OPINION: Dodgers edge Jays in historic, never-ending drama of heroics and strategy

How crazy, how remarkably epic, was Game 3 of the World Series?

It was this crazy: Shohei Ohtani, the greatest baseball player in the world, had one of the greatest World Series games of all time, and it ended up feeling like a side note in a game that was really two games in one.

Ohtani, the otherworldly Japanese superstar, went full alien on Monday night, belting two doubles and two home runs, the second of them tying the game at 5-5 in the seventh inning. It was operatic, and then it became unrelenting.

An entire, additional game unfolded. That one evolved into a chess match that was also somehow a war of attrition, and it ended with a home run off the bat of Freddie Freeman, a solo shot in the bottom of the 18th inning that finally put to bed a game that last almost seven hours. It was the second-longest game in World Series history.

The 6-5 win for Los Angeles gives the Dodgers a 2-1 series lead and leaves Toronto having to summon the energy, and the emotions, to recover from the heartbreaking finish — and with the time zone working against them.

It was playoff baseball at its high-wire, stomach-churning best. Or worst, depending on your view of such things.

There were 31 hits between both teams, and 19 pitchers churned out. Not a typo: 19 different pitchers.

There were spectacular defensive plays, with runners from both teams thrown out on the base paths in crucial, game-changing spots.

There were what felt like countless deep fly balls off of Dodger bats, every one of them looking like it might end the game until it settled into a Blue Jay glove.

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There were stressed-out managers, as Toronto’s John Schneider and L.A.’s Dave Roberts tried to match each other with bullpen moves, even as neither of them had been very confident in their relievers to this point in the playoffs.

There was even an appearance by Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers legend who is retiring at the end of the season and who has a history of playoff disasters.

With the bases loaded in 12th inning, he came in and retired Toronto’s Nathan Lukes, who grounded out. Sure, why not throw a Kershaw redemption arc in there? The game had everything else.

By the time it ticked into the 13th inning, the Jays had lost George Springer to injury, replaced Bo Bichette with a pinch runner, replaced Addison Barger with a pinch runner, and replaced Alejandro Kirk with a pinch runner.

They had emptied all of their bench, and most of their bullpen, in trying to outlast the Dodgers.

The problem for Toronto became evident as the innings wore on: instead of guys like Bichette and Barger at the plate in big spots, it was part-timers like Myles Straw and Isiah Kiner-Falefa forced into high-leverage at-bats.

This is not how Schneider would have drawn it up. This is not how the front office would have drawn it up. This is definitely not how Jays fans would have drawn it up.

The Jays were a heavyweight fighter that had thrown punch after punch, and absorbed blow after blow, but were still wobbling in the centre of the ring. Could they make it to the final bell?
They could not.

After Toronto’s Eric Lauer pitched a sparkling 4.2 innings, he gave way to the last reliever in the Jays bullpen: Brendon Little, last seen blowing a lead against the Seattle Mariners in Game 5 of the ALCS.

He was the last guy that Schneider wanted to use in a tight spot. Little worked his way out of trouble in the 17th, but Freeman rocked him for the game-winning homer to lead off the 18th.

The Jays were not without their big moments on the night.

There was a three-run home run from Alejandro Kirk that erased a two-run Los Angeles lead in the fourth inning, and a wild sprint from Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., in the seventh inning, in which the Toronto slugger raced all the way home from first base on a Bichette single that gave the Jays a 5-4 lead.

But that lead was brief, because on this night the Ohtani onslaught was inevitable.

Schneider, the Jays manager, had the option of intentionally walking Ohtani in the bottom of the seventh inning, with one out and none on, but he let Seranthony Dominguez pitch to him.

For reasons known only to Dominguez, he started off with a fastball right down the pipe that Ohtani sent soaring into the L.A. night.

From there, the game became exhausting just to watch, let alone participate in.

It had been relentless, big play after big play. Barger threw out Freddie Freeman at the plate with a rocket from right field that kept the Dodgers from a potential big early inning. Both teams had runners thrown out at third base in the late innings, each time snuffing out possible rallies. Ohtani, for all of his brilliance, was caught stealing in the ninth inning.

And then the Dodgers made the most significant throw of the night, cutting down the Jays’ pinch runner Davis Schneider at home plate in the 10th inning, after he tried to score from first base on Lukes’ double into the right-field corner.

It had worked two innings earlier when they sent Guerrero all the way home from first base. It did not work with Schneider. Such are the moments on which playoff baseball games turn.

Ohtani would end his night, after the four extra-base hits, with five walks, four of them intentional. And the most incredible thing about all that?

He’s the starting pitcher against the Blue Jays on Tuesday night.