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The championship series is headed to a final Game 7 following the Dodgers kept their title defense hopes intact on Friday with a 3–1 victory over the Blue Jays in Game 6.

The defending champions ended Toronto’s late-game comeback with a dramatic game-ending double play, stunning a home audience that had arrived prepared to cheer the city’s first title in over three decades.

Game 6 Summary

The Dodgers produced all of their offense in the third frame. With two outs, Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked before Will Smith hit a two-bagger to left field to bring home Tommy Edman. Freddie Freeman earned a base on balls to load the bases, and Betts delivered with a two-RBI hit to left, handing the Dodgers a 3–0 advantage.

That key hit snapped a postseason slump and rekindled the defending champions’ aspirations of becoming the first repeat championship winners since the Yankees captured three straight from 1998 through 2000.

Mound Battle

Gausman had been nearly unhittable to that stage, striking out six of the first seven Dodgers he faced. He struck out eight through three frames, matching a Fall Classic mark, but the third-inning barrage proved decisive. The Toronto ace ended with eight strikeouts over six frames, yielding three earned runs on three hits and two walks.

Yamamoto, in contrast, was steady again under stress. The 27-year-old right-hander outdueled his counterpart for the second occasion in a seven days, allowing one run on five base hits over six innings with six Ks. He improved to 4–1 this postseason with a 1.56 ERA.

The lone score against him came on Springer’s two-out base hit in the third, scoring Barger, who had doubled earlier in the inning. That single offered a momentary lift in his return to the starting nine after missing two games with an oblique injury.

Bullpen Heroics

From there, the Los Angeles relievers carried the load. Rookie Wrobleski escaped a jam in the seventh inning, and fellow rookie Sasaki pitched into the ninth before hitting Alejandro Kirk to start the inning. Barger then hit a double that got stuck under the left-center-field fence, forcing base runners to stay at second and third.

Glasnow, the Dodgers' Game 3 starting pitcher, entered in relief and got a pop fly before Giménez lined to left field. Hernández caught the ball and fired to second base to retire the runner, sealing the win and earning Glasnow his first career save.

Next Up: Seventh Game

The series now boils down to one game. Scherzer will take the mound for the Blue Jays, becoming the only living pitcher to pitch in more than one seventh games of the World Series after doing so in the 2019 season with the Nationals. The veteran inked a single-season contract to chase another championship and has been a outspoken presence throughout this playoff run.

The Los Angeles squad, looking to be the sport's first back-to-back champions in almost 25 years, are projected to lean on Shohei Ohtani for a brief appearance.