It seems impossible to lose a baseball game, and even worse, a championship baseball game, like that.
Two outs away. So many wasted opportunities. A sprinkling of bad luck. A title seemingly in their grasp, only for it to slip away in the cruelest way possible.
Game 7 of the 2025 World Series will long be remembered as one of the greatest games ever played. For the fanbases of 29 teams, it will be talked about joyfully forever.
“Man, did you see that game? “Isn’t baseball the best?”
No, it certainly is not the best if you’re from the city of Toronto because for them, right now, baseball is the absolute worst. It is evil. It is monstrous. The Blue Jays played the heavily favored Dodgers as closely as any two teams could. It was a coin flip series. It was a sin that someone had to lose.
In the end, it was Toronto who lost, coming as close to winning a World Series as one can without actually winning it.
Two outs away from a championship, with up-and-down closer Jeff Hoffman trying to secure the final four outs for the Jays, No. 9 hitter Miguel Rojas, who had not hit a home run against a right-handed pitcher all season, took a Hoffman slider over the left field wall for a shocking, soul-destroying, game-tying home run that sucked the breath right out of the lungs of every Blue Jays fan in the building. Shane Bieber followed in the 11th with a hanger that Will Smith deposited over that same left field wall for the Dodgers’ first lead of the game.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who hit three home runs in this Fall Classic and made plays throughout the series with his bat and his glove, just missed mimicking Joe Carter’s dance around the bases on a long fly out to center field to lead off the 9th. The Jays stranded the bases loaded with one out that inning, thanks to a ridiculous play by a stumbling Rojas at second to force the runner at home. You want to know how close the Blue Jays came to winning it all? This picture below shows how close the play at home really was.
That was followed by an insane catch in left-center field by Andy Pages, robbing Ernie Clement of his record-breaking 31st hit in the postseason, one that would have won the title. They couldn’t convert Guerrero’s leadoff double in the 11th into a run, either, thanks to Alejandro Kirk’s season-ending double play.
They lost an 18-inning game, then won Games 4 and 5 in Los Angeles. They struggled in clutch situations late in Games 6 and 7, failing to score after putting runners on second and third with no outs in the 9th in Game 6. Game 7 will make Jays fans forget that the team that scored more runs than any other in postseason history (105) because they failed to push through just one more late in Game 7, for going 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position, and leaving 14 on base.
The pain of the moment will rob some of the joy that comes with having accomplished so much. Trailing in the AL East by a season high eight games in late May, they roared back to overtake the Yankees, win the division and secure the No. 1 seed in the American League. They knocked off those same Yankees in four games in the ALDS, and broke the hearts of the Seattle Mariners in a seven-game ALCS.
Lost in the sadness will be Max Scherzer’s outstanding 4 ⅓ inning effort in Game 7. Clement was a hit machine in this postseason. George Springer’s three-run homer against Seattle will live forever. Bo Bichette, who came back from a tough leg injury to make the World Series roster, appeared to hit the championship clinching three-run homer in the third. Addison Barger had a 1.024 OPS in the playoffs. Andres Gimenez came up with some big knocks. Trey Yesavage became a star in the playoffs, with a 3.58 ERA in five starts (six games) but two epic World Series starts, striking out 17.
It is impossible not to feel for Toronto fans. The emotions of that game certainly make one wonder why they would ever want to watch this sport again. After four hours of non-stop, nerve-wracking tension, the shock, anger, disappointment, and sadness of losing Game 7 will not fade soon. Jays fans were on the other side of this roller coaster two weeks ago when Springer crushed the dreams of every Seattle fan, as well as 32 years ago when Joe Carter danced all over the hearts of young Phillies fans throughout Philadelphia.
When the ninth inning rolled around, it appeared for all the world there would be a new happy memory to add to Carter’s lore. Instead, Toronto fans have now officially been initiated into a club no one wants to be a part of.
They have suffered one of the most devastating losses any fanbase of any franchise in any sport could possibly suffer, a loss that will be remembered and replayed for the rest of time. And yet, after a winter of healing, and the promise of renewal in spring, many of those same fans whose souls were crushed by the Dodgers will be all-in once again, ready to risk having their hearts broken.
Because, after all, there’s always next year.
