Freddie Freeman hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 18th inning to give the Dodgers a 6–5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night, pushing Los Angeles to a 2–1 lead in the best-of-seven tilt.

The 6hr 39min epic at Dodger Stadium tied the longest Fall Classic contest ever played by innings and ended only after both teams burned through double-digit pitchers, emptied their benches, and watched multiple would-be walk-offs fall short at the warning track. It also came on a night when Shohei Ohtani delivered one of the most remarkable postseason performances in baseball history.

Quick Guide

World Series 2025

Show

Schedule

Best-of-seven series. All times Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4).

Fri 24 Oct Game 1: Toronto Blue Jays 11, LA Dodgers 4

Sat 25 Oct Game 2: LA Dodgers 5, Toronto Blue Jays 1

Mon 27 Oct Game 3: LA Dodgers 6, Toronto Blue Jays 5 (18 innings)

Tue 28 Oct Game 4: Toronto Blue Jays at LA Dodgers, 8pm

Wed 29 Oct Game 5: Toronto Blue Jays at LA Dodgers, 8pm

Fri 31 Oct Game 6: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8pm*

Sat 1 Nov Game 7: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8pm*

*if necessary

How to watch

• In the US, all games will be broadcast on FOX. If you have a cable/satellite subscription with FOX included, you can also stream via the FOX Sports app.

• In Canada, the English-language broadcast is on Sportsnet while the French-language broadcasts are on RDS and TVA Sports. The games are also streaming on Sportsnet+ (English-language).

• In the UK, the official broadcaster is TNT Sports. A subscription to their service or their app is required.

• In Australia, the rightsholder is the local branch of ESPN Australia and related platforms.

Thank you for your feedback.

The Dodgers are now two wins away from a championship and could clinch a title at home for the first time since 1963. Game 4 is Tuesday night with Ohtani making his first World Series start on the mound. First pitch is suddenly coming very soon for a player who spent nearly seven hours Monday night on the bases, in the batter’s box and under the brightest glare imaginable.

“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I can get ready,” Ohtani said through a translator afterwards with a weary smile.

He’s earned the rest. The two-way star reached base nine times – the first player to do so in any MLB game since 1942 – with two home runs, two doubles and five walks, four of them intentional. He became the first hitter in postseason history with four extra-base hits in a World Series game and the first to receive that many intentional passes.

“What matters most is that we won,” Ohtani said. “We flip the page and get ready for the next one.”

Los Angeles needed every contribution he offered. The Dodgers jumped to a 2–0 lead early: Teoscar Hernández homered in the second and Ohtani followed with a towering shot inside the right-field pole in the third. The noise suggested a comfortable night might be forming.

Toronto ripped that away in the fourth. A defensive mistake extended the inning, and Alejandro Kirk hammered a hanging curveball from Tyler Glasnow into the left-center seats for a three-run homer. The Blue Jays added a sacrifice fly for a 4–2 advantage, their bats snapping to life after going cold in Game 2.

The Dodgers spent the next several hours responding to every Toronto punch. In the fifth, Ohtani drove a pitch into the left-center gap for an RBI double – his first opposite-field extra-base hit in more than a month – and Freddie Freeman followed with a hard single to tie it 4–4.

The ninth innings that followed, one after another, preserved tension as much as they prevented resolution. The plays on the bases alone bordered on the surreal: six runners erased in total, with Tommy Edman throwing out one at third base in the ninth and another at the plate in the 10th on a perfect relay from Hernández.

There was even a bizarre pickoff in the sixth when Bo Bichette wandered toward second after confusing the home-plate umpire’s delayed strike signal for a walk, only to be snapped out at first by Glasnow.

Clayton Kershaw, Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate on the field after Monday’s win. Photograph: Sean M Haffey/Getty Images

The seesaw tilted again in the seventh when Vladimir Guerrero Jr sprinted home from first on a ricochet off the side-wall in right field, giving Toronto a 5–4 edge. That lasted for all of one Ohtani plate appearance. He belted a middle-middle fastball 401 feet to left-center to tie the score for the third time.

Then came the long freeze.

Toronto declined to let Ohtani beat them again, intentionally walking him in the ninth, 11th, 13th and 15th. In one of those innings, the Blue Jays walked both Ohtani and Mookie Betts to load the bases and still escaped.

The manager John Schneider’s strategy worked because the Toronto bullpen kept finding exits, even as the team dipped into emergency options. George Springer exited injured in the seventh, leading to a series of emergency pinch-hitters.

The Dodgers countered with bullpen endurance of their own. They used 10 pitchers, a World Series record for a single game. Clayton Kershaw entered in the 12th with the bases loaded and got a groundout to snuff out a major threat. Rookie right-hander Will Klein delivered four scoreless innings, the outing Freeman would later turn into a win.

Edgardo Henriquez and others followed, matching zeroes as the hours dragged on. Every pitch could have ended the game. Every pitch seemed not to.

Freeman nearly won it in the 13th, but his deep fly ball died just short of the wall. Again in the 15th, the crowd rose as a blast soared toward center, only to slump back into their seats once the catch was made. As the night approached a seventh inning of extras, Dodger fans looked almost stunned by how stubborn the game had become.

Finally, the leadoff hitter in the 18th stepped in. Freeman worked a full count against left-hander Brendon Little, then got a sinker that stayed up. He crushed it 406 feet to straightaway center and dropped his bat.

The Dodgers spilled from the dugout. Ohtani jogged in from the on-deck circle, pointing toward his teammate. It was over. It took all night. It felt like a week.

Los Angeles will wake up tired but two wins from the title. Ohtani will take the ball again, this time not to save the Dodgers but to push them closer to history.