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This year's World Series is going to a final Game 7 following the Los Angeles Dodgers kept alive their repeat dreams intact Friday night with a 3–1 victory over the Blue Jays in Game 6.

The defending champions halted Toronto’s ninth-inning rally with a thrilling game-ending double play, stunning a home audience that had come ready to cheer the team's championship in 32 years.

Game 6 Summary

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

Betts’ hit broke a postseason slump and revived the defending champions’ hopes of being the first repeat World Series winners since the Yankees captured three straight from 1998 to 2000.

Pitching Duel

Kevin Gausman had been dominant to that point, striking out six of the first seven Dodgers he confronted. He fanned 8 through three frames, tying a Fall Classic mark, but the third-frame rally proved decisive. The Blue Jays' star ended with 8 Ks over six frames, yielding three runs on three safeties and two free passes.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, meanwhile, was solid again under pressure. The 27-year-old right-hander outdueled Gausman for the second occasion in a week, 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 resulted from Springer’s two-out single in the third inning, driving in Addison Barger, who had doubled previously in the frame. Springer’s hit offered a momentary lift in his return to the starting nine after sitting out two games with an oblique injury.

Relief Heroics

From there, the Los Angeles relievers took over. Rookie Wrobleski got out of a jam in the seventh inning, and another rookie Rōki Sasaki pitched into the ninth inning before hitting Alejandro Kirk to start the frame. Addison Barger then hit a two-base hit that became wedged under the left-center-field fence, forcing runners to stay at second and third.

Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers' Game 3 starting pitcher, came on in a relief role and induced a pop fly before Giménez lined to left field. Hernández caught the ball and fired to second base to retire the runner, clinching the victory and earning the pitcher his first-ever save.

Next Up: Seventh Game

The series now boils down to one game. Max Scherzer will start for Toronto, becoming the only living pitcher to start more than one seventh games of the World Series after doing so in 2019 with the Nationals. The veteran signed a single-season contract to chase one more title and has been a outspoken presence throughout this playoff run.

The Dodgers, aiming to be baseball’s initial repeat title winners in almost 25 years, are expected to rely on Shohei Ohtani for a short outing.