Freeman's homer in 18th inning lifts Dodgers over Blue Jays 6-5

Eighteen innings in Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium again.

And this Hollywood rerun had a similar ending.

Freddie Freeman homered leading off the bottom of the 18th, Shohei Ohtani went deep twice during another record-setting performance and the Los Angeles Dodgers outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 in an instant classic Monday night.

The defending champion Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup and still have a chance to win the title at home — something they haven’t done since 1963.

“That could go down as one of the greatest games of all time,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Freeman drove left-hander Brendon Little’s full-count sinker 406 feet to straightaway center field, finally ending a baseball marathon that lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, and matched the longest by innings in postseason history.

The only other World Series contest to go 18 innings was Game 3 at Dodger Stadium seven years ago. Freeman’s current teammate, Max Muncy, won that one for Los Angeles with an 18th-inning homer against the Boston Red Sox in a game that took 7 hours, 20 minutes.

Will Klein, the last reliever left for the Dodgers, got the biggest win of his career. He allowed one hit over four shutout innings and threw 72 pitches — twice as many as his previous high in the majors.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 105 pitches Saturday at Toronto in his second consecutive complete game, was warming up in the bullpen as Klein worked out of trouble in the top of the 18th.

A total of 19 pitchers — 10 for the Dodgers — combined to throw 609 pitches in a game that ended at 11:50 p.m. on the West Coast. Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw came out of the LA bullpen to escape a bases-loaded jam in the 12th, pitching in extra innings for the first time in his illustrious career.

Most fans in the crowd of 52,654 who stuck around were on their feet throughout, including 89-year-old Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, and only sat down between innings.

Ohtani’s second solo homer tied it 5-all in the seventh. The two-way superstar, scheduled to start Game 4 on the mound Tuesday, also doubled twice and became the second player with four extra-base hits in a World Series game. Frank Isbell had four doubles for the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 against the Chicago Cubs in 1906.

After getting four hits in the first seven innings, Ohtani drew five consecutive walks — four intentional. That made him the first major leaguer in 83 years to reach base safely nine times in a game. Nobody else has done it even seven times in a postseason game.

Max Scherzer went 4 1/3 innings and became the first pitcher to appear in the World Series with four teams. His first Fall Classic came in 2012 with Detroit.

Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer off Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow and dashed excitedly through the Blue Jays dugout holding their home run jacket. 

Toronto RHP Shane Bieber makes his first World Series start and fourth of this postseason in Game 4 on Tuesday.



(AP Photo Brynn Anderson)