A historic 11th-inning go-ahead homer by Will Smith. A heroic pitching effort from Yoshinobu Yamamoto on zero rest. A ninth inning fit for an action movie script. At the end of it all, L.A. was on top once again.
Clayton Kershaw, who was warming up in the right-field bullpen, didn’t have time to keep tabs on the situation in the bottom of the 11th. He thought there were two outs. “Honestly,” the retiring pitcher said afterward, “I didn’t know. … [Bullpen catcher Josh Bard] looked at me and said, ‘We just won the World Series,’ and I was like, ‘Are you sure?’”
Mookie Betts is the only active player who has won as many as four World Series. Despite that experience, when the final ball in play of the 2025 World Series bounced his way, he felt some nerves.
Of all the weird and wonderful things that happened in this Fall Classic, this one might just be the wackiest: For the sixth straight season, somebody named Will Smith has won a World Series title.