TORONTO — Blue Jays fans were left in stunned silence Saturday night as Toronto’s early lead in the clinching World Series game slipped away and the Los Angeles Dodgers won 5-4 in extra innings.
Rogers Centre had been raucous for most of Game 7 after Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third inning electrified the sell-out crowd. But that changed when the Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas tied the game 4-4 with a ninth-inning home run before Dodgers catcher Will Smith delivered the go-ahead blast in the 11th.
As the Dodgers celebrated on the field, thousands of dejected Jays fans filed out of the stadium. The sound of shoes scuffling the concrete floor was punctuated by frequent expletives.
One fan sat against the wall, head in his hands. Others wiped away tears in disbelief.
“I don’t even have words. I think I felt every emotion today … We almost had it,” Michelle Yuen said. “It felt like we were all holding our breath for so many innings straight.”
Yuen said she has been a Blue Jays fan since childhood, and she was a toddler when the team won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
For millions of fans across the country who were united by the Jays’ playoff run, the hope of seeing them win their first championship in 32 years was dashed.
“We’ve been …. waiting for a moment like this for years now, so to see us come so close and just fall so short is very gut-wrenching and heartbreaking,” said Amr Altaweel, who watched the game with a large crowd at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square.
Derek Shank, who remembers going to Blue Jays’ games with his grandmother as a little kid, said he was “gutted.”
“They had it, they literally had it and they just coughed it up,” he said outside the ballpark, adding that the Jays have been “an amazing team” this season.
Despite their agonizing loss, the Jays had treated a rapturous fan base to an unforgettable playoff ride filled with moments to be immortalized in team history.
There was 22-year-old Trey Yesavage’s “built for this” moment when he struck out 11 Yankees in his playoff debut and only fourth major league start. There was George Springer’s American League Championship Series Game 7 home run to send the team to its first World Series in more than three decades. There was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who hit a team record eight post-season home runs and proved he was, as he put it, “born ready.”
Along the way, diehards were joined by baseball converts in a fan base stretched out between three coasts and united behind one team whose underdog credentials and endearing cast of players appeared to capture the attention of even the most casual Canadian sports fan. Jays hats and jerseys were the hottest fall fashion trend in Toronto.
“You know, the Jays might have lost today – they lost the game, but I’m sure they won many, many, many, many fans,” Mohammad Almhissen said after the watch party at Nathan Phillips Square fizzled out.
“I think this is just the start. Baseball is just going up from now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2025.
–With files from Fatima Raza
Jordan Omstead and Sonja Puzic, The Canadian Press
