The World Series Rocked

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I mean, you didn’t really think we’d be talking about anything else this week, did you?

That rocked. And I’ve been waiting all week to talk to you about it. So, for the citizens of Toronto and probably San Francisco, this is your last chance to skip to the end or just delete this email. Whichever you prefer. I don’t mind, you won’t hurt my feelings. Off you go!

As for the rest of you — wow? That was crazy? I rewatched the highlight package the next day, almost out of disbelief that that had all happened. And yet it did. In our TikTok-pilled culture, I bet people still watched the longer version, just to relive some of that magic. Any cut you could make out of that game would be pure adrenaline.

The sequence of events, just to remind everyone else too:

• In the bottom of the 3rd, with runners on the corners and Ohtani looking gassed, the Dodgers’ superhero gives up a 3-run jack to Bo Bichette, who himself is playing on one knee, to the degree that the Blue Jays have been pinch running for him this entire season. (We’ll return to that.) It feels like an uppercut in the 10th round. You wonder right away if that’s going to be the difference. 3-0 Jays.

• The very next frame, the Dodgers scratch out a single run on what would’ve been at least a two-run single with anyone else in CF, but Daulton Varsho lays out to keep it to a sac fly. Will Smith tags and scores anyways. Good baserunning. 3-1 Jays.

• In the bottom of that same inning, Justin Wrobleski — who’s come in for Ohtani — hits Andres Gimenez, who is big mad about it. The benches clear. This game has everything. 3-1 Jays.

• Another sac fly in the 6th, and the Dodgers climb a little closer. Tension rises. 3-2 Jays.

• Still in the 6th, Gimenez comes back up and hits a double off Tyler Glasnow. Ernie Clement scores, and the look on his face when he slides into home says: We’re going to win this game. You can see the excitement. He feels it. And how could you not? 4-2 Jays.

• Trey Yesavage, one of the stories of the postseason, mows down four batters before Max Muncy, the oldest Dodgers standby not named Clayton Kershaw, takes him to right in the top of the 8th. Once again, they’re one away. But it doesn’t particularly feel like they’re going to get there. 4-3 Jays.

• It feels even less like they’re going to get there when Jeff Hoffman comes in to close the game and quickly strikes out Kike Hernandez on four pitches. Ohtani looms on deck while Hoffman takes surprisingly long with the Dodgers’ #9 hitter, Miguel Rojas. A power hitter, he is not. And I’ll turn it over to the incomparable Joe Posnanski here for a moment to describe what the hell happened here.

  Rojas turned on this ball and crunched a 105.3 mph laser to left.

  Why do I give you the exit velocity in a moment like this?

  Because Miguel Rojas had NEVER BEFORE hit a 105-mph laser. Never. The highest exit velocity for Rojas since Statcast™ began tracking such things was a 101-mph routine ground ball he hit off Camilo Duval last June. Miguel Rojas is a defensive marvel and a bunting savant; he does not have the bat speed to hit a baseball 105 mph.

  And yet he did. In the biggest baseball moment of his life.

  And that tied the game.

  And that’s baseball.

• The call on the broadcast? “No way. Miguel Rojas.” You’re telling me. 4-4.

• In the bottom of the 9th, with a clearly exhausted Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound — who, in case anyone has already forgotten, threw close to 100 pitches in Game 6 just to keep the Dodgers alive — the Jays threaten more than once. Vlad flies out, but from there, it’s all Toronto. A single, a walk, and a HBP, and all of a sudden, the bases are loaded. This game looks over.

  • Bichette’s not running, as we said above. It’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who I feel pretty bad for in the aftermath of this game. Much has been made of the lack of a secondary lead, which, yes, would’ve won the Blue Jays this series. Instead, he’s gunned down at home, and just barely. I have at least one friend who thinks Smith’s foot came off the plate, FWIW. I’m not so sure. But in any case, play continues.

  • Clement — remember the happy guy from a few bullets ago? — hits a deep fly to left, and Andy Pages roves over from center and fkn truck sticks Kike Hernandez to catch a ball that really really looked like it was going to drop. Instead, we head to the 10th. Free baseball. 4-4.

• The Dodgers threaten in the 10th, but they have their own, albeit less dramatic, play at the plate. Yamamoto follows his tightrope act with a 1-2-3 inning. No score. 4-4.

• Shane Bieber’s on the mound in the 11th. He’s one of the best pure stuff pitchers I’ve ever watched, personally. Killer mustache too, which could and should be said of much of this Toronto team. He takes care of Rojas and Ohtani on a total of three pitches. We’re on our way to the 12th. And then Will Smith jumps on a slider. For the first time in the game, LA’s up. 5-4 Dodgers.

• In the bottom of the frame, Yamamoto’s back out there, and he’s reliving the 9th. Vlad works the count and doubles to left. He’s got runners on the corners with 1 out. Alejandro Kirk, who’s been incredible all postseason, is up. You see can see Mookie Betts close on the hard-ish grounder up the middle and make the decision. He can get him. He bypasses Edman, runs to the bag himself, and throws a dart to first. Freeman knows already. He waits, but he knows. And just like that, it’s over. 5-4 Dodgers, which really makes it 4-3 Dodgers. Time to go home.

I don’t know if that was the best World Series game I’ve ever watched — it would be hard to compete with 2011 for me, and even I have to grant the magic of 2016 — but it was close. And to repeat, no less? Really, really something.

I feel for the Jays. I really, really feel for the Jays. That’s about as bad of a gutpunch loss as you can have. I don’t know if they’ll be back. Baseball promises nothing. But if anyone deserved to get there again, it’d be them.

I’ve since read that, globally, that was the most watched MLB game in 30+ years. Even just in America, I was impressed to learn this year’s series beat out last year’s showdown of the top two media markets in the country in terms of Nielsen ratings. When you then added everybody watching in Canada and Japan, 51 million people were watching Game 7.

And they got a show.

I have written many many times now about the declining cultural salience of baseball. And I still don’t think it’s coming back. Not all the way. Its time at the top has passed, I’m afraid.

But series like this prove that the magic is still there. Everything that makes baseball so, so special was on display over the last few weeks. And while I didn’t feel like I needed the reminder, I certainly didn’t mind it. See you next October, everybody.

🏉 I watched the game in Chicago, surrounded by a few of my best Guinnesses. And friends! Those too. As for the rugby game I was there to watch, New Zealand ran away with it after halftime, bumming out the roughly — ballpark figure here — 30 bajillion Irishman in attendance. Nonetheless, that was my first time at Soldier Field and I really dug it. Chicago rocks.

🎰 Not shocked to see ESPN and Penn annul their hasty marriage. That had been in the cards for some time. But ESPN’s not getting out. No sir. They’re getting right back out there, immediately announcing a multi-year deal with DraftKings instead. As Defector put it, in a headline that made me smirk:

🏈 This is the closest I came to switching this week’s topic:

What a fire sale here in New York. Which you honestly kinda have to respect, now that the Jets are the proud owners of five first-round picks in the next two years. So let me amend their chant for a moment. L-E-T-S skip ahead to draft night!

🎂 I am not caught up on GBBS and kindly ask that no one say a goddamn word. We’ll watch on our flight tomorrow. Until then, Laura and I demand silence. Thank you for your attention to this matter.