LOS ANGELES — As they trudged off the Dodger Stadium grass in the wee minutes of Oct. 28, the Toronto Blue Jays experienced feelings only a precious few ballplayers across a century of this game have confronted: Losing an 18-inning World Series game.
Hey, when it’s first team to three wins a world championship, every loss is costly. And the bill for this one will be exorbitant in Games 4 and 5.
Freddie Freeman's home run leading off the bottom of the 18th inning didn’t just elevate the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory and a 2-1 World Series advantage. It also exacerbated the many problems Toronto will face both getting back in this Series and, against the odds, reclaiming the upper hand.
Not that the Blue Jays are focusing on that. Manager John Schneider is the master of cheerfully refusing to consider what just happened might impact what will happen.
“The Dodgers didn't win the World Series today. They won a game,” says Schneider in his postgame dissection, long after the clock struck midnight on the West Coast.
