The Blue Jays came within a hair’s breadth of winning the World Series in Game 7 on Saturday night. Literally, and on multiple occasions. But the most painful miss came in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Toronto had loaded the bases on Dodgers star Yoshinobu Yamamoto with only one out and the game tied. Utility infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa was on third base as the pinch runner for Bo Bichette. Daulton Varsho was at the plate and smacked a grounder right at Los Angeles second baseman Miguel Rojas. Rojas fielded the grounder cleanly but stumbled as he was trying to throw out Kiner-Falefa at home. He managed to get it there just in time. On the other end, catcher Will Smith briefly lifted his foot off the plate to grab Rojas’s throw and only just barely got it back down in time. The Dodgers earned the force out, got the last out of the inning one batter later, and were World Series champions yet again shortly thereafter.
Afterwards there was much talk of how narrowly the Blue Jays lost the deciding game of the Fall Classic, and there was no shortage of fans calling out Kiner-Falefa for potentially costing his team the game. A birds-eye view showed he had a very, very small lead off the third-base bag when Varsho hit the grounder. Given Rojas’s stumble and Smith lifting his foot off the plate, it seems quite possible (if not likely) that Kiner-Falefa would have been safe if he had taken a normal lead from the start or a secondary lead after the ball was hit.
IKF's small lead and a lack of a secondary was the difference for Toronto not winning a title. pic.twitter.com/LobrbNSCJa
— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) November 2, 2025
Kiner-Falefa was asked about the decision to stick close to the bag after his team lost in devastating fashion. The veteran revealed it was the coaching staff’s call in order to avoid any possibility of a double play if Varsho hit a liner to third baseman Max Muncy.
“They told us to stay close to the base,” Kiner-Falefa said per Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. “They don’t want us to get doubled off in that situation with a hard line drive. Varsho hits the ball really, really hard. [Muncy’s] right there, I’m waiting for a backpack from Will Smith in that situation. I can’t get doubled off right there so it’s almost like bases loaded. They wanted a smaller lead and a smaller secondary, so that’s what I did.
“It was obviously a tough play. They got it done. The lead is small. In that situation, you can’t get doubled off. I got the best secondary I could from that spot and it didn’t work out.”
It’s a sensible explanation, especially in light of how Game 6 ended. The Blue Jays had men on second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth in a one-run game, but Addison Barger drifed too far off second and got doubled up to end the game following a hard line drive to Kiké Hernández in left field. It lines up that the Toronto coaches were extra aware of the possibility in Game 7 in that context.
Obviously they would have played it differently in retrospect. Such is the pain of sports. It all seems so clear with the benefit of hindsight.
A gut-wrenching loss for the Blue Jays, who now have several months to reflect on whether an extra step off the bag by Kiner-Falefa could have changed everything.
More MLB on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Isiah Kiner-Falefa Addresses Baserunning Decision That Might Have Cost Blue Jays Game 7.
