TORONTO — Those around the Dodgers know how valuable Miguel Rojas is to the team, even though some of his greatest moments take place behind the scenes.
But the entire baseball world was watching as Rojas finally got his World Series moment, saving the Dodgers’ season with the club down to its final two outs.
“It couldnâ€t have been a better guy,” Max Muncy said.
Rojas hit a game-tying homer off Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman in the top of the ninth, then made one of two key plays in the bottom of the inning to send Game 7 of the World Series to extras before the Dodgers repeated as champions with a 5-4 victory in 11 innings on Saturday night at Rogers Centre.
Rojas was an improbable hero in that this was just his second game in the starting lineup since the NLDS. Going back further, he had only one extra-base hit in 20 prior postseason games in his career.
Nevertheless, with one out in the ninth, manager Dave Roberts trusted him to extend the inning. Rojas had been looking to get on base to flip the lineup over for leadoff man Shohei Ohtani, but when he got a hanging 3-2 slider from Hoffman, he knew just what to do with it.
“It was right in my zone where I do damage,” Rojas said, “and then it happened.”
Rojas was fired up as he rounded the bases, gesturing toward his teammates in the visitors’ dugout. Roberts threw up his hands in elation, relief plain on his face. And the noise from a Rogers Centre crowd that had been waiting to unload was dampened.
But in the next half-inning, the bases were full of Blue Jays with one out, the Dodgers’ season on the line once more.
Yamamoto, who had inherited two runners but hit Alejandro Kirk to load the bases, got Daulton Varsho to hit a sharp grounder to the right side of the infield. Rojas, playing a drawn-in second base, got a glove on the ball, reversed his backward momentum and threw home to cut down the would-be go-ahead run just in time.
The critical play aggravated something around the rib area for Rojas, who had been unsure if he would be available to be in the starting lineup earlier in the day. He was later replaced at second by Hyeseong Kim.
“He is just the ultimate gamer,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “The plays he made last night on defense were a huge part of us winning that game. And obviously, didn’t necessarily expect him to hit the homer there, but it just speaks to who he is and how he competes.”
There was still one more out to get, and it came by way of Pages, who had been benched from the starting lineup after hitting .080. He was inserted into center field in place of Tommy Edman after Yamamoto hit Kirk, and it wasn’t long before a ball was hit his way.
Ernie Clement, fresh off setting a single-postseason record with his 30th hit, sent a fly ball to the warning track in left center that would have given the Blue Jays a walk-off Game 7 victory, had it fallen. Left fielder Kiké Hernández tried to get under it, but Pages raced in from center and snagged it, covering 123 feet.
Hernández was knocked to the ground in the process and laid there, prone, for a spell.
“I was just down because I thought we lost,” he said.
Instead, the Dodgers were out of the inning and one step closer to a championship.
For Rojas, who made his big league debut with the Dodgers in 2014 and is planning to retire after the ’26 season, having a big ninth inning on both sides of the ball to extend his team’s season was special. He is an impending free agent but has already expressed a desire to play his final year in L.A.
His teammates could think of no one better to have that moment.
“The game honors you,” Freddie Freeman said. “Miguel’s been grinding, just doing whatever he could to help this team win. To come up with that moment when you’re 36 years old and says he’s going to retire after next season, to have that moment in the World Series in Game 7, just absolutely incredible. It saved our year.”
Discover more from 6up.net
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.