Was I having a heart attack? I had to look down to see if the thumping in my chest was visible. It wasn’t, but it should have been. If you can choose a way to go, then watching the bottom of the ninth inning in Game Six of the World Series isn’t a bad one.
I didn’t realise that I was so invested in the outcome of this game, but this was edge-of-the-sofa stuff, and the pounding of my heart suggested that I cared more than I realised. Maybe it was too much caffeine. I looked at my watch – 3:00am.
With the Blue Jays leading the series 3-2, they needed to win this one, in front of the noisy Canadian crowd, to clinch the World Series for the first time since 1993.
The score had remained 3-1 since the third inning. We were now at the bottom of the ninth. This was the last-chance Molson saloon.
On an 0-2 pitch, Roki Sasaki’s splitter got away and hit Alejandro Kirk to bring the tying run to the plate. The comeback was on. Damn, I love baseball.
The odds were still stacked against Toronto – we haven’t seen a ninth-inning comeback in this postseason – but Addison Barger was the tying run, and the 25-year-old revels in the limelight of the big stage, as confirmed by his playoffs OPS over 1.000.
Barger quickly found himself down a couple of strikes, but launched a line drive between the centre and left fielders. The ball’s trajectory suggested a convenient bounce off the wall, which would score pinch-runner Myles Straw and stop Barger at second.
Amazingly, the ball wedged itself at the base of the wall. Defensive replacement Justin Dean – whom I admit I had never seen before the playoffs – was unfazed and immediately appealed, and the umpires called a dead ball.
However, that didn’t stop thousands inside the Rogers Centre from watching Barger round the bases to seemingly tie the game.
After the inevitable review, Straw and Barger returned to occupy third and second. It was a gut-punch, but it hadn’t really changed much, although it’s one of those butterfly-effect moments. As George Martin of MLB UK Clubhouse said in the WhatsApp chat, “The added scoreboard pressure could have made a difference if the lead was down to one and still 0 outs, but who knows.”
The crowd settled. Toronto was on second and third with no outs. Next to the plate was Ernie Clement, hitting over .400 in the playoffs. He has 27 hits during the postseason, wow! He represented the World Series-winning run, double-wow!
Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager, wasn’t messing about with Blake Treinen or Anthony Banda, who have combined for an 8.18 ERA in October, and instead brought on Tyler Glasnow, the presumptive Game Seven starter.
My heart pounding was at its most ferocious. And I don’t even support the Dodgers or Blue Jays!
Clement, a first-pitch enthusiast, swung at the first offering from Glasnow. I expected a boom but instead it fizzled like an anticlimactic firework straight into Freddie Freeman’s glove at first.
The tying run was still in scoring position, but now with two outs. I wasn’t even on the edge of my sofa now. I had to stand. The excitement was unbearable.
Fate now gifted Andrés Giménez, the number nine hitter, the opportunity to make history. The Venezuelan isn’t known for power, though he homered twice in the ALCS. Unlikely? Yes. Possible? One swing could decide it all.
With George Springer on deck, my mind was already racing ahead to the potential storyline of the former Astro winning the World Series after his ridiculous (161 OPS+) age-35 season.
The Dodgers’ infield was playing back. They were willing to sacrifice one run to keep the lead intact. They were two games away from forcing a Game Seven; the Blue Jays were just one swing away from the World Championship.
Holy moly! Baseball is the best.
Giménez made contact. It wasn’t great contact. Maybe a broken bat blooper, but it was over Mookie Betts at shortstop and was going to fall before the onrushing outfielder. Straw would score. Barger has wheels. He might be given the green light to try to tie it up, but with only one out and the top of the order coming up, he would probably stop at third. Anyway, that is what my brain processed in about three-tenths of a second.
But instead, the ball didn’t fall in front of the outfielder. Kiké Hernández read it beautifully to make the catch, and with his momentum carrying him forward, threw in the same motion to second base, where Miguel Rojas snagged the ball to double-up the retreating Barger. A 7-4 double-play. The first-ever game-ending 7-4 double-play in postseason history.
The review upheld the decision. And the replay showed that the ball was never going to drop in front of Hernández; it was just my enthusiasm getting the better of me.
And so, we move on to a Game Seven. Maybe a Game Seven in the World Series is the greatest event in sport. You can keep your football World Cup Final or your Super Bowl – you always know it will come down to that one game – but a Game Seven is special. It’s a privilege.
And what makes it even more of a privilege is that we will get to see three-time Cy Young award-winner Max Scherzer take the ball for the Blue Jays with the (soon-to-be-annointed) NL MVP Shohei Ohtani pitching for the Dodgers.
With the luxury of Glasnow, Sasaki, and maybe even Blake Snell to call from the bullpen, the Dodgers may be favourites, but haven’t we underestimated the Blue Jays all season?
Featured image by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
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