The Los Angeles Dodgers are the only team to hold the record for the longest games by innings in World Series history.
Seven years after the Los Angeles Dodgers came out on the winning end of an 18-inning slug fest in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, they did it all over again in 2025.
On Oct. 28, the Dodgers battled against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series for 18 innings at home, just like they did before. In 2018, it was Max Muncy’s walk-off home run that lifted Los Angeles past the Red Sox. It would be the only game the Dodgers would win in that series as Mookie Betts lifted his first World Series trophy with the team he would eventually leave for the team he beat.
2025 was a different story. This time, Freddie Freeman did the honor of producing the walk-off home run. And this time, Game 3 would prove crucial in Los Angeles securing its second straight Commissioner's Trophy after a seven-game brawl.
“It was an affair that lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, and it tied another Game 3 at Dodger Stadium – the Dodgers’ 3-2 win over the Red Sox in 2018 – for the longest, by innings, in Fall Classic history,” Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com wrote.
Recently, the epic showdown made it to ESPN’s “Our favorite MLB games of 2025: World Series Game 7 and more” list.
“This was the night that marked Clayton Kershaw's final appearance -- in the 12th inning, when a sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd held its collective breath as he stranded the bases loaded. A night that was oh-so-close to being decided by Miguel Rojas, the veteran infielder, toeing the rubber to pitch,” it wrote.
“A night that ultimately ended on a Freddie Freeman walk-off homer, 12 months and three days after he had done his best Kirk Gibson impersonation to open the 2024 World Series. A night that featured a multitude of amazing defensive plays that kept this game scoreless for 10 consecutive innings after the Dodgers had tied it 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh.”
In a contest that equaled two whole games, an unexpected hero rose to the challenge.
“And, ultimately, it was a night best remembered for the 12 outs recorded by a journeyman, previously unknown reliever named Will Klein, who was added to the Dodgers' roster as an emergency fill-in for Alex Vesia and continually pushed himself to keep going, with nobody left behind him. It was the type of night only baseball could provide.”