Battle of 18 innings: Jays lose to Dodgers in marathon Game 3

Monday night, Game 3 of the World Series, the Jays and Dodgers face off under the bright stadium lights of Dodger Stadium.

It’s one that will be hard to forget for baseball fans; unless you were able to quell the nerves and fall asleep.

For those who did fall asleep, it was Vancouver-born, dual-citizen Freddie Freeman who smashed the ball into centre field for a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th inning.

But, it was the long and hard fought battle that had fans on the edge of their seats for all six hours and 39 minutes of the game.

It all started when former Blue Jay Teoscar Hernández opened the scoring in the bottom of the 2nd inning when he took Max Scherzer’s pitch deep to left field giving LA a 1-0 lead.

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Shohei Ohtani showed everyone what he’s known for when he sent Scherzer’s offering flying out of the park to put the Dodgers up 2-0.

But the Blue Jays are known for something too – coming back – and that’s exactly what they tried to do.

So just like he’s done so many times this season, Alejandro Kirk comes through in the clutch.

His 5th home run of the post season gave Toronto its 1st lead of the game and Andrés Giménez added an RBI sacrifice fly a few batters later to make it 4-2 for the Jays.

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Pitching reliever Mason Fluharty came in for Scherzer in the 5th inning and gave up an RBI double to Ohtani and an RBI single to Canadian Freddie Freeman and we are all tied up at 4-4.

Over to the 7th inning, with Vladimir “Vladdy” Guerrero Jr. on 1st base, Bo Bichette took a 1-2 pitch and laced a single down the right field line and Vladdy raced all the way home – beating Hernandez’s throw – to score and give the Jays a 5-4 lead.

But in the bottom half of the inning, Ohtani does it again, crushing his 2nd homer of the game, sending a missile to left-center field, and we are tied once more at 5-5.

We would need extras, and just before midnight eastern time the Jays had a chance to pull ahead when Nathan Lukes hit the ball into right field, but this time Hernandez’s throw was on the money and Davis Schneider was tagged out at the plate.

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We remain scoreless in extra innings.

17th inning, no one has scored for 10 innings, it’s 2:30 a.m. EST… Magic Johnson is restless!

Brandon Little gets Mookie Betts to pop out with a man on 1st and 2nd and after the Jays fail to score in the top, it’s onto the bottom of the 18th.

Freddie Freeman homered to lead off the bottom of the 18th as the Dodgers outlasted the Jays 6-5 to win Game 3 and take a 2-1 lead in the World Series.

The game lasted 6 hours and 39 minutes which matches the longest by innings in World Series history.

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Funnily enough, the record is held by another Game 3, back in 2018 at Dodger Stadium once again, but this time against the Boston Red Sox.

It was the Dodgers who claimed that game too, but for those Jays fans who are looking for a little more encouragement, it was the Red Sox who went on to claim the bigger prize at the end of that series.

A World Series record 19 pitchers were used in Monday nights game.

George Springer left the game in the 7th inning with discomfort on his right side, making his status for Tuesday’s Game 4 uncertain.

Shane Bieber will start against Shohei Ohtani Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

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