So here we go, boys and girls, on a first of November we'll still call October just because: Game 7 for all of it.
Blue Jays vs. Dodgers for the ball of wax, the enchilada, the shebang. Max Scherzer vs. Shohei Ohtani, baseball's Superman, who'll be going on three days' rest and DH'ing. Jays at home in front of all those yowling Canadians, as if that at all matters in a World Series in which the home team has lost four of the previous six games.
The Dodgers got there last night by a 3-1 score, leaning on Yoshinobu Yamamoto's sturdy arm, a bullpen that didn't start any fires this time, and Enrique Hernandez's heads-up play in the ninth.
Yamamoto went six innings this time, giving up five hits and one earned run while striking out six. Relievers Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki and Tyler Glasnow took care of the rest, giving the Blue Jays nary a sniff -- three hits in three innings.
Then it was Hernandez who sealed the deal, charging a soft liner with one out and two on in the bottom of the ninth, making the grab and catching a too-eager Addison Barger leaning off second. Voila: Game-ending double play.
"A bad read," Barger lamented later, saying he thought the ball was going to land untouched and thus he was all but on his way to third.
And Hernandez?
"Game 7, amazing," he said. "This is what we dream of ever since we were little kids."
You bet. And one last whiff of October, no matter what the calendar says.
