MLB - The Dodgers are MLB’s first repeat champs since the 1998-2000 Yankees, and the four-hour, seven-minute, extra-innings affair it took to decide that was a fitting end to a true Fall Classic in which these two clubs exhausted each other – not just in the 18-inning epic at Dodger Stadium in Game 3 but throughout a Series in which they both had to empty the tank.

“I’m just speechless, I really am,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s going to go down as one for the ages.”

So, too, will this Dodgers team, which has now won three titles in six years (and nine overall) in a sport with an expanded postseason pool that makes consistent postseason success more difficult than ever to achieve.

L.A. entered 2025 – and this World Series – as heavy favorites to do what it just did.

But the path to get here saw the Dodgers sleepwalk through the regular season and turn on the jets in October, only to run into a Blue Jays team whose toughness and togetherness pushed the loaded NL champs to the brink.

“We have set a new expectation and a new standard here and did it with a lot of hard work, did it with a lot of cohesiveness,” said Toronto skipper John Schneider. “And man, it’s tough to say bye to this group.”

And as if the previous four hours of baseball hadn’t been nail-biting enough, the Jays had their franchise face, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., just 90 feet from tying this tilt in the 11th before Alejandro Kirk grounded into the game-ending double play that set off the Dodgers’ celebration near the mound.

It can be a thin line between winning and losing.

Thinner than that outfield wall.

Toronto had been in control of this Game 7 fight from the time Bo Bichette took Shohei Ohtani deep for a three-run blast in the third. The two-way Ohtani, pitching on short rest, threw a first-pitch slider, and Bichette, playing hurt on a compromised left knee, smoked it to left-center.

At 442 feet, it was the third-longest home run of Bichette’s career, and the second-longest homer allowed in Ohtani’s career.

And at the time, it appeared it would be a blast that might stand with Carter’s as one of the biggest swings in franchise history.

Things got testy in the bottom of the fourth, when Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski threw up and in on three consecutive pitches to Andrés Giménez. When the last one plunked Giménez, he and Wrobleski jawed at each other, and both benches cleared. Warnings were issued to both teams.

After Ernie Clement, who would go on to set a new single postseason hits record (30), led off with a single off Tyler Glasnow and stole second, Giménez smacked a line-drive double to right, and Clement lost his helmet as he hustled home and slid in safely to make it 4-2.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Jays put two on against Blake Snell in his rare relief turn. Then Roberts went to Yamamoto, who had already picked up the win in Games 2 and 6 and even warmed up near the end of Game 3 but still made himself available for the finale. He plunked Kirk with a pitch to load the bases but got Varsho to ground to Rojas, who fired home in time for a force out. Then, Clement’s deep fly to left center was run down by center fielder Andy Pages, who made the catch for the third out while colliding with teammate Kiké Hernández.

Off we went to extras.

Toronto reliever Seranthony Domínguez escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the 10th, fielding a Guerrero flip on a Kiké Hernández grounder and getting his foot on the bag just in time for the final out.

But after Yamamoto kept the Jays quiet in the bottom of the 10th, Toronto turned to starter Shane Bieber in the 11th. Bieber got the first two outs, but he hung a slider over the middle to Smith, who swung hard and forever etched his name into October lore with the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all in World Series history.

“You dream of those moments,” Smith said. “Extra innings, put your team ahead? Yeah, I’ll remember that one forever.”

The Jays tried to make their own lasting memory in the bottom of the 11th. Guerrero doubled and advanced to third on a sac bunt. Barger walked. With one out, Toronto had runners on the corners, fans on their feet and a chance to end this Series with an exclamation mark.

But Yamamoto didn’t blink. He calmly got Kirk to ground to Mookie Betts at short, and the likely future Hall of Famer and converted shortstop stepped on the second-base bag for one, threw to first for two, and just like that, it was a double play to complete the Dodgers’ double dose of glory.

“We knew it was gonna be a tough game, but that’s the beauty of our team,” Betts said. “Like, it doesn’t really matter. We don’t care about tough games, we know how to win tough games. We know how to win blowouts. We know how to win, and we did today.”

The winning team was covered in confetti, the losing team wrecked with regret. That’s true in every World Series, but rarely do we see one this tight, this tense, this long and this legendary.