Copyright Los Angeles Times
Game 3 of the 2025 World Series was epic. The Dodgers needed 54 outs before they finally could walk off with a 6-5 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the bottom of the 18th inning for a 2-1 series lead. This is a deep dive into one of those outs. It may seem relatively insignificant, considering all the other huge moments during the six hours and 39 minutes it took to complete the instant classic at Dodger Stadium. But it was important in more ways than one. Repeating history, rocking the Ravine, Freddie Freeman has done it again for the Dodgers, knocking a baseball for a second consecutive October into probably a second consecutive championship. Not only did it get L.A. out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the 12th inning to preserve a 5-5 tie, but it also could have been the final mound appearance by one of the Dodgers’ (and baseball’s) all-time greats: Clayton Kershaw. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but here’s how his wife, Ellen Kershaw — who has seen her share of huge moments from her husband over the years — reacted in the stands. Yep, it was epic. Let’s get into it. Eighteen seasons. Three Cy Young Awards. Two National League MVP awards. Two World Series championships. 223 wins. 3,052 strikeouts. Yeah, Kershaw has been pretty darn good in his nearly two decades with the Dodgers. The Toronto Blue Jays intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani four times in Game 3 of the World Series, but not before he made history with four extra-base hits. Things seemed to be winding down for the southpaw from Dallas after he was limited to only seven games in 2024, first because he was recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and then because of a bone spur in his left big toe. Still, Kershaw signed a one-year deal to return to the Dodgers in 2025 — and the old man (37 years old) pitched quite well after foot and knee surgery between seasons. He compiled an 11-2 record over 23 games and 112.2 innings, with an ERA of 3.36 and 84 strikeouts, and played in his 11th All-Star game. Clayton Kershaw was at the center of the Dodgers experience over the last 18 years, becoming a legend for the team and a city that reveres its sports legends. On Sept. 18, Kershaw announced he would retire at the end of the season. He got a tremendous regular-season send-off from the fans at Dodger Stadium. But before he left the sport, there would be one more postseason for the future Hall of Famer. With a stellar starting rotation of Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani, Kershaw was moved to the bullpen, beginning with the NL Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. His one appearance in that series did not go well. Kershaw entered Game 3 in the seventh inning with the Dodgers trailing 3-1. That inning was rather uneventful, but the next one was not. Kershaw gave up five runs and five hits, including two home runs, before recording the final out of the inning and his final out of the game. The Dodgers lost that game 8-2. Kershaw wasn’t going to go out like that. His services weren’t needed for the remainder of that series or the Dodgers’ four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers or the first two games of the World Series. But he — and everyone else in the Dodgers bullpen — was needed during Monday night’s marathon Game 3. Glasnow pitched the first 4 2/3 innings and was followed by relievers Anthony Banda, Justin Wrobleski, Blake Treinen, Jack Dreyer and Roki Sasaki as the initial nine innings ended with the score tied at 5-5. This sprint of self-sacrifice is what vaulted the Dodgers to a victory in Game 3 of the World Series. This courage to push beyond known limits is why they now have a two-games-to-one edge. Emmet Sheehan got through the 10th and 11th innings unscathed but got into a two-out, bases-loaded jam in the 12th. That’s when Kershaw, who had started warming up back in the ninth inning, finally got the call to make his 496th career game appearance and his first in extra innings. “I warmed up a lot. I was loose,” Kershaw said in an on-field interview with MLB Network after the game. “I threw enough pitches, but that’s the life of a bullpen guy, I’m learning.” Dodger Stadium erupted as the loudspeakers blasted Kershaw’s warm-up song, the appropriately titled “We Are Young” by fun. featuring Janelle Monáe, and the veteran pitcher prepared to face Toronto outfielder Nathan Lukes, a switch hitter who up to that point had gone 1 for 4 with a double and a walk. With fellow Dodgers pitching legend Sandy Koufax watching from the stands, as well as childhood buddy Matthew Stafford, Kershaw delivered his first pitch, an 89-mph slider that was low for ball one. Then came the second pitch, an 89-mph slider that caught Lukes looking to even the count at 1-1. Pitch 3, another slider at 88 mph, barely missed the inside corner of the plate. There was no question about the next pitch, an 87-mph slider for a called strike. Pitch 5 was a 87-mph slider in the dirt. Full count. Bases still loaded. Fans still on their feet and still offering all the encouragement they could muster. Lukes then finally got around to swinging his bat, fouling off an 89-mph slider into the left-field stands and a 91-mph four-seam fastball high and behind the plate. Then came the eighth pitch of the at-bat — a low 88-mph slider that Lukes bounced to second baseman Tommy Edman, who scooped up the ball and tossed it from his glove to first baseman Freddie Freeman just in time to catch the speedy Blue Jays right fielder for the inning’s third out. Kershaw kept a serious look on his face as he walked off the mound, pumping his fist and shouting, “Let’s go!” “Just trying to come in and get one out — definitely something that I haven’t done a whole lot, but you just try to do your job and what’s asked of you,” Kershaw told reporters in the locker room after the game. “And thankfully got a little roll over there and, yeah, it was a big out for us — I thought it was going to be a bigger out, but we played like nine more innings.” If it was any other pitcher out there, that at-bat might have been a mere footnote in an epic game that went another six innings and featured an impressive four-inning outing by Dodgers reliever Will Klein and (another) walk-off home run by Freeman. But Kershaw and the rest of the Dodgers appreciated the significance of what could be a brilliant swan song to a magnificent career. “It’s his last ride. We want to send him out on top,” shortstop Mookie Betts told reporters in the locker room.“That’s a tough situation for him to come in, especially someone like him, right? It’s really like an all-or-nothing thing, so to see him get out of that inning, it was just super cool.” In his postgame news conference, manager Dave Roberts spoke about the total team effort given over 18 innings. Still, Kershaw was one of a handful of players Roberts singled out. “Clayton comes in, he was up for three innings, he gets a huge out for us,” Roberts said. During an on-field interview with Fox just moments after his game-winning home run, a smiling Freeman was asked about Kershaw’s outing. His smile got even bigger. “That was awesome,” Freeman said. “His first pitch was 89, his slider. I was like, ‘Oh baby, we’ve got old vintage Clayton back.’ Coming to the biggest spot like that, no other person you want on the mound than Clayton Kershaw.” Kershaw told MLB Network he was happy just to have played a role in what will likely go down as one of the greatest World Series games of all time. “Thankful to be a part of it,” he said. “Got my number called and got an out. I’m sure we’ll have to get ready tomorrow, but that was a big out and happy to do it.”
