Shohei Ohtani will pitch for the Dodgers in Saturday evening’s decisive Game 7 of the World Series in Toronto, giving the reigning National League Most Valuable Player another chance to create a magical memory in a season full of such moments for him and the team.
The Dodgers forced Game 7 by beating the Blue Jays, 3-1, on Friday night, and manager Dave Roberts said in his postgame news conference that all the team’s pitchers would be available Saturday except for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was Friday’s winning pitcher.
Ohtani is “going to pitch, I just don’t know when,” Roberts said on MLB Network’s postgame show.
The team announced Ohtani as the started shortly before 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
He’ll be pitching on three days rest for the second time in his six seasons as a major league pitcher. The other time was on April 21, 2023, when he pitched seven shutout innings against the Oakland Athletics, limiting them to two hits, striking out 11 batters and walking two in the Angels’ 2-0 victory, four days after he was removed from a start after two innings and throwing 31 pitches because of a rain delay at Boston’s Fenway Park.
Ohtani started Game 4 on Tuesday, allowing six hits and four earned runs in six innings in a 6-2 loss.
When asked if he was confident to send Ohtani to the mound on three days rest, Roberts replied, “I am. I am. We all are. This is Game 7, so there’s a lot of things that people haven’t done, and you’ve just got to trust your players and try to win a baseball game.”
After belting a career-high 55 home runs in the regular season, Ohtani made more history in the fourth game of the National League Championship Series on Oct. 17, pitching shutout ball into the seventh inning with 10 strikeouts and hitting three home runs as the Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers.
In the Dodgers’ epic 18-inning, 6-5 victory in Monday’s Game 3, Ohtani tied a major league record by reaching base nine times, with two home runs, two doubles and five walks.
Right-hander Max Scherzer will pitch for the Blue Jays, manager John Schneider said.
“No better guy to have on the mound to kind of navigate the emotions, the stuff,” Schneider said in his postgame news conference. “Max has been getting ready for Game 7 when he knew he was pitching Game 3. So all the confidence in the world in him and everyone tomorrow.”
Scherzer was the Game 7 starter for the Washington Nationals in the 2019 World Series, the most recent previous time the Series went the distance. Scherzer did not figure in the decision and was relieved after pitching five innings with the Nationals trailing the Houston Astros, 2-0. They scored six runs in the final three innings of a 6-2 victory.
Saturday’s first pitch is set for 5:08 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The game will be televised on Fox, broadcast in English by KLAC-AM (570) and in Spanish by KTNQ-AM (1020).
Facing elimination for the first time in the 2025 postseason on Friday, Tyler Glasnow pitched out of a ninth-inning jam for his first major league save and Mookie Betts drove in two runs with a third-inning single.
Glasnow entered the game with runners on second and third and no outs in the ninth. Ernie Clement popped out on Glasnow’s first pitch.
Two pitches later, Andrés Giménez hit a line drive to Kiké Hernández, the Dodgers’ left fielder, who caught the ball and threw on one hop to Miguel Rojas, the Dodgers’ second baseman, who touched the base before Addison Barger could safely return to complete the game-ending double play.
As the ball went off Giménez’s bat, Roberts said what was going through his mind was “Stay up in the air. Stay up in the air.”
Will Smith, the Dodgers’ catcher, said Hernandez “made a really good play, really good read on that ball.”
“He was playing a little shallower just because of the situation,” Smith said. “Barger probably got a little giddy and wanted to score a tying run. Miggy made one heck of a pick. That was awesome.”
The inning began with Roki Sasaki hitting Alejandro Kirk on his left hand with an 0-2 splitter. Myles Straw ran for Kirk, who told reporters after the game X-rays did not show a fracture and said he would be ready to play Saturday.
Five pitches later, Barger hit a ball that landed at the base of the wall in center field and became lodged under the padding. Rookie center fielder Justin Dean, who had entered the game at the start of the bottom of the ninth, put his hands up, signaling that the ball was stuck.
The play was ruled a ground-rule double, likely taking a run away from Straw, who had to stay at third.
“Been here a long time. I haven’t seen a ball get lodged ever,” said Schneider, who has been Toronto’s manager since July 13, 2022 after being a Blue Jays’ coach since 2019.
“Just caught a tough break there. He put a really good swing on that pitch and ultimately ended up second and third with nobody out with guys that make contact and just didn’t get it done.”
Glasnow then relieved Sasaki.
The Dodgers scored all their runs in the third after Kevin Gausman retired each of their first eight hitters, striking out five.
Tommy Edman doubled with one out. Ohtani was intentionally walked one out later. Smith doubled in Edman, Freddie Freeman walked. Betts singled in Ohtani and Smith.
Toronto responded with a run in its half of the third.
The Dodgers were retired in order in all but the third and eighth innings and were out-hit, 8-4, in front of a sell-out crowd at Rogers Centre announced at 44,710.
The Dodgers were 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left five runners on base.
The Blue Jays were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base.
Gausman (2-3), the first of five Toronto pitchers, was charged with the loss, allowing three runs on three hits in six innings, striking out eight and walking two.
Yamamoto allowed one run and five hits in six innings, striking out six and walking one for the victory that improved his record in the postseason to 4-1.
The road team has won four of the six games of the Series. The Dodgers have won two of three games at Rogers Centre while the Blue Jays won two of three at Dodger Stadium.
This will be the seventh time the Dodgers have played in a World Series Game 7. Their only wins came in 1955 over the New York Yankees for their only championship in Brooklyn, and in 1965 over the Minnesota Twins.
The Dodgers are seeking their first back-to-back World Series championships in their third try, losing in seven games to the Yankees in 1956 and getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.