by Mark Langill
If the jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring double play by left fielder Kiké Hernández and second baseman Miguel Rojas had occurred in Game 7, it would be the greatest World Series defensive ending to a Fall Classic.
Instead, the Dodgers are just happy to live another day.
On the verge of their championship reign vanishing like a spirit into Halloween night, the Dodgers fought off the postseason ghosts of Blue Jays’ postseason past and somehow escaped into November with a 3–1 victory.
With one out, the Blue Jays had runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth inning against reliever Tyler Glasnow when Andrés Giménez sliced a line drive in the direction of Hernández.
“Stay up in the air. Stay up in the air,” manager Dave Roberts said to himself as Hernández began his sprint.
Hernández said the crowd was quiet enough in the moment for him to hear Giménez broke his bat. He briefly lost track of the ball but didn’t stop his sprint.
When he caught the ball, he uncorked a one-hop throw to Rojas, who had been inserted into the Game 6 starting lineup as part of Roberts’ attempt to shake up his lineup that had lost their last two home games at Dodger Stadium.
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Earlier in the game, Rojas barehanded an infield chopper by Addison Barger and threw to first baseman Freddie Freeman.
In the ninth inning, he saved the Dodgers with his glove. Rojas caught the ball by his left hip and fell backwards away from the base as Addision Barger was returning on a head-first slide.
“I noticed the runner may have overextended, thinking the ball might drop,” Hernández said. “I threw cautiously to avoid overthrowing. I didn’t want to throw the ball hard beause it would’ve probably gone over his head. It was an unbelievable pick by Miggy. I didn’t give him the best of throws, but he was about to stay with it. And we forced Game 7.”
Toronto seemed ready on recreating its 1993 World Series title when Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run off Phillies’ reliever Mitch Williams in Game 6 gave the Blue Jays their second consecutive championship.
Now, the Dodgers are in unchartered territory, hoping to repeat as world champions for the first time in franchise history.
“It’s a tough read,” Toronto manager John Schneider said of the double play. “Kiké playing shallow and one out, you’re thinking score. He made a really good play. It’s such a tweener. He made a good play, good throw. Good play by Rojas, too. Wild. Wild way to finish it, for sure.”
Catcher Will Smith knew where Hernández was positioned in left field, but he couldn’t tell right away if Giménez’s ball was going to drop.
“You don’t know if it’s going to bleed in there or not,” Smith said. “But, yeah, once I saw him have a good jump, he seemed like he was going to catch it. I wasn’t expecting a double play until you see where the runner is. That was a really good play.”
“Kiké just gets great jumps,” Roberts said. “He is one of my favorite baseball players to watch. He’s one of the headiest baseball players I’ve ever been around. And even just getting off on the ball, the awareness to get to his arm, get the ball into second base. He’s just a heck of a baseball player. And he did that, I think, from left field to first base too in another series, or it might have been this series. But heck of a baseball player, heck of a play.”
2025 World Series: The Dodger double play that saved the day was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.