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This year's championship series is going to a decisive seventh game after the Los Angeles Dodgers kept their repeat dreams intact on Friday with a 3–1 victory over the Blue Jays in Game 6.

The reigning title holders ended Toronto’s ninth-inning rally with a thrilling game-ending double play, silencing a Rogers Centre crowd that had come ready to cheer the team's championship in over three decades.

Sixth Game Recap

The Dodgers generated all of their scoring in the third inning. With two outs, Ohtani was purposely passed before Smith doubled to left field to score Tommy Edman. Freddie Freeman drew a walk to fill the bases, and Mookie Betts delivered with a two-RBI hit to the opposite field, giving the Dodgers a three-run lead.

Betts’ hit snapped a playoff dry spell and rekindled the defending champions’ aspirations of being the initial back-to-back championship winners since the New York Yankees captured three straight from 1998 to 2000.

Pitching Battle

Gausman had been dominant to that point, striking out half a dozen of the first seven Dodgers he faced. He fanned 8 through three innings, tying a Fall Classic record, but the third-frame rally proved costly. The Toronto ace finished with eight strikeouts over six innings, allowing three runs on three safeties and two free passes.

Yamamoto, meanwhile, was solid again under pressure. The 27-year-old right-hander outdueled his counterpart for the second time in a seven days, giving up a single run on five hits over six frames with six strikeouts. He improved to four wins and one loss this playoffs with a 1.56 ERA.

The only run against him came on George Springer two-out single in the third inning, scoring Addison Barger, who had hit a double previously in the frame. That single offered a brief spark in his return to the starting nine after sitting out two games with an side strain.

Relief Effort

After that, the Dodgers’ bullpen carried the load. Rookie Wrobleski got out of a jam in the seventh, and fellow rookie Sasaki worked into the ninth inning before plunking Kirk to open the inning. Addison Barger followed with a two-base hit that got stuck under the left-center-field fence, obliging base runners to hold at second and third base.

Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers' Game 3 starter, came on in a relief role and induced a popout before Andrés Giménez lined to left. Hernández made the catch and threw to second base to double off the runner, clinching the win and giving Glasnow his first-ever save.

Next Up: Game 7

The best-of-seven now comes down to one game. Max Scherzer will take the mound for the Blue Jays, making him the only living pitcher to pitch in more than one seventh games of the World Series after doing so in 2019 with the Nationals. The veteran signed a one-year deal to pursue one more title and has been a vocal leader throughout this postseason.

The Dodgers, aiming to be baseball’s first back-to-back title winners in nearly a quarter-century, are expected to lean on Shohei Ohtani for a short outing.