Dodgers won Game 3 vs Blue Jays long before Freddie Freeman matched Max Muncy history

There have only been two 18-inning games in World Series history, and the Los Angeles Dodgers played in both of them. Both also ended on walk-off solo home runs — Max Muncy notched LA's lone win in the 2018 World Series and Freddie Freeman repeated his heroics, as well as his own from 2025, on Monday night.

The game featured multiple incredible relief pitching performances, and both bullpens deserve credit for pitching an all-timer. But Game 3 had "Dodgers win" written all over it since the seventh inning, when Shohei Ohtani continued his historic run through October.

By the seventh frame, Ohtani had already been on base three times with two doubles and a home run on his stat sheet. He came to the plate again while Toronto held a slim 5-4 lead, and the Jays called a mound visit, surely to discuss how to attack Ohtani properly. Whatever the Blue Jays discussed did not occur.

With his first pitch to Ohtani, Seranthony Dominguez hucked a fastball straight down the middle. Ohtani capitalized and delivered to left-center field for his second home run and fourth extra-base hit of the game, tying the World Series record for the most in a single game. Ohtani reached base a staggering nine times, with four extra-base hits and five walks, four of them intentional.

The Blue Jays really lost Game 3 to the Dodgers when they pitched to red-hot Shohei Ohtani in the seventh inning for his second homer

Could that pitch location have been worse?

Had the Blue Jays intentionally walked Ohtani in the seventh inning and for the rest of the night, they could've won their second Fall Classic game and kept both teams' bullpens fresh for the rest of the series. After Dominguez, both 'pens posted awe-inspiring performances — Edgardo Henriquez, Eric Lauer and Will Klein carried their respective teams through the late innings — but they could've been spared if Toronto took the right approach in the seventh frame.

Despite the late ending (which, thankfully, was three hours earlier on the West Coast), Dodgers fans wouldn't change the outcome of the game for anything. Eighteen-inning World Series games may become their specialty after two rare and historic nights within seven years of each other at the same ballpark. Even crazier, both were Game 3.

LA is in a better position to win this time, though, with its second win out of the way and newfound postseason legends in Freeman and Ohtani on the roster. Maybe the Blue Jays will take the two sluggers more seriously now that everyone''s bullpens are thoroughly exhausted.