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The championship series is headed to a decisive seventh game after the Los Angeles Dodgers kept alive their title defense hopes alive on Friday with a three to one win over the Blue Jays in Game 6.

The reigning title holders ended Toronto’s ninth-inning rally with a dramatic game-ending double play, silencing a home audience that had come ready to cheer the team's championship in over three decades.

Game 6 Summary

The Dodgers produced all of their offense in the third inning. With two away, Ohtani was purposely passed before Will Smith doubled to left to bring home Tommy Edman. Freeman drew a walk to load the bases, and Mookie Betts came through with a two-run single to the opposite field, handing the Dodgers a 3–0 lead.

That key hit snapped a playoff dry spell and rekindled the title holders' aspirations of becoming the initial back-to-back championship winners since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998 to 2000.

Pitching Battle

Kevin Gausman had been nearly unhittable to that stage, fanning half a dozen of the first seven Dodgers he faced. He fanned 8 through three innings, tying a World Series mark, but the third-frame rally proved decisive. The Blue Jays' star ended with eight strikeouts over six frames, yielding three earned runs on three hits and two walks.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, in contrast, was solid again under pressure. The 27-year-old right-hander outpitched Gausman for the second time in a seven days, giving up one run on five base hits over six frames with six Ks. He improved to 4–1 this playoffs with a 1.56 ERA.

The lone score against him came on George Springer two-out single in the third inning, driving in Barger, who had hit a double previously in the frame. That single offered a brief spark in his return to the starting nine after sitting out a pair of contests with an oblique injury.

Bullpen Effort

From there, the Los Angeles relievers carried the load. First-year pitcher Justin Wrobleski escaped a tight spot in the seventh inning, and another rookie Rōki Sasaki pitched into the ninth before hitting Kirk to start the inning. Barger then hit a double that became wedged under the left-center-field fence, obliging runners to stay at second and third base.

Tyler Glasnow, Los Angeles’ Game 3 starting pitcher, came on in relief and induced a pop fly before Andrés Giménez hit a line drive to left. Enrique Hernández made the catch and fired to second base to retire Barger, sealing the win and giving the pitcher his first-ever save.

Next Up: Game 7

The series now boils down to one game. Scherzer will start for Toronto, making him the sole active hurler to pitch in more than one seventh games of the World Series after doing so in the 2019 season with Washington. The veteran inked a single-season contract to pursue another championship and has been a outspoken presence throughout this playoff run.

The Dodgers, looking to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in almost 25 years, are projected to lean on their two-way star for a brief appearance.