by Megan Garcia
He let out a roar. The veins in his neck surfaced. His face was full of a emotion.
Will Klein had closed the book on the Blue Jays in the 18th inning of Game 3 in the World Series. His strikeout of catcher Tyler Heineman was Toronto’s final batter. The threat of runners in scoring position was over. Dodger Stadium had reached new decibels of support and bewilderment. Another chance to win the game had come to fruition.
It happened in the next half inning when Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run to seal a 6–5 win.
The Dodger bullpen commanded Game 3 of the World Series. Klein was the captain of it.
“Thankfully Will Klein, MVP of this game, was able to throw more zeros up, and I was able to get up again,” Freeman said.
“We weren’t losing that game,” Klein said. “I had to keep going back out there. I was going to keep doing that and doing all I could to put up a zero and sit back down and go do it again.”
The right-hander emptied the tank over four innings — the first time he ever pitched more than two innings in his professional career. The most pitches he had thrown in a Major League game was 36. The most he had thrown in a Minor League game was 56.
He threw 72 on Monday night in Game 3.
He was the last remaining reliever in the Dodger bullpen. The next pitcher would’ve been Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched a complete game in Game 2.
The Dodger bullpen, led by Klein’s heroic relief efforts, helped give Los Angles a 2–1 series lead.
https://medium.com/media/15e9dac3dfedd96d7f18b3cd72cf7e03/href
“What he did tonight, above and beyond what anybody can expect out of somebody that’s literally never done that before,” said Clayton Kershaw, who threw 1/3 of an inning. “All the respect and credit in the world for him to keep going out there and putting up zeroes.”
Only starter Tyler Glasnow logged more innings than Klein with 4 2/3.
https://medium.com/media/f629ad6e95950c4ce3d62387be90b084/href
“You don’t ever plan on playing 18 innings and you just kind of ask more from the player. He delivered,” said manager Dave Roberts. “He threw probably three times as much as he’s ever thrown before, and certainly with the adrenaline on this stage, what he did was incredible. That’s not even enough of a credit to him on this outing.”
Game 3 will be remembered for Freeman’s homer, but also two bullpens that stepped up.
The Dodgers had logged fewer postseason relief innings (30 2/3) than the Blue Jays (53) entering Monday. Toronto’s 5.43 bullpen ERA had the slight edge over Los Angeles’ 6.16 relief ERA.
The Dodgers needed nine relievers to cover 13 2/3 innings after Toronto scored two runs on five hits (one home run) through 4 2/3 innings against Glasnow.
It was only the third time that a Dodger starter didn’t make it out of the fifth inning this postseason.
The bullpen contingency combined for 11 strikeouts and one run against 55 batters.
“There’s just a lot of heroes tonight. Obviously, Freddie put the exclamation mark on the game,” Roberts said. “But you see what Will Klein did, saw what Edgardo (Henriquez), (Justin) Wrobleski (did). Clayton comes in. He was up for three innings and comes in and gets a huge out for us. Just across the board everyone just had huge nights. Big nights, just kept kind of fighting.”
The only run the Blue Jays scored against a Dodger reliver was in the seventh against Blake Treinen when Bo Bichette hit an RBI single to give Toronto a 5–4 lead.
Anthony Banda and Justin Wrobleski retired six of seven Toronto hitters between the fifth and seventh innings.
After Shohei Ohtani hit a game-tying homer in the seventh, the rest of the bullpen held it down against the contact-heavy Blue Jays.
Jack Dreyer (1/3 IP) and Roki Sasaki (1 2/3) took the reins in the eighth and ninth and navigated through traffic to keep Toronto scoreless.
https://medium.com/media/1101296bba5a8ce90aadbbf4bae50596/href
Emmet Sheehan sought out redemption after he gave up three runs and recorded one out in Game 1.
Sheehan finished with 2 2/3 scoreless innings.
“This was the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of.” Sheehan said.
Kershaw, the legendary starter turned postseason reliever, warmed up for three innings before entering the game with the bases loaded in the 12th inning and two outs.. For three innings, he awaited his name to be called out of the pen.
It ended with a ground out against the only batter he faced to end the Blue Jays’ threat.
https://medium.com/media/7125bd9a0042adb0a4e51d06578daa9c/href
“Definitely something that I haven’t done a whole lot, but just trying to do what’s asked of you,” Kershaw said. “Thankful to get a little roller over there. That was a big out for us.”
Edgardo Henriquez took the 13th and 14th innings for two scoreless frames against Toronto. Then, Klein took over in the 15th inning.
He earned the decision. The Dodgers got the victory. The bullpen made the save.
2025 World Series: The Dodger bullpen and an unlikely hero save the night was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.