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This year's championship series is headed to a final seventh game after the Dodgers kept their repeat hopes alive Friday night with a three to one victory over the Blue Jays in Game 6.

The defending champions halted Toronto’s late-game comeback with a dramatic game-ending double play, silencing a Rogers Centre audience that had arrived prepared to celebrate the team's championship in 32 years.

Game 6 Recap

Los Angeles generated all of their offense in the third inning. With two outs, Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked before Will Smith doubled to left field to bring home Edman. Freddie Freeman earned a base on balls to load the bases, and Mookie Betts delivered with a two-RBI hit to the opposite field, handing the Dodgers a three-run advantage.

Betts’ hit snapped a postseason slump and revived the defending champions’ hopes of being the first repeat World Series victors since the Yankees won three consecutive from 1998 to 2000.

Mound Duel

Kevin Gausman had been nearly unhittable to that point, striking out six of the initial seven batters he confronted. He struck out 8 through three frames, matching a Fall Classic mark, but the third-frame rally proved costly. The Toronto ace finished with 8 Ks over six frames, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks.

Yamamoto, meanwhile, was solid again under stress. The 27-year-old right-hander outdueled his counterpart for the second occasion in a seven days, giving up a single run on five hits over six frames with six Ks. He improved to 4–1 this postseason with a 1.56 ERA.

The only run against him resulted from Springer’s two-out single in the third, driving in Addison Barger, who had doubled previously in the frame. That single provided a brief spark in his return to the lineup after sitting out a pair of contests with an oblique injury.

Relief Heroics

From there, the Dodgers’ bullpen took over. First-year pitcher Justin Wrobleski got out of a tight spot in the seventh, and another rookie Sasaki worked into the ninth before plunking Kirk to open the frame. Addison Barger then hit a two-base hit that got stuck under the outfield wall, obliging base runners to stay at second and third.

Tyler Glasnow, Los Angeles’ third game starting pitcher, entered in relief and got a popout before Andrés Giménez hit a line drive to left. Hernández made the catch and fired to second base to double off the runner, clinching the victory and giving the pitcher his first career save.

Looking Ahead: Game 7

The series now boils down to one game. Max Scherzer will take the mound for Toronto, becoming the sole active hurler to start more than one seventh games of the World Series after doing so in the 2019 season with the Nationals. The 40-year-old inked a single-season contract to pursue another championship and has been a outspoken presence throughout this playoff run.

The Los Angeles squad, aiming to become baseball’s initial repeat title winners in nearly a quarter-century, are expected to rely on Shohei Ohtani for a short outing.