A Nail-Biting Classic

The Dodgers celebrate (LA Times photo)

The Most Valuable Player of the 2025 World Series was a pitcher who was born and raised in Japan, but he wasn't Shohei Ohtani. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the complete game winner of game two, was the starter and winner of game six, and was the closer and winner of game seven.

The seventh game of the World Series, often a letdown, was a nail-biting classic decided in the 11th inning, but it didn't start auspiciously.

When Bo Bichette hit a three-run home run off of Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the third, it looked like Toronto was well on its way to a World championship; the Dodgers' anemic bats throughout the Series made a comeback a heavy lift. However, their relief pitching held the rest of the way as the visitors clawed their way back. The Dodgers were trailing 4-3 in the top of the ninth inning when their number-9 hitter became an unlikely hero.

Miguel Rojas became the first player to hit a tying home run in the ninth inning of a Game 7...Toronto was two outs from its first championship since 1993 when Rojas, inserted into the slumping Dodgers lineup in Game 6 to provide some energy, homered on a full-count slider from Jeff Hoffman and stunned the Rogers Centre crowd of 44,713.

“I’ve cost everybody in here a World Series ring," Hoffman said.

Rojas hadn't homered since Sept. 19.

The Dodgers finally prevailed in the 11th:

In the 11th, they finally won it, taking their first lead of the game on a Will Smith home run with two outs in the top half of the inning, then watching Yoshinobu Yamamoto — in his third inning of work, a night after throwing 96 pitches in a Game 6 win — close it all out on a double-play grounder to shortstop Mookie Betts.

The fans and even some players are talking about the Dodgers repeating as champions for the third year in a row. Los Angeles is not as dominant as the record indicates--just in the World Series there were a half-dozen plays where Toronto could have won the whole thing. Just appreciate what we just saw in Games 6 and 7 and let next year take care of itself.