Baseball: Narrow Dodgers Win Sets Up World Series Decider

The Los Angeles Dodgers bounced back to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 and set up a deciding seventh game in the World Series after tying the series at 3-3.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting order after back-to-back home defeats, and it took them until the third inning at Toronto’s Rogers Centre just to get a man on base, when Will Smith and Mookie Betts drove in runs to put them 3-0 ahead.

George Springer’s sharp line drive reduced the deficit, but Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto kept the hosts in check, giving up just that one run in six innings pitched.

Neither side was able to score a run after the third inning, and both sides stranded multiple baserunners as the Dodgers held on for victory.

The Blue Jays will feel aggrieved after a controversial umpiring call prevented them from levelling the score in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk was hit by a pitch from reliever Roki Sasaki and replaced by speedy pinch-runner Myles Straw, before Addison Barger’s line drive wedged under the wall in left centre field.

But instead of allowing Straw and Barger to score, the play was ruled to be a ground rule double,, external putting the runners on second and third.

A ground rule double is typically signalled when a ball hit fair is deemed to be impossible to field in the layout of a particular stadium, such as when it becomes trapped under a tarpaulin, and runners are allowed to advance by two bases.

The hosts challenged the call, arguing that a fielder could easily have retrieved the ball, but the on-field decision was upheld by video review.