The Toronto Blue Jays found themselves on the wrong end of one of the most memorable games in World Series history on Tuesday night, falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers in an 18-inning classic in Game 3. Falling into a 2-1 hole would've been tough to swallow no matter the circumstances; doing so in such excruciating fashion, after letting chance after chance after chance go by the wayside, is the sort of setback that can linger far beyond the final pitch.
So you'll forgive Jays fans for feeling a bit doom-and-gloom in the aftermath. Their team now has to win three games in four tries against one of the most outrageous collections of talent ever assembled, the next two of which will come on the road. Oh, and possibly the best player in baseball history is on an all-time heater right now to boot. It's no surprise that the tenor, at least in certain corners of the media, is that Game 3 was the straw that broke the camel's back.
But we're here to offer a little bit of optimism to our neighbors up north. Tuesday night was a tough pill to swallow, no doubt. That said, this series is still very far from over. Toronto needs to steal just one of the next two games to get this series back to Rogers Centre, and while a 2-1 deficit is tough, they have to feel good about how they've matched up with L
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
The case for Blue Jays optimism after Game 3 gut punch
Toronto has been here before
A loss like the one the Jays took in Game 3 can feel impossible to come back from, just on an emotional level. But Canada knows all too well this team's capacity for bouncing back.
Heck, this was a last-place team in 2024, one that was staring down the prospect of losing its two foundational stars to free agency as recently as this past March. And their path to the World Series has been anything but smooth. But no matter what the setback — nearly squandering a sizable lead in the AL East in September, coughing up a 6-1 lead in Game 3 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees, dropping the first two games of the ALCS against the Seattle Mariners — the Blue Jays have answered by playing their best baseball.
At this point, there should be no question that this team is good enough to hang with anybody. And if any clubhouse knows how to respond to adversity, it's Toronto. Don't expect them to fold so easily. Plus, there are plenty of actual, on-field reasons to buy into a Blue Jays comeback.
The Jays offense has proven itself legit
One of the most pressing questions ahead of this series was how Toronto's elite offense would hold up to the Dodgers' star-studded starting rotation. So far, the answer has been just fine: While Yoshinobu Yamamoto got the better of them in Game 2, the Jays touched up both Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, two Cy Young-caliber arms who were white hot entering this matchup.
Shohei Ohtani on the mound in Game 4 will be no easy task, and the potential loss of George Springer would be a big blow. But Toronto has solved tough problems all season (and all postseason) long; this offense travels, and will keep them in just about any game, especially if they can get back to the L.A. bullpen as soon as possible.
Dodgers bats (not named Shohei Ohtani) have gone silent
Ohtani's heroics and Freeman's game-winner are getting all the headlines, and justifiably so. But that masks the fact that the non-Ohtani portion of this lineup has been strangely ordinary so far in this series. It seems like the Blue Jays finally came to that realization in extra innings on Tuesday night, sending Ohtani to first base time and time again in order to deal with the hitters behind him. If Shane Bieber in Game 4 and Trey Yesavage in Game 5 can at least survive while avoiding an Ohtani outburst, you have to like Toronto's chances.
Blue Jays don't have to search very far back for inspiration
If all of the above doesn't convince you, then hopefully some recent history will. The only other game in World Series history that went 18 innings? That would be Game 3 of the 2018 Fall Classic, a series that coincidentally also featured the Dodgers against an AL East opponent (the Boston Red Sox).
Much like 2025, that Game 3 featured precious little offense in extra innings. Much like 2025, that Game 3 also featured a heroic effort from a converted starter in a losing effort, with Boston's Nathan Eovaldi spinning six innings of relief. And much like 2025, it ended in heartbreak for the visitors, with Max Muncy eventually walking it off with a solo homer off of Eovaldi in the bottom of the 18th.
At the time, it felt like an inflection point, the spark the Dodgers needed to climb out of a 2-0 hole and take the series. Instead, the Red Sox rebounded, winning the next night thanks to nine runs in the final three innings. They'd go on to take Game 5 as well, celebrating a World Series title on the Dodger Stadium grass. We're not going to predict an identical outcome here, but we are saying there's a chance.