The Dodgers mob Yamamoto, the first pitcher to win three games in a World Series since Randy Johnson in 2001.

At the start of this World Series, I had a hail mary of a wish: If at all possible, I wanted Toronto Blue Jays fans to feel some of the heartache that Seattle Mariners fans had felt after the Blue Jays came back from a 3-1 deficit in Game 7 to take the ALCS from us.

I guess I got my wish.

Seriously, I can't remember a moment where the universe said so profusely to me, “Here. Here's exactly what you want. In fact, here's more of what you want.” To the point where I was like, “Yeah, no, that's plenty. No, I'm good. No, please, stop.” I just couldn't have imagined a better Game 7. 

OK, I could have. Shohei Ohtani, as pitcher, looked shakey from the outset, and that's not something I want. Like almost everyone, I love Shohei. But it did set up the rest. You needed the Blue Jays ahead early to make the rest of it work.

As hitter, Shohei actually led off the game with a single but was stranded. Ditto George Springer in the bottom half. But in the second, the BJs sent six men to the plate and would've scored, but lead runner Bo Bichette was running on one leg, and he couldn't score from second on a two-out single by Ernie Clement—who has been Ernie Clemente this postseason. He actually set the record for most hits in the postseason with 30. Yeah, there are more games in the postseason now, but dude's been redhot for an entire month. In the ALDS against the Yankees he hit .643, against the Mariners in the ALCS, .321, and in these World Series .387. This for a career .260/.295(!!!)/.376 hitter. He got hotter than he's ever been at the exact right moment. 

Hell, the whole of the Blue Jays did. Six of their starting nine hit over .300 for the Series. The Dodgers? One. Shohei. Almost everyone on the Blue Jays hit better, and much, much better, than they had during the regular season.

You almost want to test their drinking water. You want to see if Springer brought over any trash-can lids from Houston.

And they still lost! That's the amazing thing. To this team, who hit way, way worse than they did during the regular season:

You could probably win some bar bets by asking fans to name the top three hitters by batting average on the Dodgers for this Series. Top two, people would get. But Teoscar? He was third best? The last two games he just seemed lost at the plate. Whatever the opposite of the eye of the Tiger is, he had it. He had as much confidence at the plate as me asking Margot Robbie out on a date.

In the third, BJs broke through in a big way. Another Springer single, sac bunt by Lukes leading to the inevitable IBB to Vladdy Jr.; and then the first pitch to Bo Bichette was launched. And Rogers Centre, already nuts, went certifiable. 

Top 4, defense saved the BJs: double, single, pop out by poor Mookie, walk to load the bases, and then Teoscar, poor Teoscar, finally came through with a line drive up the middle. Daulton Varsho, whose name sounds like a James Spader character in a 1980s John Hughes movie, or the name I'd come up with in a Creative Writing 101 class (also in the 1980s), made a Superman catch to prevent multiple runs, but Will Smith still tagged up from third. Then Tommy Edman ripped one to right, a potentially bases-clearing double/triple in the corner, but it never made it out of the infield. Vladdy did his own Superman bit. 3-1, Jays.

Oh right, in the bottom half, we nearly had that benches-clearing brawl. God, almost forgot that. With one out, Justin Wrobleski, who looks like Timothee Chalamet's less-handsome brother but throws 100 and totally saved the Dodgers' ass this World Series, hit No. 9 hitter Andres Giminez on a 2-2 pitch. And Giminez had words. And Wrobs had words back, which the slow-mo cam captured perfectly: Fuck you, motherfucker. Benches cleared but heads prevailed. Has their ever been a knock-down-drag-out in a Game 7? Curious.

Dodgers again got two on with less than two out in the 5th but couldn't score. But in the 6th: walk, single, fielder's choice, sac fly, 3-2. BJs immediately wagged their finger, “Uh uh,” as Ernie Clemente led off the bottom half with a single, stole second, and came home on Giminez's double. Two-run cushion again.

We had friends over, Jeff and Sullivan, and I was in the kitchen tidying up when Jeff shouted, “Muncy homer!” in the 8th. One-run cushion again. But the faithful at Rogers remained faithful. I'm sure there were people with my sensibilities, thinking “This is too fucking close,” but the fans the TV kept showing kept roaring their approval. They looked happy and pumped. BTW, did anyone else keep seeing the Bobby Ayala-looking dude sitting behind homeplate in a pink cap, no expression on his face? Once I saw him I couldn't unsee him. Everyone's long wondered where Bobby Ayala is. Well, there he is! On international TV!

BJs almost got that one back: Ernie Clement kept being Clemente and led off the 8th with a double but was stranded at the drive-in.

To the ninth! Muncy's homer, Jeff immediately calculated, meant Shohei would bat in the 9th. He was due up third. Jeff was rooting for the Jays, like a normal person, but not emphatically, and he wanted the drama of a Shohei at-bat. Meanwhile, I was foreseeing an end like the Mariners ALCS Game 7 end against the Jays: the 8-9-1 hitters, with 1, the franchise guy, Mr. Everything, Julio Rodriguez in our case, striking out to end the season. I didn't want that fate for Shohei, too. And Shohei didn't suffer that fate. Because by the time he came up and flied out it was 4-4. With all eyes on Shohei in the on-deck circle, including, maybe BJs closer Jeff Hoffman's, weak-hitting middle-infielder Miguel Rojas took a 3-2 hanging slider and hit it harder than he's ever hit a ball in the Majors, per Joe Posnanski, despositing it in the left-field bleachers and taking all the oxygen out of Rogers Centre. Even I was stunned. I literally gasped. And I'm someone who, during the ALCS, had texted my friend Dave B. RE: postseason heroics: “It's always who you least expect.” It's the Mark Lemkes of the world, the Ernie Clements, and now the Miguel Rojases. Why did I gasp? Because I've been watching World Serieses for 50+ years and ... had I ever seen anything like that? A homerun in the 9th inning of Game 7 to tie it up?

The stats people soon let me know: No, I'd never seen something like that.

Players to hit game-tying or -winning home runs in the 9th inning of the 7th game of the World Series:

• Bill Mazeroski, 1960
• Miguel Rojas, 2025

Beware the light-hitting middle infielder. 

Even so, the BJs had a great chance of wiping that away in the bottom half. Vladdy flied out to deep, deep center (you could tell from his body language, nah); but then Bo Bichette singled, and now they had to pinch-run for him. He represented the season. After a walk, Blake Snell, who was pitching on fumes, was relieved for Game 2 and Game 6 hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was also pitching on fumes, and who promptly hit catcher and life-sized Weeble Alejandro Kirk to load the bases and bring the game- Series- and season-winning run 90 feet away with just one out. Varsho up, Dodgers playing in. Post-HBP, Roberts subbed in Andy Pages in center. Roberts has his issues, but that might've been a season-saving managerial move.

First, though, Daulton Varsho hit a grounder to—who else?—Miguel Rojas, who stabbed it off-balance, steadied himself, and threw a strike home to nab pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa by inches. Much has been said, some by Joey Poz, that IKF wasn't leading off far enough, but IKF has said that's how he was instructed to lead off, which makes sense. The BJs lost Game 6 on an inning-ending DP because Addison Barger got doubled-up at second and the BJs didn't want that again. Replays showed he was out ... or was he? Did Will Smith's  cleat leave homeplate early? Nearly? No. I don't think the BJs even challenged.

“That'd be an awful way for the Series to end, right?” I said. “With a replay challenge?”

Jeff agreed. We did a lot of that talk. The season should not end on a bases-loaded walk. The season should not end on an overturned replay challenge. And while we were talking, Ernie Roberto Clemente, who looks like the bastard child of 2003-era Aaron Boone, crushed one to left field. Kiké went back and back and back, and was arching his head almost like Willie Mays, when, stage right, Andy Pages entered, crashing into him and nonchalantly snagging the ball to end the inning. Holy shit.

And on to extras. Could it be anything else with this Series?

In the 10th the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out. 6-2 to nab Mookie at the plate, 3-1 to nab a sprawling Kiké at first. BJs went 1-2-3, with George Springer finally looking as tired as he ought to look. And then all eyes on Shohei again. And again it was a guy on the other side of him, this time Will Smith, now batting second instead of the slumping Mookie (another good Roberts move), who took a hanging Shane Bieber slider deep to left to put the Dodgers on top for the first time in the game.

Right, but who was leading off for the Jays? Vladdy Jr., of course. Except he looked out of sorts, not his confident self, and I thought he was done, too. Then he rifled a double into the left-field corner and did his hand-clapping exhortation from second base to pump up his team. He was doing David Ortiz-style work here; he would not go gentle into that good night. Then he was sac bunted to third. Smart? Not? It was a beautiful bunt by IKF, perfect, really, since it took a nice play from Yamamoto to nab him. And the tying run was now 90 feet away.

Then four straight balls to Addison Barger. Purposeful? Maybe. Dude was hitting .500 and it set up the DP. And the next batter, Kirk, was an ideal DP batter. He was also an ideal double-in-the-gap batter. Anything might happen. But anything didn't. 0-2 and he grounded the ball to Mookie who executed a beautifully graceful 6-3 double play, and the game, the season, and the Series, belonged to the Dodgers. They're the first non-Yankees back-to-back World Series winners since ... of course ... the Toronto Blue Jays: 1992-93. And they're the first in the NL since the Big Red Machine in 1975-76. The Dodgers just flipped the Reds' script. Reds had a World Series for the ages in '75 and then blew out the Yankees in '76. Dodgers blew out the Yankees in '24 and had a World Series for the ages in '25.

Mid-game, when all was well at Rogers Centre, I was thinking the Blue Jays fans who came down from Canada and took over Mariners Park for 3-4 games a season would be insufferable next year, and the year after, and the year after. They had their ring. They had their bragging rights. They would never go away. Now? After being two outs away? After being two inches away? After the collision in left field and the DP to end all DPs? After all that, I imagine they'll be just like the rest of us: sufferable.