Baseball fans get to say the two best words in sports this year.
The Los Angeles Dodgers forced a decisive contest in the 2025 World Series with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Friday’s Game 6 at Rogers Centre. Everything will be on the line Saturday with the Dodgers looking for back-to-back titles and the Blue Jays attempting to win their first championship since 1993.
The Dodgers are favored to win Game 7 over the Blue Jays, boasting -141 odds, via DraftKings Sportsbook. Toronto has +116 odds to win the title.
While his streak of complete games ended at two, Yoshinobu Yamamoto helped save the season for the Dodgers with another impressive performance. He allowed one run and five hits while striking out six in six innings of work.
Will Smith and Mookie Betts provided the offense for Los Angeles, while the Toronto bats went silent in the biggest moments at 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
The most important of those chances came off Tyler Glasnow in the ninth when the home team spoiled runners on second and third with nobody out with an Ernie Clement pop out and Andrés Giménez double play.
That meant it was time to look ahead to Game 7:
Los Angeles couldn’t have asked for a better option on the mound with its season on the line. Yamamoto has been brilliant throughout the postseason, including when he allowed one run in a complete-game victory in Game 2 over the Blue Jays after he gave up one run in a complete-game win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series.
Even though the Blue Jays countered with their own ace in Kevin Gausman—who seemed to send an early message by striking out the side of Shohei Ohtani, Smith and Freddie Freeman to start the game—the Dodgers struck first.
Smith’s RBI double and Betts’ two-RBI single made it 3-0 in the third inning. The Betts hit in particular felt important since the eight-time All-Star has been in such a slump throughout this series.
George Springer, who returned to the lineup after missing Games 4 and 5 with injury, got one back for Toronto with an RBI single in the bottom of the third, but Yamamoto was dialed in the rest of the way.
While he wasn’t as efficient as he was in his complete games, the right-hander largely avoided significant trouble and worked his way through the Toronto lineup. His biggest moment was his last when he struck out Daulton Varsho with two runners on and two outs in the sixth.
Yamamoto’s dominance was a difficult break for Gausman, who was otherwise excellent outside of the third inning as he struck out eight and allowed just three hits in six innings.
Toronto still gave itself a chance against the questionable Dodgers’ bullpen by forcing Yamamoto from the game, but Justin Wrobleski finished a scoreless seventh by striking out Andrés Giménez with a runner in scoring position before Roki Sasaki danced out of trouble in the eighth by retiring Bo Bichette and Varsho with two runners on base.
Sasaki’s struggles continued in the ninth when he put runners on second and third with nobody out, but Glasnow bailed out the Dodgers and gave them momentum heading into Saturday’s Game 7.
