Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – The Los Angeles Dodgers know they must get their offense firing to resuscitate their bid for a second straight World Series title as the Toronto Blue Jays host game six on Friday with a chance to clinch their first Major League Baseball crown in 32 years.
“We’ve got to put runs on the board and do a better job,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “And we just haven’t done that for about two and a half games. We all know what we’re capable of and we haven’t done it for two games. So maybe the day off, we’ll cool them down over there and we’ll reignite us.”
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Freeman delivered a walk-off home run to give the Dodgers a 6-5 victory in an 18-inning game three epic. But offensive fireworks have been in short supply for the high-priced, high-octane Dodgers, who then dropped games four and five at home. The Blue Jays, up 3-2 in the best-of-seven series and chasing their first World Series title since back-to-back triumphs in 1992 and 1993, now have a chance to close it out at home.
“I can’t wait,” Toronto manager John Schneider said of the reception he expects at Rogers Centre — where thousands turned out for watch parties for the games played in LA. “I’m just excited as hell to see what this place is like; the guys are, too.”
Freeman said those Blue Jays fans shouldn’t count the Dodgers out just yet. “We faced this last year,” he said, recalling the Dodgers faced elimination in the National League division series and won two games in a row. “So we can do it again. Baseball is a hard game, and it has been hard for us the last two days. But we’ve been in this situation before like last year, and we can do it again.”
To do so, they will have to step it up at the plate. The Dodgers scored just one run and struck out 12 times against Jays rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage in game five. Shohei Ohtani has had his moments, but he has had precious little backup. Mookie Betts, hitting .130 in five World Series games and .234 in the postseason, has been unable to make the Blue Jays pay for walking Ohtani. “I’ve just been terrible,” Betts acknowledged after the Dodgers’ 6-1 game-five defeat, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saying he thinks Betts is “pressing.” “I think you can see there’s a little anxiousness in there.”
The Dodgers are hoping they at least have a sure thing on the mound in Japanese hurler Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched a four-hit complete game in the Dodgers’ game-two triumph. Yamamoto said he wouldn’t approach the elimination game differently. “I just don’t feel too much difference,” he said. “I have to just get myself ready, and then only one thing we have to do is just win.”
The Blue Jays send veteran Kevin Gausman to the mound. Gausman gave up four hits and three runs over six-plus strong innings, retiring 17 straight batters at one point in a performance that was overshadowed by Yamamoto’s. “Kev kind of matched him pitch for pitch there until the seventh,” Schneider noted. “We’ve got all the confidence in the world in Kev.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he and players have dived into analysis of at-bats, hitting mechanics and so forth, but on Friday it will come down to fighting. “Right now we’ve got to find a way to win one game,” he said. “I could dive into my thoughts, but I think at the end of the day, they just have to compete and fight in the batter’s box. It’s one-on-one, the hitter versus the pitcher, and that’s it.”
© 2024 AFP
