The 2025 World Series comes down to a gut-wrenching, nerve-wracking, stomach-churning experience that is a Game 7
Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer had a memorable "Mad Max" moment with his manager in the American League Championship Series.
By Kyle Feldscher, CNN
(CNN) — Let’s play one more.
The Los Angeles Dodgers used lockdown pitching, one three-run inning and an incredible double play in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, setting up a winner-take-all Game 7 that promises plenty of drama. Friday night’s Game 6 came down to the final inning as the Blue Jays rallied but got two bad breaks – a ground-rule double that kept a run from scoring and a double-play sparked by some magic Kiké Hernandez and poor base running from Addison Barger.
It was heart-in-mouth stuff, the kind of baseball that makes the stomach tighten up and produces the involuntary running of hands through hair or the biting of fingernails. And, as intense as those moments get in playoff ball, there’s nothing as nerve-wracking or stomach-churning as a Game 7.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider, fresh off a disappointing loss, was looking forward to it.
“It’s the two best words in sports: Game 7,” he said to reporters after the game.
“It’s going to be fun here. But to the fans, I say, see you tomorrow night. Be loud, be rowdy. And we’re gonna be ready to play.”
The stakes of Saturday night’s matchup are simple: Two teams that have formed their squads with the sole aim of winning a world title will play one game for the right to call themselves World Series champs.
The Dodgers are the most expensive baseball team ever put on a field, and they’ve needed every ounce of that star power in this series. It was Will Smith, the longtime catcher, who helped pace them to a win in Game 2. Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman were the heroes in a marathon Game 3. In Game 6, it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie Betts and Roki Sasaki who provided the big moments to force a seventh game. Role players like Hernandez and Miguel Rojas made the key double play that snuffed out the Blue Jays’ last-ditch rally.
All those names together in a lineup set the expectation that it’s championship or bust for the Dodgers. They’re looking to win back-to-back titles, something that hasn’t been done since the big leagues since 2000 and take a big step toward establishing themselves as MLB’s first dynasty in a quarter-century.
The Blue Jays, meanwhile, are looking to cash in on their golden generation’s best, and possibly last, chance to win a title. While Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is on an expensive long-term contract, key pieces like Bo Bichette are heading toward free agency after this season and others are rentals who may not be in Canada for the long haul.
The Blue Jays have felt like a team with a ton of potential for years as their young stars have come of age. A win Saturday and all that waiting will have been worth it – three decades worth of waiting since Joe Carter’s walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series.
The matchup on the mound will befit the high-stakes situation.
For the Blue Jays, the seething ball of intensity that is Max Scherzer will start the game. Incredibly, it will be his second World Series Game 7 start, having helped the Washington Nationals win the 2019 crown over the Houston Astros. Scherzer is one of the last of his generation, a Rottweiler reborn as a hurler who deals strikeouts like a blackjack dealer and is making perhaps the last start of a career that will likely see him enshrined in Cooperstown.
When the Blue Jays bat, they’re likely to face the history-making machine that is Ohtani. The Dodgers haven’t officially named Ohtani the starter – Tyler Glasnow, another one of those high-priced stars, seemed set to be the starter but then came on to get the final outs of Game 6 – but it seems as if the two-way star will be Dave Roberts’ choice to start the biggest game of his season.
Ohtani pitched in Game 4 and will only have three days of rest before he takes the mound in Game 7. Roberts confirmed after Game 6 that Ohtani is definitely in the pitching plans.
“He’s certainly going to be a part of the pitching plan. And with Shohei, it could be two innings, but it could be four innings,” he told the Fox broadcast. “So, I’m not sure where we’re going to slide him. We’re going to have to talk to him first and where he feels most comfortable.”
Betts told Fox after the game that Ohtani being on the mound for such a big game just feels right.
“I feel like the way Shohei’s life is set up is just destiny, you know?” he said. “Like, every time … the perfect situation comes up, and he succeeds. And so tomorrow, Game 7, I mean, how could you draw it up any different, you know? So, I feel like this is the perfect moment for him. He was made for this moment, and I’m glad he’s on our team, and we don’t have to go against him.”
Expect the two managers to throw everything at Saturday’s matchup. Roberts refused to rule out using any of his pitchers, only saying he’d talk to them on Saturday morning to see how they’re feeling. Schneider said all of his pitchers were game to be involved, maybe even Game 6 starter Kevin Gausman.
“It’ll be all-hands-on-deck tomorrow,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
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