Dodgers force World Series to deciding Game 7 by holding off Blue Jays 3-1 as Yamamoto wins again

TORONTO (AP) — A two-run lead was starting to slip away from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the ninth inning — along with their chance to force the World Series to Game 7.

And then Kiké Hernández turned what might have been a tying, two-run single by Andrés Giménez into the first game-ending left field-to-second base double play in postseason history.

“The crazy thing is I had no idea where the ball was because it was in the lights the whole time,” Hernández said after preserving a 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6 on Friday night.

Instead of getting a World Series-winning, three-run homer like the one Joe Carter hit off Philadelphia’s Mitch Williams to capture the title in Game 6 in 1993, the Blue Jays were pushed to Game 7 and the Dodgers kept alive their chance to become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.

Max Scherzer will start Game 7 for Toronto against a Dodgers pitcher still to be determined — perhaps two-way star Shohei Ohtani, perhaps Tyler Glasnow. The October Classic will end in November for the 10th time.

“It’s the two best words in sports: Game 7,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto beat Toronto for the second time in a week by allowing one run in six innings, and slumping Mookie Betts hit a two-run single in a three-run third against Kevin Gausman that included Will Smith’s go-ahead double.

George Springer, back after missing two games with a sore right side, hit an RBI single in the bottom half, and the Dodgers held that 3-1 lead going to the ninth.

Roki Sasaki hit Alejandro Kirk on the left wrist with an 0-2 splitter leading off and Addison Barger followed with a drive that landed at the base of the left-center wall. In a seldom-seen rarity, the ball lodged there instead of caroming back into play.

Both runners crossed the plate as many in the Rogers Centre crowd initially thought Toronto had tied the game, but the rule book is clear that a ball lodged in a fence is a ground-rule double.

The runners were placed at second and third, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought in Glasnow, who was lined up to start Game 7 on normal rest.