TORONTO – It comes down to this: Game 7 of the World Series at Rogers Centre Saturday night with Shohei Ohtani on the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching on three days of rest against the veteran Max Scherzer of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Ohtani, the two-way superstar, has never made a full start on such short rest either in the Major Leagues or Japan. He’s expected to open and pitch as long as he can.
“I’m confident about it. We all are,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his club hung on to defeat the Jays, 3-1, Friday night in a Game 6 thriller to tie the series at three games apiece. “It’s Game 7. There are a lot of things people haven’t done. You’ve just got to trust your players.”
Ohtani played his usual role in helping the Dodgers survive Friday night to get to the finale, scoring a run in the Dodgers’ key third inning. So did his Japanese mate Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who started and pitched another strong six innings, allowing a run on five hits with six strikeouts to earn the win, his third in a row and fourth of the playoffs. He’s 4-1 with a 1.56 ERA.
Roki Sasaki didn’t quite have it in relief and had to give way in the ninth inning to Tyler Glasnow, who faced two batters, and recorded the last three crazy outs to earn the save. The Blue Jays had runners on second and third with none out when Glasnow replaced Sasaki. Ernie Clement popped out to first on his first pitch.
Andres Gimenez launched a scorching liner to left that had game-tying single written all over it. Kiké Hernandez stormed in and grabbed it on the fly, quickly throwing to second to nab Addison Barger at second for the game-ending double play. It was bang- bang play and the call survived a review.
“It’s a tough read,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Kiké playing shallow and one out you’re thinking score. He made a really good play. It’s such a tweener. … Wild way to finish it, that’s for sure.”
Glasnow’s starting slot was supposed to be Game 7, but after throwing three pitches his status changed.
“Glasnow will be available. Everyone will be available,” save Yamamoto, Roberts said.
That didn’t leave the Dodgers much choice except Ohtani, who started Game 4 at Dodger Stadium, allowing four runs on six hits as he worked into the seventh inning of the 6-2 loss. He’s made three starts in the playoffs and wasn’t expected to start again, although Roberts indicated before Friday night’s game he might be available in relief.
That changed due to the circumstances, and Roberts said he had a postgame conversation with Ohtani about the possibilities.
“We just tried to figure out what his temperature is about starting vs. coming out the pen,” he said.
There is now little question. Roberts doesn’t even have a plan for sending Ohtani down to the bullpen to warm up when he’s involved in the game as a DH, he admitted.
“We haven’t thought that one through and figured out all the logistical stuff,” Roberts said. “We’ll talk it through and figure out what’s best for Sho, what’s best for us.”
The Dodgers almost didn’t make it to Game 7, but they lived to die another day in their attempt to become MLB’s first repeat champions in 25 years.
A team that’s still mired in a slump had four hits in all, but three of them came in a bunch to score their three runs in the third inning. One story line of the series has been Schneider’s penchant to intentionally walk Ohtani. He did it four times in the Game 3, 18-innning marathon won by the Dodgers when Ohtani reached base a record nine times on two homers, two doubles and five walks.
Schneider did it again with one out and a runner on second in the third inning, but this time the strategy blew up in his face. Will Smith followed with a double, and then Mookie Betts drove in the other two runs with a single. It was a rare offensive spark for Betts, who is now just 4-for 26 in the series.
“That’s something we talked about before the series,” Schneider said about intentionally walking Ohtani. “If there is an obvious chance, and we can take the bat out of his hands, yeah, we’re going to do it. They have really good hitters up and down their lineup, so you’re damned if you do, or damned if you don’t sometimes.”
This time he was flat-out damned. Ohtani later doubled with one out in the eighth inning when Schneider pitched to him just to punctuate the point. Those are the breaks.
Now it’s down to a winner-take-all Game 7.
“See you then,” Schneider said. “It’s going to be electric in here.”
