting.
“[The Blue Jays] over there, they gave it everything they had. Unfortunately, somebody’s got to win that game and fortunately, for the Dodgers, we got Freddie Freeman on our team and, yeah, I’m just so proud of this group of men.”
Roberts acknowledged that his team was exhausted after the game. He pointed out that his catcher, Will Smith, caught 18 innings on Monday.
“Just to continue to try to grind and we took some good swings,” Roberts said. “A marine layer kicked in, and I thought Will’s ball [he hit early in the game] was gone. Freddie hit another ball that I thought was a homer. [Teoscar Hernandez] hit a ball that could have been a homer. But we kept going. But you saw what [Blue Jays reliever Eric] Lauer did tonight [by pitching 4 ⅔ innings]. That guy, man, he laid it out there. So just a heck of a ball game.”
Roberts has the distinction of being a teammate of Barry Bonds and managing Ohtani. Asked if Ohtani is on the same level as Bonds where Ohtani is going to be walked intentionally more often during the series, Roberts said:
“I think it’s all relative. Barry’s the greatest hitter I’ve ever seen, but in this day and age there’s just Ohtani or maybe Judge. But, yeah, I think that we’re just fortunate we have Mookie [Betts] and Freddie behind him. But you just don’t see that type of behavior from opposing managers and that’s just the ultimate sign of respect.”
