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LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani had long since been memorialized in World Series lore. Will Klein was about to be.
And as the 18 innings of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sometimes numbing, often quizzical and ultimately palpitating 6-5 victory in Game 3 of the World Series unfolded, many, many others played a role in stitching together this Fall Classic quilt like a once-every-seven-years phenomenon.
So let’s not forget the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays who extended the game with their arm, their smarts or their want. They’ll likely be forgotten to history, but right now we can take a moment to appreciate them.
Edgardo Henriquez, Dodgers relief pitcher
Way back in early September, when the Dodgers’ chances of a repeat championship seemed very much at risk of unspooling, manager Dave Roberts was musing about what he could actually do to salvage a bullpen where $72 million lefty Tanner Scott lost all ability to record outs and others were shelved with injury or had long since tumbled out of his trust tree.
‘I live in a world of, what’s the alternative?’ Roberts said that weekend in Baltimore, as a manner of indicating he couldn’t just throw in the towel on Scott. ‘I just don’t feel that Edgardo Henriquez, for example, throwing 10 major-league innings, is now the savior. I think there’s things that, there’s a track record, a trust, a confidence in players that have earned it.
‘There’s also, giving guys opportunities to continue to earn opportunities and not think they’re a savior when they’ve thrown 10 major-league innings.
‘And that’s not a knock on Edgardo.’
Well here we are, nearly two months later, and Henriquez is very much a savior.
He entered Game 7 in the 13th inning, right after Roberts had exhausted all his favorite party tricks:
Rōki Sasaki for multiple innings. A trio of lefty relief stalwarts – Anthony Banda, Justin Wrobleski and Jack Dreyer – in strong situational roles earlier.
And then his ultimate just-you-watch-me maneuver: Clayton Kershaw for one batter, the veteran very much running the risk of his last appearance of his Hall of Fame career ending in another playoff indignity.
Nope, Henriquez’s appearance signaled the portion of the game where Roberts and Blue Jays counterpart John Schneider had to close their eyes and hope that the dudes they clearly did not trust could come through.
And Henriquez was untouchable.
Of the 14 pitchers who completed at least one inning in Game 3, only he and Blue Jays veteran Chris Bassitt did not yield a hit or a walk. Henriquez simply blasted through the Dodgers for two innings, throwing the eight hardest pitches of the night and clocking between 100 and 101.8 mph nine times.
With command, most importantly.
He pitched two spotless innings, taking down three of the Blue Jays’ five remaining viable threats – Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ernie Clement and Andrés Giménez – after injuries and substitutions left the late-night Blue Jays desiccated after dark.
And then quietly passed the baton to Klein.
‘Tonight was will Klein’s night,’ said Roberts, ‘and obviously, what Edgardo did was just as paramount.’
Addison Barger, Blue Jays right fielder
Schneider manages the game aggressively, not hesitating to capture matchups and situations when the moment warrants. More often, it works out splendidly.
Yet in a game in which All-Star leadoff man George Springer leaves due to a back injury and Bo Bichette subs out to minimize the impact on his ailing knee, it can leave him shorthanded.
Especially when the darn thing goes 18 innings.
But Schneider couldn’t envision that when he pinch-ran the speedy and defensively excellent Myles Straw for Addison Barger in the eighth inning, the hope that Straw would score the go-ahead run.
Dude ended up playing more than 10 innings.
Yet before all that, Barger saved the Blue Jays’ Canadian bacon.
With the Dodgers threatening to add to their 2-0 lead in the third inning, catcher Will Smith rifled a single into medium deep right field. With two outs, Freeman was running hard on the pitch, even if his speed is the stuff of mockery for the Dodgers’ basepaths celebration, two years running now.
Nonetheless, Barger fielded the ball and, practically flat-footed, uncorked a 98.5 mph throw right on the money to home.
Alejandro Kirk swiped the tag on Freeman. Inning over. Moments later, Kirk would hit a game-turning three-run home run – well, temporarily game-turning. Yet Barger gave the Blue Jays a chance, even if managerial button-pushing would render him a spectator most of the night.
Will Smith, Dodgers catcher
Since Kirk, too, was lifted for a pinch runner, Smith was the only man to catch all 18 innings and handle 10 pitchers on this night. That alone should earn him a special proclamation from the principal.
He also came hella close to ending this thing in the 14th inning, when his 383-foot, 101.5-mph drive to center field ran out of steam right at the fence. Alas, in life, timing is everything: By the 14th inning, a marine layer brought mist and a thicker air to Dodger Stadium. In daylight hours, that ball is probably a goner and Smith, not Freeman, gets dogpiled.
But he also shined behind the plate, most notably in the 10th inning, when the Blue Jays tried to win it by sending pinch runner Davis Schneider home on Nathan Lukes’ double in the right field corner. Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman provided perfunctory relay throws and Smith was most valuable for what he didn’t do – illegally block the plate.
He swiped the tag on Schneider, but Toronto challenged the out call. Replays confirmed that Smith, in fact, left Schneider a lane.
And provided one for the Dodgers to keep playing until Freeman sent them home.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays first baseman
Yeah, not often we include a franchise player and club MVP on a night he fails to record a hit. Yet Guerrero reached base four times in nine appearances, taking what the Dodgers gave him after many of the Blue Jays’ boppers disappeared around him.
But Vladdy never quite gets his due as a Baseball Player, and that’s why we include him here.
With the game knotted 4-4 in the sixith and Teoscar Hernández on first, Kiké Hernández chopped a ball into the hole at short. Andrés Giménez’s jump throw was not going to get Kiké at first. Guerrero saw this before anyone else in Dodger Stadium – and also saw Teo sprinting for third.
So he came off the first base bag and fielded Giménez’s throw several feet toward the middle of the infield and uncorked a laser to third base. The other Hernández was out, upheld on review.
The play was a beautiful marriage of instincts and ability on a night Vladdy never had his big moment, but certainly did what he could.
Dave Roberts, Dodgers manager
Funny life these managers lead. If the Dodgers finish off this Series conquest, Roberts will already be far more accomplished than the great Dodger in the sky, Tommy Lasorda, ever was.
It’s just that Lasorda held court at a time the world hung on every manager’s word, profane or otherwise, as if it were gospel. Dugout jockeys these days exist solely for the pedantic to poke at their every maneuvers, even if the public is not privy to so much information that drives those calls.
And how can you not laud a dude who guided a team successfully through 18 innings?
Roberts was spot on all the way, from knowing when to cut bait on starter Tyler Glasnow (after 13 outs), to how long to stick with longer options such as Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski and Henriquez and Klein.
Managing a club in which nearly half the roster hauls down nine-figure salaries and the expectations are World Series or bust is massive. Throw in the emotional toll Roberts and the club have taken on with the devastating departure of top lefty reliever Alex Vesia and this Series has already been a lot.
In Game 3, though, 10 years into his stewardship of the Dodgers, Roberts truly painted his masterpiece.