The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2025 World Series, and they needed one of the most dramatic games in the history of baseball to get there.
Once down to their last two outs against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers rode a game-tying home run from Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning and a game-winning home run from Will Smith in the 11th to become MLB’s first back-to-back champions since the New York Yankees in 2000.
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“Baseball is the greatest game ever invented,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said as his team received its trophy.
The game-winning home run came against former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber with two outs. Smith, who played more innings behind the plate than any catcher in World Series history, punished a hanging slider to put the Dodgers ahead for the first time of the night.
Meanwhile, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, pitching on zero days’ rest after his 96-pitch start in Game 6, threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings, sewing up World Series MVP honors with an old-school ace performance.
The Blue Jays had a prime chance to tie the game in the bottom of the 11th after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a leadoff double, then reached third on a sacrifice bunt. Addison Barger drew a four-pitch walk, setting up Alejandro Kirk for an at-bat that could win either team the title.
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Grounder to Mookie Betts. Double play. Ballgame.
Extra innings were necessary only thanks to the least likely person in the Dodgers’ lineup.
Rojas, the 36-year-old defensive specialist in the starting lineup due to extended slumps from other Dodgers, crushed his own hanging slider from Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman to tie the game 4-4 with one out in the ninth and stun a Rogers Centre crowd preparing to celebrate its first title since 1993.
Incredibly, Rojas wasn’t finished that inning. With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the frame, Daulton Varsho hit a grounder to second base, and Rojas got the ball to Smith at home plate a fraction of a second before Isiah Kiner-Falefa got there for what would’ve been the championship-winning run.
Then Andy Pages bowled over Kiké Hernández for the third out, completing one of the most absurd innings in World Series history.
Before all that, Bo Bichette was looming as the hero after missing the first three rounds of the postseason due to a knee sprain. He put the Blue Jays up 3-0 in the third inning with the swing of his life off Toronto’s newfound nemesis, Shohei Ohtani.
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The two-way superstar had taken the mound on short rest, essentially unprecedented in his MLB career, and looked beyond shaky in the first two innings. He kept them scoreless, but with four baserunners allowed. Roberts thought he still had it, though, and kept him in for the top of the Toronto order in the third.
George Springer walked. Nathan Lukes advanced him with a sacrifice bunt. The Dodgers intentionally walked Guerrero. And then Bichette took a slider in the zone and deposited it 442 feet away in the right-field stands.
The Blue Jays scored only one more run from there. A lineup that tortured the Dodgers nearly all series couldn’t string hits together and finished with 14 left on base. Then they watched the Dodgers celebrate at the end of the 11th inning. Crushing does not begin to describe what that game meant for Toronto as a franchise.
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The club was shaping up as an incredible story. Once facing a potential rebuild if 2025 didn’t go its way and Guerrero didn’t sign a new contract, the Jays pulled everything together and became a complete terror in the postseason. Guerrero and Ernie Clement tied and broke, respectively, Randy Arozarena’s postseason hits record of 29. Barger posted six multi-hit games in the World Series. Bichette and Springer both fought through injuries to remain threats. Trey Yesavage posted maybe the greatest start ever seen from a rookie in the World Series. Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman and Bieber all provided a veteran presence on the mound.
It felt like a classic champion in the making, only for the Blue Jays to get their hearts ripped out by baseball’s new bully.
On the other side, the Dodgers celebrated a title that felt inevitable for many fans due to all the money they spent but was by no means easy. They won only 93 games in the regular season and needed to make it through four rounds, with the Blue Jays putting them on their back foot multiple times.
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But now L.A. can celebrate, some players more than others. Yamamoto, Rojas and Smith all secured their Dodgers legacies on Saturday. Mookie Betts won his fourth ring. Ohtani and Yamamoto got their second in two years with the Dodgers.
And Clayton Kershaw, the team’s legendary left-hander who made his MLB debut in 2008, got to end his career as a back-to-back champion after waiting so long to get his first ring in 2020.
“I’m overflowing with gratitude right now, I really am,” Kershaw said in the victorious clubhouse, dripping in Champagne.
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for updates, highlights and more from Game 7 of the 2025 World Series:
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Yahoo Sports
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Complete game in Game 2. Six innings in a win in Game 6. 2 2/3 innings to finish Game 7.
Unbelievable stuff from Yamamoto in this World Series.
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The Dodgers are the first repeat champions in baseball since the 1998-2000 Yankees. They have Yoshinobu Yamamoto to thank for that.
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Kirk grounds into a double play, and that’s it. The Dodgers are back-to-back champs. An absolutely devastating loss for the Blue Jays.
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Barger draws a walk, and the Jays have first and third with one out, and Kirk coming up to bat.
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Vlad Jr. leads off with a loud double, and IKF lays down a perfect sac bunt to get him to third.
There’s one out, and the tying run is at third base, with Addison Barger coming up to bat.
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Yamamoto is still on the mound, and he’ll face Vlad Jr. to start.
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Freeman grounds out, and that does it for the Dodgers in the top of the 11th.
The Blue Jays have three more outs to answer, or this World Series is over.
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Will Smith delivers a solo blast to left field, and that’s a Dodgers lead.
Bieber left a slider over the middle, and Smith didn’t miss it.
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Rojas and Ohtani ground out.
Ohtani swung at his first pitch from Bieber, an inside cutter, and made some soft contact for out No. 2.
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Shane Bieber is now pitching for the Blue Jays.
He starts against Miguel Rojas.
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Yamamoto is still pitching for the Dodgers, somehow.
Gimenez grounds out, Springer strikes out, and Straw (now playing left field for Toronto) flies out.
That’s the 10th inning of Game 7. On to the 11th.
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Hernandez also grounds to first. And after a wonky bobble, Vlad Jr. tosses it to Dominguez, who tags the base for the third out.
Blue Jays get out of the bases-loaded jam, and we’re on to the bottom of the 10th.
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Pages grounds to Gimenez at shortstop, who tosses the ball home to get the lead runner.
That’s two outs. Bases are still loaded, this time for Kiké Hernández.
