The Toronto Blue Jays had a golden opportunity to break their three decades-long plus World Series drought, as they entered Game 6 of the 2025 World Series up 3-2 on the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers. They had momentum on their side after winning two consecutive games on the road, and they were in front of their home crowd for the sixth game of what has been an exceptional series.
Alas, the Blue Jays could not get the job done on Friday night, as they squandered a major chance to turn the game upside down to echo memories of 1993, suffering a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers in Game 6 to send the World Series to a Game 7. It can be demoralizing to lose a game of this magnitude, although Toronto has shown all season long how resilient they are as a unit.
Playing the blame game is futile. Assigning blame for a loss this crucial to certain individuals is asinine, as baseball, perhaps more than any other famous North American sport, is a team game.
But these individuals will have to be kicking themselves after failing to deliver for the Blue Jays on the grand Game 6 stage.
Addison Barger turns from hero to zero for the Blue Jays
To begin the ninth inning, the Blue Jays caught a huge break; down 3-1, the Dodgers sent Roki Sasaki out for another inning of work. Sasaki has some good stuff, but he ended up hitting Alejandro Kirk on an 0-2 pitch, putting the game-tying run on the plate in Addison Barger with no outs.
Barger has been a huge part of the Blue Jays lineup all postseason long, and he had a marvelous at-bat against Sasaki. And then on a 2-2 count, the fans at Rogers Centre saw their team go on the cusp of winning its third World Series in franchise history. Barger smashed a high fastball from Sasaki to deep left field, which outfielder Justin Dean had no shot of catching.
Alas, the Blue Jays right fielder ended up hitting the ball straight towards the bottom of the padding on the outfield wall. With the ball being stuck, Barger's hit ended up being ruled as a ground-rule double — stranding pinch-runner Myles Straw at third and Barger at second.
The Dodgers moved to panic stations, with manager Dave Roberts relieving Sasaki and putting Tyler Glasnow, typically a starter, in on relief duties to try and prevent Toronto from sealing the deal. Glasnow induced a first pitch pop-up from Ernie Clement, setting up the pivotal at-bat against Andres Gimenez.
Glasnow did well to force a weak fly ball out of Gimenez, and both runners should have stayed put considering how likely it was for Kike Hernandez at left to make a play. Instead, Barger strayed too far away from the bag and Hernandez rifled a throw straight to Miguel Rojas at second — catching the Blue Jays right fielder slacking as Toronto's hopes of winning Game 6 ended on a soul-crushing double play.
It's not quite clear what Barger was doing. Did he think that the ball was going to fall, which is why he strayed too far away from the base in hopes of scoring the winning run? He was advancing to third regardless had that ball dropped in left field, so there was really no need for him to be that aggressive on the basepaths — not with George Springer on deck.
Springer being on deck makes Barger's reckless baserunning all the more heartbreaking. The veteran outfielder has been a major thorn in the Dodgers' side through the years, and he's been a consistent postseason performer for so long. He even drove in the lone run the Blue Jays scored on the night.
This is not the first time that a baserunning gaffe cost the Blue Jays a chance at winning an all-important game in the World Series. If they end up losing in Game 7, Barger may not be able to live this mistake down. That would be a shame, considering how he's in the middle of an incredible postseason run from the plate, if his 1.009 OPS in 56 at-bats is any indication.
That's two World Series losses for Kevin Gausman as offense fails to back him up
Kevin Gausman did not have a terrible outing whatsoever. But it is frustrating that the Blue Jays lost two games that he started because they couldn't come up with the necessary run support.
Gausman had to be perfect with Yoshinobu Yamamoto opposite him on the mound. Gausman couldn't get himself out of the jam in the third inning, and that was all she wrote, as the Blue Jays couldn't seem to figure out how to pile on the pressure against Yamamoto.
