Blue Jays score 9 runs in 6th inning of World Series Game 1

TORONTO — Addison Barger just rocked Toronto, launching the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history.

If the Blue Jays go on to win the World Series, the sixth inning in Game 1 on Friday night may only be known as “The Inning.†By the time Alejandro Kirk launched a two-run shot of his own, Rogers Centre was shaking and rattling, the Blue Jays on the verge of a Series-opening win that would tilt the scales in a Fall Classic too many billed as a mismatch.

The Blue Jays†nine runs were the second-most scored in a single inning in the history of the World Series, trailing only the 1968 Tigers and the 1929 Philadelphia Athletics, both of whom scored 10.

Barger started the day on the bench with lefty Blake Snell on the mound, but by the time he pinch-hit for Davis Schneider, he ended up digging in against a lefty anyways in Anthony Banda. Just like Daulton Varsho, who launched a rare left-on-left homer off Snell in the fourth, Barger had homered off a lefty just once this season, his 20 other blasts coming off righties.

The 25-year-old was wide-eyed rounding the bases, just as shocked as everyone else in the building by what heâ€d just done. Barger was a bright spot in the Blue Jays†regular season, but hadnâ€t given this team as many moments down the stretch and into the postseason. Thatâ€s all forgotten history now with one of the biggest home runs this organization has ever seen in its first World Series game since 1993.

The rally started, like so many have, with the bottom half of the Blue Jays†lineup scratching away. First, they chased Snell, then they just kept throwing jabs. Postseason star Ernie Clement delivered the first bases-loaded single before a Nathan Lukes bases-loaded walk and an Andrés Giménez single. These arenâ€t names that match up against Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman when most fans look at this Series, but thatâ€s what makes the Blue Jays great. Itâ€s why, as they showed us with one incredible inning, they can shock baseball and win the World Series.

Moments like Bargerâ€s are what this team is chasing. The Blue Jays wedged a hobbled Bo Bichette into the lineup playing second base for the first time in his MLB career because they needed to chase offensive upside in a Series where “good†wonâ€t be enough.

Barger, in the sixth, did something great, the highlight of an inning we could be talking about for a long time in Toronto.

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