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The Dodgers have jumped to a 2-1 lead in the 2025 World Series after a thrilling, back-and-forth, extra-inning contest in Game 3 ended in a 6-5 win for Los Angeles. The 18-inning game ended with yet another walk-off home run off the bat of Freddie Freeman.
Shohei Ohtani led the way for the Boys in Blue, reaching base in all nine of his plate appearances, setting a postseason record and tying an MLB record. He slugged two homers and two doubles, was intentionally walked four times, drew another walk and had three runs driven in, continuing his postseason excellence thus far in October.
The 18-inning matchup tied for the longest in World Series history, matching the 2018 game between the Boston Red Sox and the Dodgers, which the Boys in Blue won via a Max Muncy walk-off homer before ultimately falling in the series.
Echoing that history, which happened almost exactly to Monday’s date seven years ago —on Oct. 26, 2018 — Freeman launched a walk-off bomb to deep center field, ending the game 6-5.
Game breakdown
The Dodgers jumped on Toronto starter Max Scherzer early, staking a 1-0 lead with a Teoscar Hernández homer deep to left field. Ohtani tacked on to the lead with his own solo shot in the third inning, ripping a fastball up and in over the right field wall.
Freddie Freeman drew a walk after the Ohtani homer, promptly stealing second base with Dodgers catcher Will Smith at the plate. He lined a single to right field, but Toronto outfielder Addison Barger unfurled a perfect throw home to nab Freeman as he attempted to score.
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The Blue Jays bounced back from the game-tying homer almost immediately, however, when Alejandro Kirk crushed a three-run homer after Los Angeles starter Tyler Glasnow hung a curveball over the plate. Guerrero Jr. prefaced Kirk’s at-bat with a walk, which was followed by an error from the Dodgers’ second baseman Tommy Edman, who let a Bo Bichette grounder skip under his glove and into right field.
They added another run on an Andres Gimenez sacrifice fly, giving them a 4-2 lead.
As expected, Ohtani and the Dodgers answered back quickly. Ohtani’s second double of the game scored Kiké Hernández from first base before Freddie Freeman slashed a ball past the diving glove of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., tying the game at 4-4.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Guerrero Jr. flashed his Gold Glove-winning leather, gunning down Teoscar Hernández with a perfect throw as he attempted to grab an extra base on a Kiké Hernández infield single. It ended the scoring threat and the sixth inning for the Los Angeles offense.
Toronto took another lead in the top of the seventh inning, when a Bo Bichette single down the first base line, paired with savvy base running and an incredible tag-avoiding slide from Guerrero Jr., put them back up 5-4.
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Ohtani answered for the Dodgers instantly, absolutely crushing a 406-foot home run over the wall in left-center field when Toronto reliever Seranthony Dominguez grooved a 98 mph fastball down the heart of the plate.
His four extra-base hits tied a World Series record previously set back in the 1906 series between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. He now has eight long balls in the postseason and three in the World Series.
After allowing a walk to Isaiah Kiner-Falefa in his second inning of the contest, Roki Sasaki avoided disaster when a Daulton Varsho liner bounced off of Freddie Freeman’s glove. Kiner-Falefa, similar to Teoscar Hernández in the sixth inning, attempted to take third base but was nailed by a perfect throw from Edman.
Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman was tagged to pitch the bottom of the ninth. He got Andy Pages to pop out to start, after an 11-pitch at-bat, before they intentionally walked Ohtani, who was gunned down upon attempting to steal second base after he slipped while popping out of his slide. Mookie Betts popped out in foul territory, sending the game to extra innings.
Extra innings
The top of the 10th inning ended as Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman combined for a perfect relay home, nabbing Davis Schneider, who had singled to reach base, as he attempted to score on a Nathan Lukes double.
Hoffman pitched around trouble in the bottom of the 10th inning, keeping the Dodgers from scoring despite allowing a runner to reach scoring position following a hit by pitch for Smith and a single from Teoscar Hernández.
Emmett Sheehan pitched a clean 11th inning before the Dodgers came up to bat. They gave Ohtani a free pass again after getting Andy Pages out. Betts singled to move Ohtani into scoring position before Freeman flew out to left field.
Longtime Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was called from the bullpen in the top of the 12th inning with two outs and the bases loaded. He got Nathan Lukes to groundout weakly to Edman to end the frame.
In the bottom of the 13th inning, after Edgardo Henriquez pitched a perfect top of the frame, Tommy Edman slapped a double to right-center field before he was moved to third via sacrifice bunt off the bat of the pinch-hitting Miguel Rojas. The Blue Jays then intentionally walked both Ohtani and Betts, bringing Freeman to the plate with the bases loaded. He flew out to deep center field, narrowly missing hitting a walk-off grand slam in the World Series for the second consecutive year.
After Henriquez hurled another clean inning to start the 14th inning, the game almost ended off the bat of Will Smith, who crushed a ball to deep left-centerfield, which died just feet before breaching the wall. Max Muncy followed that up in the next at-bat, slapping a long foul ball before drawing a walk.
Teoscar Hernández singled in the next at-bat, moving Muncy into scoring position before Edman popped out for the second out of the inning. Miguel Rojas grounded out to end the inning.
Both teams cruised through the 15th, 16th and 17th innings before heading into a record-tying 18th inning. At the same time, Dodgers starter and Game 2 hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto began to warm up in the Dodgers’ bullpen, just two days after pitching his second consecutive complete game of the postseason. He never made it into the game, however, as Will Klein dominated the opposition through four innings of shutout ball.
Klein and the Blue Jays’ Eric Lauer, both of whom appeared in extra innings, combined to toss 8 and 2/3 innings, maintaining the score at 5-5 throughout their appearances. Klein escaped his dazzling performance with the win after striking out Blue Jays’ backup catcher Tyler Heineman with runners on second and third, the first time that Toronto had runners in scoring position since the 12th inning.
Similar to last year’s World Series, which the Dodgers won over the New York Yankees, Freddie Freeman played hero, launching a 3-2 pitch from Brendon Little 406 feet over the center field wall, just over the outstretched glove of the leaping Daulton Varsho, sending the Dodger Stadium crowd into an uproar and home with the World Series lead.
Game 4 is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, where none other than Ohtani is slated to take the mound against Toronto’s Shane Bieber.
Key moments and statistics
Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow went just 4 and 2/3 innings, allowing four runs, two earned, on five hits. He walked three and struck out five. Scherzer went 4 and 1/3 innings, striking out three and allowing three earned runs, two of which came on homers.
The teams combined to use 19 pitchers during the 17-inning contest. They also combined to leave 37 runners on base, drew 19 walks, struck out 29 times and tallied 31 hits.
Kershaw’s appearance out of the bullpen, with two outs in the top of the 12th, was the first extra-inning appearance of his 18-year career. He’s set to retire at the end of the World Series, ending what is surely a Hall of Fame career that came entirely in Los Angeles.
Freeman’s fifth-inning RBI was just his second of the postseason.
Toronto outfielder George Springer, who hit arguably the 2025 postseason’s biggest home run, so far, in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, left the game in the seventh inning due to an injury. He was replaced by utility player Ty France. Before Game 3, Springer was hitting .375 in the first two games of the World Series.
Roberto Clemente Award winner
Betts was honored with the 2025 Roberto Clemente Award before the game. The award is annually given to the player who “best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field,” according to Major League Baseball. He’s the fourth Dodger to win the award, and first since Justin Turner did so in 2022.
