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The Jays finished a lot of the night without Springer, Bichette, Barger or Kirk, four of their five best hitters
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The Fall Classic lived up to its name and then some, beginning on Monday, ending on Tuesday, a baseball night and day of great plays, wondrous moments, curious decisions and missed opportunities.
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All packed into 18 innings were six hours and 40 minutes of moments and tension, a brilliant game highlighted by the sport’s most brilliant player doing again what’s never been done before.
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Game 3 was a World Series celebration for the ages at raucous Dodgers Stadium. A game that should live forever. A baseball game never to be forgotten.
There was, at the end, after the Freddie Freeman home run, absolute jubilation for the winning Los Angeles Dodgers.
There was, at the end, after the walk-off shot from the almost Canadian absolute devastation for the Blue Jays. How do you recover from a night such as this?
How do you recover when so much of your own greatness ends in defeat. The spectacular breathtaking throws from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger. The semi-sharp outing from the ancient starter Max Scherzer. And yet another special memory from the slugging catcher Alejandro Kirk. They did all that in Game 3 and still came away with a 6-5 loss to the Dodgers. The kind of loss, Derek Jeter said afterwards, that you think about in the off-season and wonder how you let this game get away from you.
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‘The game you had to win’
“That was a Mike Tyson uppercut,” said Alex Rodriguez on the post-game World Series coverage on Fox-TV. “This is the game you had to win.”
This was the game that Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs and two doubles, the first time anyone ever hit four extra base hits in a World Series game, and it took four at bats for the stubborn Jays manager John Schneider to stop pitching to Ohtani.
The last five times Ohtani came to the plate he was walked each time. Ohtani was up to bat nine times, was on base nine times if the two home runs count as being on base. No one has ever done that before. No one probably will ever do that again.
This was Ohtani in all his genius, baseball’s greatest player on the largest stage. He hit Monday night. He will pitch Tuesday night. That’s how he rolls. But first, as he said after the game, “I need some sleep.
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“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible to get ready (for tomorrow).”
Which is getting ready for today — and we all need some sleep right about now, to digest and understand all we saw and didn’t see in the 6-5 loss to the Dodgers, giving them a substantial 2-1 lead in the World Series.
Jays played sensational defence
How do the Blue Jays differ from just about everybody they play, both regular season and playoffs? They play better defence. They don’t kick the ball around the way the Dodgers did, especially early, on Monday night.
Barger made what looked like a game-changing throw from right field — a Jesse Barfield kind of throw — that got Freeman called out at home and ended the third inning.
In the sixth inning, a wide throw to Guerrero took him off first base, but he had the wherewithal to not stop and instead threw directly to third base, where he nailed Keke Hernandez for the final out.
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That’s Blue Jays baseball. Sensational in so many ways. And after the Barger throw and before the Guerrero assist, Kirk had pounded a three-run home run off Tyler Glasnow putting the Jays up 4-2.
This is the kind of game it was before the offence disappeared from both teams. The Jays trailed 2-0, led 4-2, game was tied at 4-4, then the Jays led 5-4 before the seventh inning home run by Ohtani tied the game. The Jays should not have pitched to Ohtani in the seventh with one out and nobody on base.
Ohtani had too many at bats
Schneider learned the Ohtani lesson one at bat too many. Ohtani walked in every at bat after the second home run.
Schneider had an unusual night of dubious decisions and misfortune managing a Jays team that was partly undermanned and then he led them to being undermanned even more. The Jays leader, George Springer, swung at a pitch in the seventh inning and clearly hurt himself in the process.
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He didn’t finish his at bat. He pulled himself from the game, which is opposite to everything that is Springer. It tells you how hurt he was at the moment and likely how hurt he will be for the next games at Dodger Stadium.
Springer took himself from the game in the same inning Schneider pinch ran for Bo Bichette. And as the night unfolded, Schneider pulled Barger for Myles Straw and later Kirk for Tyler Heineman.
The Jays finished a lot of the night without Springer, Bichette, Barger or Kirk, four of their five best hitters.
Officially, the Dodgers get the win and take the lead in the series. Unofficially, the real winner Tuesday morning was baseball, the sport, the playoff season, Major League Baseball, the spectacle that all of us who stayed up late enough to see the game end in the 18th inning. The beginning, middle and end of this game was spectacular.
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Bullpens were effective in extras
There were 10 runs scored in the first seven innings of the game and one run scored in the final 11 innings. The apparently wonky bullpens of the Dodgers and Blue Jays were incredibly effective, especially in extra innings.
And there was the special moment — special if you’re not a Blue Jays fan — watching the retiring legend Clayton Kershaw come out of the Dodgers bullpen, to pitch to one batter, Nathan Lukes, with the bases loaded and two outs.
Kershaw, the certain Hall of Famer, throwing to Lukes, the career minor leaguer before this season. The story was just part of a night of so many stories.
The count went full and Lukes kept fouling pitches off before he grounded out to end the 12th inning. That little bit of Kershaw drama brought the 89-year-old genius Sandy Koufax to his feet, with one legend applauding another.
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“We’ve got to get Shohei some rest,” Kershaw said after the game. “Because he’s been on base, what, 74 times tonight.
“What matters most is we won the game,” said Ohtani, when asked about the two homers, the two doubles, and the five walks that were part of his record-breaking night. “We flip the game and play the next game tomorrow,” he said through his interpreter.
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The Dodgers needed 10 pitchers to get the win. The Blue Jays used only nine and many of them, especially relievers Eric Lauer, Jeff Hoffman and Chris Bassitt were sharp and efficient, keeping the Jays in position, inning after inning, to do something to win the game.
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That something, sadly, came from Freeman’s bat against Brendon Little. The game winning home run. He’s done this kind of thing before.
Maybe he hit the Series winning home run.
How do you get back on your feet after that one if you’re the Blue Jays? Most teams couldn’t. But the Jays have proven they’re not most teams. They scrapped and fought and defended their turf through 18 innings of Game 3.
The loss was devastating.
Now all they have to do to get back in the Series is beat Ohtani, the pitcher, Tuesday night. Impossible, maybe? The Blue Jays whole season seems to have been about the impossible.
ssimmons@postmedia.comx.com/simmonssteve
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