Break It Down!
Spoiler Alert:
In the event you’re not a sports fan in general, or a baseball fan in particular, and you don’t stay up late at night, or watch Sports Center, the Toronto Blue Jays evened the World Series last night, besting the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2, and earning a 2-2 Series split.
The matter now comes down to a best of three event, with two games in Toronto, if the Series goes 7 games. Game 5, the third and final game in Los Angeles will be played today. Game 6 will be played Friday in Toronto. If necessary, Game 7 will be played Saturday, also in Toronto.
But this post is not a World Series game-by-game, blow-by-blow analysis. It’s about Monday night’s two-games-rolled-into-one marathon. An 18-inning affair that lasted over a quarter of a day. In some circles, it was immediately deemed an Instant Classic. As a Dodger partisan, I embrace that reckoning.
Even if Toronto wins the Series, and they might; Monday’s 18-inning spectacle, capped by a Freddy Freeman walk-off home run, will soon be forgotten. Still, the Blue Jays did have the better Regular Season record, which is what earned them home field advantage,
In what could best be described as an epic battle, the teams fought valiantly, only to trade leads throughout the contest, until Freeman’s shot to straight-away center field clinched the proceedings in the bottom of the 18th. It tied for the longest game in World Series history. Interestingly, the other 18-inning game also featured the Dodgers, in another game in which one of their stars (Max Munzy), hit a game-ending walk-off home run. That was also in Game 3 at Dodger Stadium…in 2018 against the Boston Red Sox. That game still holds the record as the longest game, measured by duration of time, lasting 7 hours, 20 minutes. Monday’s game lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes.
It is no surprise, Monday night’s game produced a number of gaudy statistics, including:
18-innings (Tied for the longest WS Game)
19 Pitchers
31 Hits
11 Runs
609 Pitches
6 Hours, 39 Minutes (Second longest WS Game)
37 Runners Stranded (6 more than any other postseason game)
Shohei Ohtani reached base 9 times (Postseason record)
Shohei Ohtani Had 4 extra-base hits in his first four at bats
Shohei Ohtani Had two home runs – his third multi-homer game in a single postseason (First player to have three multi-homer games in a single postseason
While I’d like to skip this uncomfortable (for a Dodger fan) fact, it would be providing less than full disclosure to do so. Besides, someone would certainly recall that for all the notoriety of the Dodgers’ 2018 feat, it was the Red Sox who won the World Series. As one who bleeds Dodger Blue, I can only hope that means we’re overdue. In summary, as baseball games go, this one was “A Stat Geek’s Dream!”
I’m done; holla back!
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For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:
https://www.mlb.com/news/world-series-game-3-facts-and-figures-2025
https://www.mlb.com/news/dodgers-win-world-series-game-3-2025
BREAK IT DOWN! 