Freddie Freeman, Dodgers Might Have Broken the Blue Jays in World Series Game 3 Epic

In a game that began with three-time Cy Young winner and surefire Hall of Famer Max Scherzer on the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays, it was three-time Cy Young winner and surefire Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw to the rescue for the Los Angeles Dodgers with the bases loaded in the 12th inning.

And they were just getting warmed up.

Game 3 of the 2025 World Series was an instant classic of the highest order, checking every box imaginable before Freddie Freeman did his thing with another walk-off home run in the World Series, this one coming in the 18th inning.

The game set postseason records with 19 pitchers and 37 runners left on base. Six runners were thrown out on the bases. It also goes down as the longest game in World Series history by innings played.

Before the game turned into a marathon of zero after zero on the scoreboard, so many of the little things in what are typically the "middle innings" seemed to be going Toronto's way.

Addison Barger's throw from right field to cut down Freeman at the plate to end the third inning was a frozen rope that you could hang in the Louvre.

Tommy Edman's error two plays later set the stage for the Blue Jays' four-run fourth, which contributed substantially to Tyler Glasnow not even surviving five innings.

The 6-3-5 putout to end the sixth inning was a brilliant heads-up play by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. His subsequent seventh-inning 270-foot sprint to score from first on Bo Bichette's single was merely the latest in a long list of his memorable moments from this postseason.

Unfortunately, all those little things weren't enough to overcome the biggest star on the planet.

By the time John Schneider finally accepted that pitching to Shohei Ohtani is a no-good, very bad idea and started intentionally walking him repeatedly. The Dodgers' Game 4 starting pitcher had already amassed 12 total bases and tied the game with a home run in the seventh inning.

Twenty-one scoreless frames, approximately one million foul balls, and a legendary relief outing by Will Klein later, Freeman ripped the hearts out of an entire nation with his seventh home run in his last 10 World Series games, ending a night that may have broken the Blue Jays for good.

Because, come on, how can they come back from that?

How could anyone?

They had chance after chance against the highly suspect Dodgers bullpen, only to leave a mind-numbing 19 runners on base, as Klein, Kershaw and Co. combined to allow just one run in 13.1 innings of relief.

That was the exact blueprint for Toronto to win this series: Get into Los Angeles' bullpen as early as possible in games and then reap the benefits of no longer needing to deal with their four aces.

However, they simply could not capitalize on that golden opportunity, perhaps in large part because the hero of Game 7 of the ALCS—the player who was even more valuable for Toronto than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. during the regular season—only got to see one pitch against that usually exploitable bullpen.

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George Springer fouled off a Justin Wrobleski sinker to open the seventh inning and immediately left the game with all the telltale signs of an oblique strain. They're waiting on the results of his MRI, but it feels unlikely we'll see him again in this World Series.

And with Ohtani and Blake Snell lined up to start for the Dodgers in what could be the final two games of the 2025 MLB season, losing the star who led the team in home runs, stolen bases, OPS and—maybe most important of all—postseason experience would be a mighty difficult mountain to climb.

We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't point out that when the Dodgers won the only previous 18-inning game in World Series history, it did nothing to change their fate in that 2018 series, losing to Boston in five games. While it's certainly more uplifting to be on the winning side of a marathon game, it's going to be a brand new ballgame when they take the field again about 17 hours after that final pitch.

Anything could happen.

This time around feels different, though.

Seven years ago, the Dodgers were the 92-win underdog against the 108-win Red Sox juggernaut. But now the hunters have become the hunted, and they're closing in on the first back-to-back titles since the New York Yankees were the ones relentlessly outspending everyone back in 1998-2000.

To reclaim a legitimate chance in this series, before the first pitch was even thrown, it felt like Toronto needed to win this game. That need only grew more dire with each passing inning.

This was their chance. Their opening. Somehow, some way, they needed to seize it and guarantee that the series at least makes it back to Toronto.

Instead, they lost the epic battle, probably lost a star and maybe just lost the war.