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The championship series is going to a decisive Game 7 after the Dodgers kept their title defense hopes intact on Friday with a 3–1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6.

The reigning title holders ended Toronto’s late-game comeback with a dramatic final twin killing, stunning a home crowd that had arrived prepared to cheer the team's championship in over three decades.

Game 6 Summary

The Dodgers produced all of their scoring in the third inning. With two away, Ohtani was purposely passed before Smith hit a two-bagger to left to bring home Tommy Edman. Freddie Freeman drew a walk to fill the bases, and Betts came through with a two-RBI hit to the opposite field, giving the Dodgers a 3–0 advantage.

Betts’ hit snapped a playoff dry spell and rekindled the defending champions’ aspirations of being the initial back-to-back World Series winners since the Yankees captured three straight from 1998 to 2000.

Mound Duel

Gausman had been nearly unhittable to that stage, striking out half a dozen of the initial seven batters he faced. He struck out eight through three frames, tying a World Series mark, but the third-frame rally proved costly. The Toronto ace ended with 8 Ks over six innings, yielding three runs on three hits and two free passes.

Yamamoto, meanwhile, was solid again under pressure. The 27-year-old right-hander outpitched his counterpart for the second occasion in a seven days, allowing a single run on five hits over six innings with six strikeouts. He boosted his record to 4–1 this postseason with a 1.56 ERA.

The only run against him came on George Springer two-out base hit in the third, scoring Addison Barger, who had hit a double earlier in the inning. That single provided a momentary lift in his comeback to the lineup after missing a pair of contests with an oblique injury.

Relief Heroics

From there, the Los Angeles relievers carried the load. First-year pitcher Wrobleski got out of a tight spot in the seventh, and fellow rookie Rōki Sasaki worked into the ninth before hitting Alejandro Kirk to start the inning. Barger then hit a double that got stuck under the left-center-field fence, forcing runners to hold at second and third.

Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers' Game 3 starter, came on in a relief role and got a pop fly before Andrés Giménez lined to left field. Enrique Hernández caught the ball and fired to second base to retire the runner, sealing the win and giving the pitcher his first-ever successful save.

Next Up: Game 7

The series now boils down to one game. Scherzer will start for Toronto, making him the sole active hurler to start multiple seventh games of the World Series after doing so in 2019 with the Nationals. The 40-year-old signed a one-year deal to chase another championship and has been a outspoken presence throughout this playoff run.

The Dodgers, looking to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in almost 25 years, are projected to rely on their two-way star for a short outing.