MLB
Advertisement
live
Updated 4m ago
The Los Angeles Dodgers now hold a 2-1 lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2025 World Series after Freddie Freeman ended an instant classic with a walk-off homer in the 18th inning.
Solo home runs by Teoscar Hernández and Shohei Ohtani gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Toronto then took a 4-2 lead in the fourth on an Alejandro Kirk three-run home run followed by an Andrés Giménez sacrifice fly.
Ohtani ripped an RBI double in the fifth before Freddie Freeman hit a single to tie the game. Bo Bichette gave the Blue Jays a 5-4 lead with a single in the seventh before Ohtani tied the game in the bottom half with another homer.
After this heroic homer, neither team would score for another 11 innings despite both sides having ample opportunities to do so. Eventually, Freeman ended the madness and added to his playoff lore by crushing a walk-off home run to center field in the 18th inning.
GO FURTHER
Dodgers outlast Blue Jays in classic, 18-inning Game 3 to take 2-1 lead in World Series
Dodgers reliever Will Klein wasn’t on the NLCS roster, and he might not have been on the World Series roster had Alex Vesia not stepped away from the team for a family matter.
But the Dodgers needed him tonight, and Klein delivered the performance of his career with four scoreless innings, punctuated by a strikeout of Tyler Heineman to finish the 18th inning with runners left stranded at second and third.
Klein had never before thrown more than two innings in a big league game.
Advertisement
Here are your views on Game 3 of the 2025 World Series, which became an all-timer:
💬 Dom M: “This game came down to the better managed team winning. Schneider had Barger, Bichette, and Kirk out of the game while the Dodgers had all their key guys in til the end. He also used all his high-leverage guys early and was left with his worst pitcher at the end. In my mind, very questionable decisions.”
💬 Anonymous: “Any doubters about Freddie Freeman's Hall of Fame case will have to admit that two walk-off home runs in the World Series makes a strong impression!”
💬 Matthew R: “What a game. All credit to everybody involved, teams and fans alike, what a marathon. It is a shame anybody had to lose. See you all after an extended lunch break.”
💬 Denny W: “Will Klein should never have to buy his own drink in L.A. ever again.”
💬 Marcelo T: “Shohei about to pitch 8 innings and hit 3 homers on 3 hours of sleep.”
💬 Dan B: “This might as well have been Game 7. I think whoever won was winning the series, especially if it was LA. Toronto really needed that one.”
Before the Blue Jays stopped pitching to him, Shohei Ohtani tried to single-handedly win this game for the Dodgers. In the first five innings he doubled, hit a home run, doubled in a run, and scored a run to tie the game.
But his biggest hit was an seventh-inning home run — an inning after the Blue Jays had taken the lead — to tie the score at 5 and basically set the stage for the incredible marathon to follow.
This is a two-for-one moment that mattered. In the bottom of the sixth, the Dodgers were threatening. Tommy Edman reached on a two-out, infield single, and Teoscar Hernández saw an opportunity go from first to third.
It was going to take a perfect play to get him out, and the Blue Jays executed a perfect play. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. charged the throw to first and — with an arm that used to play third base — fired a bullet to the hot corner, where Ernie Clement applied a perfect tag to get Hernández out by an inch.
Having just ended the sixth inning with a defensive gem, Guerrero then delivered a two-out single in the seventh and scored from first base — on a single, with a fancy slide — to put the Blue Jays in front 5-4.
We don’t know how the inning would have played out — maybe this moment wouldn’t have mattered at all — but after Bo Bichette opened the second inning with a single, Daulton Varsho took what appeared to be ball four.
Which would have been great for the Blue Jays, except home plate umpire Mark Wegner called it strike two.
Which might have been fine, except Wegner’s call wasn’t very loud or very clear, and both Varsho and Bichette seemed not to hear it.
Which might have been OK, except Varsho hesitated and then tossed his bat, which seemed to further convince Bichette that the pitch was a ball, and he started walking to second base.
Which was a definite problem, because Dodgers catcher Will Smith noticed Bichette was off the bag, yelled to Tyler Glasnow to throw to first, and Bichette was picked off easily.
Varsho wound up walking, and Alejandro Kirk singled him to third, but the Blue Jays didn’t score in the inning. A strikeout and line out stranded the runners. Can’t say for sure the rest of the inning would have played out the same way had Varsho walked the first time, but in theory the Blue Jays should have scored at least one run in the inning, and maybe a lot more. And one run would have made all the difference.
Clayton Kershaw will retire at the end of this season, meaning this is now the last stretch of games he will pitch at Dodger Stadium.
And if we just saw an all-time great on an MLB mound for the last time, what a way for Kershaw to go out.
He entered in the most stressful environment imaginable — bases loaded, two outs with Toronto’s Nathan Lukes facing him. Lukes worked the count full before getting fooled on a vintage Kershaw slider and rolling over on a ground ball to Tommy Edman at second to end the threat.
Dodger Stadium gave Kershaw one of its loudest roars of the entire evening — one that, as our Fabian Ardaya put it in the moment, contained 18 years’ worth of emotion and admiration for the Dodgers legend. Among those in the cheering crowd was Kershaw’s friend and his only true peer in Dodgers history, Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.
Advertisement
A World Series game with the entire bullpens used? That’s what happened tonight in Game 3. Here is a list of the bullpen pitchers used:
Blue Jays:
Dodgers:
By Fabian Ardaya, Mitch Bannon and Tyler Kepner
LOS ANGELES — Seven years and one day later, the Los Angeles Dodgers once again played a World Series Game 3 late into the night at Dodger Stadium. A 6-5 win against the Toronto Blue Jays found a way to match the marathon that their 18-inning walk-off win in 2018 against the Boston Red Sox was.
FREDDIE FREEMAN WALK-OFF HOME RUN IN THE 18TH INNING! #WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/wD1xbRxDbC
— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2025
The longest game in World Series history by innings (six hours, 39 minutes in length) was a treat of October theater, as Shohei Ohtani put forth yet another historic performance and Alejando Kirk walloped a three-run blast before the night turned into a battle of beleaguered bullpens. The decisive blow, in the 18th: Freddie Freeman, for the second consecutive World Series, launched a walk-off home run.
LOS ANGELES — On a night when Shohei Ohtani could not be subdued, on a night when one of baseball’s cathedrals offered its entrants a baptism in the sport’s capacity for agony and ecstasy, on a night when the shame that the game had to end morphed into the fear that it never would, the Los Angeles Dodgers captured control of the World Series in a 6-5 Game 3 victory in 18 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays.
At 11:50 p.m., six hours and 39 minutes after the first pitch arrived, Freddie Freeman supplied the walk-off home run off Toronto reliever Brendon Little to send the Dodger Stadium crowd into the sort of rapture possible only after two full games’ worth of teeth-grinding, stomach-turning, heart-rending baseball. At the end of the joint-longest game in World Series history, the fans were exhausted. They were exhilarated. As Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” blared across Chavez Ravine, they were heading to the parking lots knowing the Dodgers were two victories away from a second consecutive world championship.
Seven years after Game 3 of the 2018 World Series at Dodger Stadium lasted 18 innings, that marathon now has company. The evening overflowed with activity, too much for one scorecard to contain, too much for the brain to process, just barely enough for the teams to survive and play another game tomorrow, a tomorrow that officially arrived 10 minutes after Game 3 ended.
Blue Jays manager John Schenider said that George Springer left the game with right side discomfort. Springer got an MRI and the Blue Jays are awaiting results. Schneider said about losing Springer:
💬 “It sucks. He’s a huge part of our lineup.”
Advertisement
As Freddie Freeman gets showered with gatorade, he spoke with our Ken Rosenthal on the Fox broadcast about playing in this memorable game. He credited the bullpen for putting him in the position to get the walk-off home run.
💬 “This one took a little longer, but this game was incredible. Our bullpen was absolutely incredible.
“That’s as good as it gets.”
Here are the combined totals from this wild, historic Game 3 of the World Series:
In a few hours, he’s going to start Game 4. Tonight, all he did was go 4-for-4 with two doubles, two home runs, four intentional walks, and one normal walk (that was basically an intentional walk) in the 17th inning.
The Blue Jays basically stopped pitching to Shohei Ohtani in the ninth inning and didn’t pitch to him the rest of the game. That’s how afraid they were that he would win the game with one swing.
It was another singular performance — although the end-of-the-game work by Will Klein really deserves its own kind of award.
Dodgers 1B Freddie Freeman ✅
When Freeman stepped to the plate in the 18th inning of Game 3, he was 1 for 6 with two walks and an RBI. A productive night, but not a great one. But that changed with one swing. Freeman seemed to be on time all night. He pulled a pitch foul leading off the 18th. Then he waited out three balls, watched a strike and then walloped a sinker that ran over the plate. Left on left? Who cares. Freeman was all over it for a walk-off homer. More heroics. More history for Freddie Freeman.
Blue Jays 3B/RF Addison Barger ✅
Barger went 2 for 4, reached on an error and scored a run. That’s a “click” in my book. But we’ll never know what sort of impact Barger might have had on this marathon game. He spent all of extras on the bench. Manager John Schneider pinch-ran for Barger in the top of the eighth inning, and so for the remainder of the game we were treated to a Myles Straw at-bat in place of Barger’s left-handed bat each turn through the order.
Advertisement
Clayton Kershaw praised his team’s ability to stay resilient, to never give up which ultimately paid off in Game 3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the 18th inning:
💬 “It’s a team effort. For 18 innings, we did that seven years ago here. It was Muncy seven years ago. Freddie tonight. Special shoutout to Will Klein tonight.
“Above and beyond effort from a lot of people.”
You have to feel for Brendon Little. Blue Jays fans will remember Game 5 of the ALCS, giving up the game-tying home run to Cal Raleigh and walking the next two batters.
He retired the side in the 17th inning. But because where he was in the bullpen order, Little gave up the game-winning walk-off home run to Freddie Freeman.
Heartbreaking!
Tonight’s game officially goes down tied for the longest World Series game in MLB history by innings.
It bears a lot of similarity to the other one. That was also a Game 3 of the World Series played at Dodger Stadium, won by a walk-off home run in the 18th inning from the starting first baseman — Max Muncy, who shifted to third base four years later when the Dodgers signed tonight’s hero Freddie Freeman.