The 2025 World Series Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays delivered a baseball spectacle for the ages—a game so packed with drama, twists, and historic feats that fans and analysts alike are already calling it one of the greatest ever played. The Dodgers’ 5-4 victory in 11 pulse-pounding innings at Toronto’s Rogers Centre not only crowned Los Angeles as back-to-back champions but also drew the sport’s largest television audience in eight years, according to early Nielsen and network data.
From the opening pitch, the energy was electric. The Blue Jays, hungry for their first title since 1993 and playing before a raucous home crowd, jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead. Bo Bichette, Toronto’s homegrown star, delivered a thunderous three-run homer that sent the Rogers Centre into a frenzy. For Blue Jays fans, it was a moment of hope, but as the night unfolded, it became clear this game would be anything but straightforward.
The Dodgers, seasoned by recent October battles and led by a lineup stacked with superstars, began to chip away at the deficit. A sacrifice fly put Los Angeles on the board, and they continued to pressure the Blue Jays’ pitching staff, who had looked nearly untouchable earlier in the series. Toronto’s Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt, and Trey Yesavage all took turns trying to stifle the Dodgers’ offense, but the momentum gradually shifted.
By the top of the ninth, the Blue Jays clung to a 4-2 lead. Enter Jeff Hoffman, Toronto’s high-leverage closer signed to a three-year, $33 million deal in the offseason. Hoffman had been lights out throughout the postseason, and manager John Schneider expressed full confidence in his ability to shut the door, saying before Game 7, “I just think he’s executing at a pretty high rate right now.”
But baseball, as always, had other plans. With one out and the Dodgers’ bench tense, Miguel Rojas—hardly known for his power—stepped to the plate. Hoffman worked him to a full count before leaving a slider over the plate. Rojas connected, sending a solo shot into the Toronto night and tying the game at 4-4. Suddenly, the script was flipped, and the stadium’s collective breath was held.
The bottom of the ninth brought more heart-stopping action. With the bases loaded and two outs, Andy Pages, a defensive replacement in center field, made a spectacular catch on a deep fly ball, preventing the winning run from scoring and keeping the Dodgers’ hopes alive. The tension was palpable—any mistake could end the season for either side.
As the game moved into extra innings, both teams left runners stranded, and every pitch felt like a potential turning point. In the top of the 11th, Dodgers catcher Will Smith, cool as ever, delivered the first extra-inning Game 7 home run in World Series history—a solo blast off Toronto’s Shane Bieber that finally gave Los Angeles its first lead of the night. The Dodgers dugout erupted, but the work wasn’t finished.
The bottom of the 11th was the stuff of legend. Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off with a double, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa bunted him to third, setting the stage for a possible walk-off win. With the winning run just 90 feet away, Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto—who had already pitched six innings as the Game 6 starter—came in to close. Yamamoto, later named World Series MVP, faced the ultimate pressure: every pitch could end the season, for better or worse.
What followed was a ‘Golden Pitch’ scenario, the rarest and most dramatic in baseball—a moment when either team could win the title on a single pitch. Yamamoto bore down, and with an 0-2 count to Alejandro Kirk, he unleashed a splitter that shattered Kirk’s bat. The ball bounced to Mookie Betts, who turned a double play with Freddie Freeman to end the game and the season. The Dodgers stormed the field in celebration, while Toronto’s stunned crowd processed the heartbreak.
Fans and journalists were quick to place this Game 7 among the most memorable in baseball history. As The Athletic’s Jayson Stark chronicled, it checked every box for a classic: extra innings, a team overcoming a deficit of three or more runs, a lost lead in the ninth, and a Golden Pitch finale. The game’s narrative was layered and unpredictable, with heroes emerging from unlikely places and the outcome in doubt until the very last moment.
Television audiences responded in kind. According to preliminary Nielsen ratings and reports from Fox Sports, the game averaged between 25.45 and 25.98 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes, and Fox Sports streaming services. The audience peaked at over 31.5 million viewers during the extra-inning drama between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. ET, making it the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 showdown between Houston and Los Angeles. In Canada, Sportsnet’s broadcast averaged 10.9 million viewers—about a quarter of the nation’s population—underscoring the game’s cross-border appeal.
The ratings surge was notable: this Game 7 drew a 10% increase over the last World Series Game 7 in 2019 and easily surpassed both last year’s World Series clincher (18.2 million viewers) and the NBA Finals Game 7 (16.2 million viewers) earlier this year. With official Nielsen numbers expected soon, industry experts anticipate a slight bump, potentially pushing the total even higher.
For the Dodgers, this win marks their eighth World Series title since moving to Los Angeles in 1958, putting them just one behind the Yankees in that span. It also cements their status as Major League Baseball’s first repeat champions since the Yankees’ three-peat from 1998 to 2000. Team president Andrew Friedman summed up the mood, declaring, “Our overarching goal is for this to be the golden era of Dodger baseball. We’re gonna enjoy this through the weekend and through Monday. And then not long after, we have to go to the GM meetings and start thinking about the 2026 season, which feels overwhelming right now.”
As the city of Los Angeles celebrates and Toronto reflects on what might have been, the 2025 World Series Game 7 will live on as a testament to baseball’s enduring magic—a night when every pitch, every play, and every viewer counted.
