TORONTO — Will Smith homered in the 11th inning after Miguel Rojas connected for a tying drive in the ninth, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in Game 7 Saturday night to become the first team in a quarter century to win consecutive World Series titles.

Los Angeles overcame 3-0 and 4-2 deficits and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees, and the first from the National League since the 1975 and ’76 Cincinnati Reds.

Smith hit a 2-0 slider off Shane Bieber into the Blue Jays’ bullpen, giving the Dodgers their first lead of the night.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 96 pitches in the Dodgers’ win on Friday, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and pitched 2 2/3 innings for his third win of the Series.

He gave up a leadoff double in the 11th to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was sacrificed to third. Addison Barger walked and Alejandro Kirk grounded to shortstop Mookie Betts, who started a title-winning 6-4-3 double play.

With their ninth title and third in six years, the Dodgers made an argument for their 2020s teams to be considered a dynasty. Dave Roberts, their manager since 2016, boosted the probability he will gain induction to the Hall of Fame.

Bo Bichette put Toronto ahead in the third with a three-run homer off two-way star Shohei Ohtani, who was pitching on three days’ rest after taking the loss in Game 3.

Los Angeles closed to 3-2 on sacrifice flies from Teoscar Hernández in the fourth off Max Scherzer and Tommy Edman in the sixth against Chris Bassitt.

Andrés Giménez restored Toronto’s two-run lead with an RBI double in the sixth off Tyler Glasnow, who relieved after getting the final three outs on three pitches to save Game 6 on Friday.

Max Muncy’s eighth-inning homer off star rookie Trey Yesavage cut the Dodgers’ deficit to one run, and Rojas, inserted into the lineup in Game 6 to provide some energy, homered on a full-count slider from Jeff Hoffman.

Toronto put two on with one out in the bottom half against Blake Snell, and Los Angeles turned to Yamamoto.

He hit Alejandro Kirk on a hand with a pitch, loading the bases and prompting the Dodgers to play the infield in and the outfield shallow. Daulton Varsho grounded to second, where Rojas stumbled but managed to throw home for a forceout as catcher Smith kept his foot on the plate.

Ernie Clement then flied out to Andy Pages, who made a jumping, backhand catch on the center-field warning track as he crashed into left fielder Kiké Hernández.

Seranthony Domínguez walked Mookie Betts with one out in the 10th and Muncy singled for his third hit. Hernández walked, loading the bases. Pages grounded to shortstop, where Giménez threw home for a forceout. First baseman Guerrero then threw to pitcher Seranthony Domínguez covering first, just beating Hernández in a call upheld in a video review.

The epic night matched the Marlins’ 3-2 win over Cleveland in 1997 as the second-longest Series Game 7, behind only the Washington Senators’ 4-3 victory against the New York Giants in 1924.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

TORONTO — Yoshinobu Yamamoto beat Toronto for the second time in a week, slumping Mookie Betts hit a two-run single in a three-run third inning and the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers held off the Blue Jays 3-1 on Friday night to force the World Series to a decisive Game 7.

Yamamoto was not quite as sharp as in his Game 2 four-hitter, the first World Series complete game in a decade. He lasted six innings and allowed only a third-inning RBI single by George Springer, who returned after missing two games with an injury to his right side.

Rookie relievers Justin Wrobleski and Roki Sasaki combined for six outs before starter Tyler Glasnow came out of the bullpen to escape a ninth-inning jam and rescue the Dodgers.

Glasnow needed only three pitches to do it. With runners on second and third, he got Ernie Clement to pop up his first delivery on the infield for the first out. Andrés Giménez then hit a line drive to left field that Kiké Hernández turned into a game-ending double play.

Hernández caught the ball on the run in shallow left-center and fired to second base, where Miguel Rojas made a tough pick of a one-hop throw to double off Addison Barger.

Max Scherzer will start Game 7 on Saturday night for the Blue Jays. He also started the last World Series Game 7, getting a no-decision when Washington won the 2019 title over Houston.

Glasnow had been lined up to potentially start for the Dodgers, seeking to become the first team to win consecutive titles since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani also could be used as an opener.

Los Angeles kept alive its bid for a third title in six seasons and its hopes to be recognized as a dynasty.

Yamamoto, a 27-year-old right-hander in his second season with the Dodgers after winning three MVP awards in Japan, was coming off the first consecutive postseason complete games since 2001.

He allowed one run and five hits with six strikeouts and a walk, stranding two runners in the sixth when he struck out Daulton Varsho with a splitter on his 96th and final pitch. Yamamoto is 4-1 with a 1.56 ERA in five postseason starts and has a 1.20 ERA in his two Series outings.

Kevin Gausman lost to Yamamoto for the second time despite matching a Series record by striking out eight in the first three innings behind a dominant splitter.

Tommy Edman doubled with one out in the third for the Dodgers’ first hit. Ohtani was intentionally walked for the fifth time in the Series and Will Smith hit an RBI double off the left-field wall on a high splitter.

Freddie Freeman walked, bringing up Betts. The three-time World Series champion entered just 3 for 23 in the Series and had been dropped from second to third in the lineup for Game 5. He was moved down another slot to cleanup Friday, his lowest in the batting order since 2017.

Behind 1-2 in the count, Betts fouled off two pitches and laced Gausman’s third straight fastball between shortstop and third for a 3-0 lead. That ended an 0-for-13 slide with the bases loaded for the Dodgers that dated to the Division Series.

Seeking their first World Series title since 1993, the Blue Jays wore powder blue uniforms at home for the first time since September after getting wins with them in Games 4 and 5 in LA.

Toronto scored when Barger doubled to start the third and scored on Springer’s two-out single.

Gausman gave up three runs and six hits in six innings, getting 15 swings and misses with his splitter.

Sasaki, a starter turned reliever as the Dodgers tried to shore up their bullpen, escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth by retiring Bo Bichette on a foulout and Varsho on a groundout.

Scherzer and Glasnow started Game 3, won by the Dodgers 6-5 in 18 innings. A 41-year-old right-hander, Scherzer will become only the fourth pitcher to start multiple World Series winner-take-all Game 7s after Bob Gibson (1964, ’67, ’68), Lew Burdette and Don Larsen (both 1957 and ’58). Scherzer allowed two runs over five innings for Washington against Houston in 2019, and the Nationals rallied for a 6-2 win.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

LOS ANGELES — Eighteen innings in Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium again.

And this Hollywood rerun had a similar ending.

Freddie Freeman homered leading off the bottom of the 18th, Shohei Ohtani went deep twice during another record-setting performance and the Los Angeles Dodgers outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 in an instant classic Monday night.

The defending champion Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup and still have a chance to win the title at home — something they haven’t done since 1963.

“That could go down as one of the greatest games of all time,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Freeman drove left-hander Brendon Little’s full-count sinker 406 feet to straightaway center field, finally ending a baseball marathon that lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, and matched the longest by innings in postseason history.

“Oh gosh, just pure excitement,” he said. “That’s as good as it gets.”

The only other World Series contest to go 18 innings was Game 3 at Dodger Stadium seven years ago. Freeman’s current teammate, Max Muncy, won that one for Los Angeles with an 18th-inning homer against the Boston Red Sox in a game that took 7 hours, 20 minutes.

It was Freeman’s second World Series walk-off homer in two years. The star first baseman hit the first game-ending grand slam in Series history to win Game 1 in 10 innings last season against the New York Yankees.

“This one took a little longer,” Freeman said. “But this game was incredible. Our bullpen was absolutely incredible.”

Will Klein, the last reliever left for the Dodgers, got the biggest win of his career. He allowed one hit over four shutout innings and threw 72 pitches — twice as many as his previous high in the majors.

“We weren’t losing that game,” Klein said, “and so I had to keep going back out there.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 105 pitches Saturday at Toronto in his second consecutive complete game, was warming up in the bullpen as Klein worked out of trouble in the top of the 18th.

“I don’t know how I kept going, but I just knew every inning that I went out there, it was going to be another zero. If I had to keep going out, there were going to be more zeros,” Klein said. “I was sitting at home in Arizona last month, you know? This is crazy.”

A total of 19 pitchers — 10 for the Dodgers — combined to throw 609 pitches in a game that ended at 11:50 p.m. on the West Coast. Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw came out of the LA bullpen to escape a bases-loaded jam in the 12th, pitching in extra innings for the first time in his illustrious career.

“The Dodgers didn’t win a World Series today,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider cautioned. “They won a game.”

As the hours crept by, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. munched on an apple at the dugout railing. A staffer brought a fruit tray onto the bench and the Toronto slugger helped himself to another piece.

“We tried. We did everything we could. They did the same thing,” Guerrero said through a translator. “But in the end, they came away with the victory.”

Most fans in the crowd of 52,654 who stuck around were on their feet throughout, including 89-year-old Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, and only sat down between innings.

Will Smith flied out to the left-center fence leading off the bottom of the 14th. Long drives by Freeman and teammate Teoscar Hernández also died on the warning track in extra innings, with the temperature dropping in Chavez Ravine as the night grew late.

Ohtani’s second solo homer tied it 5-all in the seventh. The two-way superstar, scheduled to start Game 4 on the mound Tuesday, also doubled twice and became the second player with four extra-base hits in a World Series game. Frank Isbell had four doubles for the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 against the Chicago Cubs in 1906.

After getting four hits in the first seven innings, Ohtani drew five consecutive walks — four intentional. That made him the first major leaguer in 83 years to reach base safely nine times in a game. Nobody else has done it even seven times in a postseason game.

“What matters the most is we won,” Ohtani said through a translator. “What matters the most is we flip the page and play the next game. … I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I can get ready.”

Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki induced consecutive groundouts with two runners aboard to end the eighth. He stranded two runners in the ninth, too, after second baseman Tommy Edman made a terrific defensive play for the second out of the inning.

Edman also threw out a runner at home plate to end the 10th on a perfect relay from Hernández in right field, as pinch-runner Davis Schneider tried to score from first on a double by Nathan Lukes.

“Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy game,” Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer said.

With two outs in the Toronto seventh, Guerrero singled off reliever Blake Treinen and scored from first on Bo Bichette’s sharp single down the right-field line for a 5-4 lead.

The ball appeared to deflect off a television sound man along the low retaining wall in foul territory before caroming into shallow right field. Hernández’s throw home was wide, and Guerrero narrowly beat Smith’s tag by slapping the plate with his hand for a 5-4 lead.

Scherzer went 4 1/3 innings and became the first pitcher to appear in the World Series with four teams. His first Fall Classic came in 2012 with Detroit.

“We came out on the wrong side of this and it stings and it burns,” Scherzer said. “You want to win that game, but so proud of everybody’s effort.”

Home runs by Hernández in the second and Ohtani in the third staked the Dodgers to a 2-0 lead.

Toronto rallied with four runs — two unearned because of Edman’s error — to take a 4-2 lead in the fourth.

Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer off Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow and dashed excitedly through the Blue Jays dugout holding their home run jacket. Andrés Giménez added a sacrifice fly before Glasnow completed a 29-pitch inning.

Los Angeles tied it at 4 in the fifth.

Kiké Hernández singled leading off against Scherzer and scored on Ohtani’s double to left-center off reliever Mason Fluharty. Ohtani came around on Freeman’s single down the right-field line.

Toronto RHP Shane Bieber makes his first World Series start and fourth of this postseason in Game 4 on Tuesday.

Ohtani hit three homers and struck out 10 batters over six-plus scoreless innings in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against Milwaukee.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB