From Sunset to Sunrise: Living 18 Innings at Dodger Stadium

What began as a routine Major League Baseball World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers turned into a 6-hour and 39-minute experience of a record-breaking 18-inning battle in favor of LA.

By: Sophia Rodriguez

When I bought my ticket the night before, I thought I had signed up for an ordinary World Series game. I knew that the game would be a tie-breaker for which team would be leading the series, but I did not think it would be two games in one.

My dad drove three hours south of California on Monday, October 27th, to attend game 3 of the World Series to see our favorite team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, play against the Toronto Blue Jays.

We arrived before 3 pm for a 5:10 p.m. start time game. The skies were clear blue when we drove over the mountains, which I said could be foreshadowing a Dodgers win.

Before the ceremonies of the first game in LA, my dad and I went walking around the stadium. He bought a World Series hat and a baseball. We sat down at our seats on the Reserve level, made some friends, and waited for the game to begin.

The Dodgers’ starting pitcher was Tyler Glasnow. I’m not a huge fan of him, but I still love watching the 6’8 man pitch. Both teams got through the first inning with no runs. Until the bottom of the second inning, when Teoscar Hernandez scored a 412-foot home run. Toronto did not respond till the fourth inning with 4 runs.

In the next inning, the Dodgers tied the game. It was now 4-4, and I was clenching my toes. During the top of the seventh inning, the Blue Jays scored a run. Immediately following the bottom of the seventh, Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run. The game was now tied again at 5.

Each inning that passed, my heart was racing more and more. I was sweating during a 60-degree game from my nerves because I knew that if one team scored a run, the game was over.

During the twelfth inning, my dad joked that there would be a fourteenth-inning stretch. I put it aside and said that it is not true at all. Surprisingly, he was right. We stood up together and sang the 14th inning stretch, not knowing we would be there for another four more innings.

I was absolutely exhausted by the time the 18th inning rolled around. My dad and I were cracking jokes about things that had nothing to do with baseball. Each batter that came up for the Dodgers, I said, “Please get a run, I actually want to go home now.” Until Freddie Freeman came up to bat.

I stood up after the two-minute intermission to watch Freddie Freeman during the 18th inning. He swung at the first pitch. It went foul. He then went on to get a full count. Three balls and two strikes. Freeman again swung at a 90mph sinker. This time it did not go foul. It slowly reached center field with the Blue Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho running back to the wall. The very few that were not already standing stood up slowly because of the past false home runs. I then see Varsho stop. The ball went over his head.

I could not stop yelling and jumping when that run was scored. The stadium was still so full at 11:50 pm. My dad and I high-fived other fans around us while I had other journalists with their cameras in my face, getting my reaction. I genuinely could not believe the game was over.

My first World Series game was 18 innings long, and the Dodgers won it. A few days later, the Dodgers would go on to win the whole series in Toronto, becoming the first team in 25 years to become back-to-back champions.

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