Ranking seven craziest moments from Dodgers’ unforgettable World Series Game 7 win vs. Blue Jays

The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions. Again. They have become the first repeat champion in Major League Baseball since 2000. The trailed for most of Game 7, too, after winning Game 6 just to force a Game 7. 

What we just witnessed in Game 7 was pretty insane, even by World Series Game 7 standards. You truly had to have watched the game to experience everything that we all went through seeing it live. The box score surely doesn’t do justice to some of the plays we saw. 

In the spirit of that, here are some of the best and most wild plays that you had to see to truly believe. We’ll rank them, but the rankings are subjective and people can disagree for fun. There’s no reason to act like these are definitive or anything. 

Unranked (weird division)

• There was a near-“fight.” It’s in quotes because it was never gonna actually be a fight, but benches so rarely clear these days and to see it happen in Game 7 was odd. A funny moment followed, too, when George Springer hit a liner off of pitcher Justin Wrobleski and the crowd erupted as if it were a retaliation.

Unranked (honorable mention division) 

• Max Muncy‘s home run in the top of the eighth cut the Blue Jays‘ lead to one at a time when it felt like the rest of the game might be a formality. 
• What happened with George Springer stealing second in the first inning when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. striking out looking and then Springer getting thrown out while not even looking like he was running hard for second? 
• Remember, Bo Bichette was playing with an injured knee. When Ernie Clement singled in the second inning, Bichette normally would have been able to score, but they had to hold him at third instead. The Blue Jays left the bases loaded.
• In the top of the sixth inning, the Dodgers got two runners on with no out. Teoscar Hernández hit a comebacker to Blue Jays reliever Chris Bassitt, who went to second to get a force out in hopes of turning a double play. This put a runner on third with one out and the Dodgers followed with a sac fly. What if Bassitt cut down the lead runner?

OK, now let’s get to it.

We’re gonna smush a few moments together in some of these in order to round it nicely into seven. We can break rules while basking in the joy of what was an amazing series and all-time great Game 7. 

7. Varsho and Guerrero Jr. make diving catches

The Blue Jays love their legacies. Everyone knows about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and most know about Bo Bichette (his father, Dante). Does everyone know about Daulton Varsho and his dad, Gary, who was a backup outfielder for several years? 

The Dodgers had the bases loaded and one out in the top of the fourth inning, just after dealing with a three-run home run putting them in a 3-0 hole. Hernández sent a shot to center field that could have gotten by Varsho, but Varsho snared the diving catch. It scored one run, but could have been worse. And then Tommy Edman sent a rocket down the first base line, but Guerrero made a diving catch to end the threat with a 3-1 Blue Jays lead.

6. Bichette’s monster homer

Bichette hadn’t hit a home run since Sept. 2 and had missed a lot of the playoffs due to a knee injury. He was clearly hobbled, as noted above. And still, he absolutely crushed a three-run home run off Shohei Ohtani to give the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead in the third inning that they’d nearly hold to win the World Series. Alas, it wasn’t to be, but this home run is one of the things that made this game amazing.

5. Rojas’ play to the plate

With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Blue Jays had the bases loaded and one out. Daulton Varsho hit a grounder to second and the Dodgers had to go home with it instead of trying to turn a double play. Miguel Rojas, a normally light hitter who was in the game for his defense, made a good play on the grounder from Varsho but had to hurry home and it ended up a bang-bang play. Not only that, it looked like catcher Will Smith‘s foot came off home plate for a second before getting back on just in time to record the out. The play was upheld via video review. 

4. Pages’ catch

Man, how the heck is this No. 4? What a ridiculous game.

This was the very next play after No. 5. No, let me rephrase. It was the next pitch after our No. 5 play. Ernie Clement, who was an offensive superstar in this series, sent a shot to deep left-center that looked like it would be a walk-off winner. Dodgers left fielder Kiké Hernández was in hot pursuit of the ball, as was center fielder Andy Pages — who was a defensive replacement just two hitters before and wasn’t even their best defensive center fielder available — ended up making a jumping catch while running into Hernández to force extra innings. 

3. Will Smith’s moment to shine

Smith hit a huge home run in Game 2 of the series and caught every single inning in the series. Keep in mind what that means, given that he caught 18 innings in Game 3 and turned around and still caught every inning the following day. He then hit what turned out to be the series-winning home run in Game 7 with a shot to left field off Blue Jays starter-in-relief Shane Bieber. 

2. Miguel Rojas’ home run

As I said above, Rojas was in the game for his defense. He wasn’t even a regular starter in this series. He only hit seven home runs in the regular season and his only home run against a righty came off a position player. His last homer came on Sept. 19. He was facing Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman, who got Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith out after Rojas. But Rojas homered to tie the game in the ninth inning of Game 7. It was the second-ever game-tying or go-ahead home run in a World Series Game 7 in the ninth inning, along with Bill Mazeroski’s famed walk-off homer in 1960. 

Still, it falls short of No. 1. 

1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Yamamoto, the World Series MVP, has to take the top spot considering the circumstances. He had zero complete games stateside in 48 regular-season starts and six playoff starts until the NLCS. Then he threw back-to-back complete games, including Game 2 of this series. He went six innings in Game 6. He came back to go 2 ⅔ heroic innings in Game 7 to grab the win. 

He escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth. Then he worked around a Guerrero double in the 11th to bring it home.