Blue Jays drop 6-5 decision to Dodgers after Freeman walkoff ends 18-inning marathon
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LOS ANGELES – Never mind the instant classic references and hyperbolic descriptions of Game 3 on Monday night.
It will go down as the marathon game at the 2025 World Series, with Freddie Freeman’s walkoff homer in the 18th inning giving the L.A. Dodgers a 6-5 victory and 2-1 edge on the Toronto Blue Jays.
It was a game that delivered great moments but was short on great baseball. The Blue Jays got burned for being too aggressive on the basepaths and the Dodgers overcame mistakes by continuing to fight back.
Six hours 39 minutes after the first pitch was thrown in the late afternoon at a sunny Dodger Stadium, Freeman ended it just before midnight local time with a drive to straightaway centre field off Brendon Little.
“I’m spent emotionally,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “We’ve got a ball game later tonight, which is crazy.”
Every reliever was used as teams put up zeros for 10 straight frames after the seventh inning. Before Freeman ended it, Game 2 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was warming up for the Dodgers and Game 4 starter Shane Bieber got loose for Toronto.
“Both (bullpens were) incredible,” said Toronto right-hander Kevin Gausman. “Everybody came in and shut the door.”
It was the longest World Series game in seven years and the first time in Fall Classic history that each team had at least 15 hits. Both teams had loads of missed opportunities, though with Toronto leaving 19 runners on base, one more than the Dodgers.
Los Angeles slugger Shohei Ohtani provided the power early in the game before the bat was taken out of his hands. He hit two homers and had two doubles before being walked five times in a row – four of them intentionally.
The two-way superstar, who’s tabbed to pitch in Game 4, set a playoff record by reaching base nine times.
“We’re still running out of words to describe a once-in-a-10-generational player,” Freeman said.
So much for the pre-series talk that the Dodgers were heavy favourites and would run away with it. The Blue Jays dumped L.A. 11-4 in a Game 1 rout before the Dodgers bounced back for a 5-1 win in Game 2.
Game 3 was a slobberknocker for the first seven innings with great back-and-forth play and excitement. Things cooled considerably after that as the game shifted into a war of attrition.
Mistakes frequently came at inopportune times for the Blue Jays. Bo Bichette was picked off in the second inning after thinking Daulton Varsho had drawn a walk.
Costlier choices came in the ninth inning when Isiah Kiner-Falefa was thrown out at third base. Davis Schneider was also over-aggressive in the 10th and was gunned down at home plate in plenty of time.
Ohtani and Teoscar Hernandez hit solo homers off Max Scherzer to stake Los Angeles to an early lead before Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run shot off Tyler Glasnow in Toronto’s four-run fourth inning. The Dodgers scored twice in the fifth to tie it.
After Toronto’s George Springer left the game in the seventh inning due to discomfort in his right side, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. put the Blue Jays ahead when he scored from first base on a Bichette single down the right-field line.
Ohtani tied it in the bottom half with his eighth home run of the post-season.
“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to just walk him and face Mookie (Betts) and Freddie,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “So every situation is different. You’ve got to really execute at a high level against him.”
Both teams escaped jams in extra innings. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 13th but Eric Lauer got Freeman to fly out to deep centre. Toronto had runners in scoring position in the 18th but Will Klein struck out Tyler Heineman.
“I felt like it was a sloppy game on both sides,” said Kiner-Falefa. “They were able to just get the big hit at the end, but I think we did a good job of coming back and fighting back.”
Afterwards, some players sat down to well-earned meals while others went straight to the hot tubs.
“It sucks that it’s late right now, we’ve got to come back and do it again tomorrow, but these guys are going to be more than ready,” Schneider said. “The Dodgers didn’t win the World Series today, they won a game.”
“These guys are going to be ready to go tomorrow.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2025.