world series

Talk about easing the blow. The Canadian father-son duo that secured not one, but both home run balls that doomed the Toronto Blue Jays team they rooted for in Game 7 of the World Series turned the evidence into some serious U.S. currency Saturday night.

Dodgers fans will never forget those baseballs hit by Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning and Will Smith in the 11th flying over the left-field wall and into the first row of seats beyond the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

John and Matthew Bains — sitting side-by-side — will never forget the balls ending up in their hands. John, 61, caught Rojas’ 387-foot home run in his glove on the fly. Two innings later, Matthew, seated next to his dad, saw Smith’s blast land in the bullpen and bounce directly into his hands.

Novices they were not. John has been a Blue Jays fan since the team’s inception in 1977 and purposely sits where he does for proximity to home runs. In fact, he caught one during the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees a few weeks earlier.

Both men brought baseballs into the stadium that they threw back onto the field, giving the Blue Jays faithful the impression the Bains did the honorable thing when, in fact, they did the smart thing for their bank accounts.

On Saturday night, the balls were sold at auction. Smith’s homer, which provided the Dodgers with the winning run, sold for $168,000 while Rojas’ blast that sent the game into extra innings fetched $156,000.

A third unforgettable Dodgers home run ball from the 2025 postseason eclipsed the Game 7 balls. The second of Shohei Ohtani’s three home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series sold for $270,000 in the same SCP Auction.

It was the longest of his three, landing on the Dodger Stadium right-field roof 469 feet from home plate. And it was a key element in what is considered perhaps the greatest performance in baseball history. Ohtani struck out 10 in six innings on the mound in addition to his offensive exploits, sending the Dodgers to the World Series.

Carlo Mendoza’s story of how he ended up with Ohtani’s ball is no less head-shaking than that of the Bains boys. The 26-year-old Los Angeles man said he was eating nachos in a food court behind the right-field pavilion and saw Ohtani hit the home run on a television monitor. He heard the ball hit the roof, dashed toward the sound and retrieved the ball from under a bush.

All three balls were authenticated by SCP Auctions through notarized affidavits and lie detector tests. SCP owner David Kohler said Mendoza was so apprehensive about handing over the ball that he insisted meeting Kohler in the parking lot of the Long Beach Police Dept.

“We authenticated through polygraph and eyewitnesses due diligence,” Kohler said. “From the time we announced we had these baseballs until now, no one else has come forward and said they have the balls. There’s been no contention.”

The Lakers confirmed that Joey and Jesse Buss, who both had been executives with the team, are no longer with the franchise.

The announcement was made Thursday in a move many figured would come later with changes to the Lakers’ basketball operations department after Mark Walter became the majority owner. The sale was at a $10-billion valuation and was approved by the NBA board of governors in October.

According to a person not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, everything with the Lakers is being evaluated and that included firing scouts on Thursday.

It was felt that starting the process now was the best course of action to take, according to one person who spoke on condition of anonymity, rather than wait.

Joey Buss was an alternate governor and vice president of research and development with the Lakers while Jesse was the team’s assistant general manager.

“We are extremely honored to have been part of this organization for the last 20 seasons,’ Joey and Jesse Buss said in a statement to ESPN, which first broke the story. “Thank you Laker Nation for embracing our family every step of the way. We wish things could be different with the way our time ended with the team. At times like this, we wish we could ask our Dad what he would think of it all.”

Their dad was Dr. Jerry Buss, who transformed the Lakers into a global franchise after buying the team, along with the Kings and the Forum, in 1979 for $67.5 million. Both Joey and Jesse worked alongside their sister, Jeanie Buss, who will continue to be the Lakers’ primary team governor for the foreseeable future.

Joey was team president and CEO of the Lakers’ G League team, the South Bay Lakers, and Jesse was the Lakers’ director of scouting. Each, along with their siblings, are still minority owners of the franchise.

The two were given a lot of credit for helping the Lakers find and develop Austin Reaves, Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Max Christie.

The Lakers didn’t have a comment about the Buss brothers no longer being with the team.

“Yeah, I found out this morning that it was going to happen,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after practice. “But I don’t have any comment on personnel decisions as it relates to the organization.”

The Lakers signed general manager Rob Pelinka to a contract extension in April and extended Redick‘s contract in September.

The sale of the Lakers was finalized on Oct. 30.

Fresh off winning a World Series with the Dodgers, Walter, who had been a minority owner of the Lakers since he bought 27% of the franchise with Todd Boehly in 2021, promptly sat courtside for the next Lakers home game on Nov. 2. He looked on when the Lakers honored the world champion Dodgers at a home game on Nov. 5.

Walter was part of the group that purchased the Dodgers for $2 billion in 2012. Since then, the team has won three World Series titles in five appearances with 13 consecutive playoff berths.

The swift reorganization process with the Lakers differs from Walter’s history with L.A.’s other pro sports headliner. After Walter bought the Dodgers, general manager Ned Colletti stayed with the organization through the 2014 season.

In addition to becoming the highest-spending team in baseball under the new ownership group, the Dodgers also bolstered their analytics department, improved nutrition programs for major and minor league players, and expanded clubhouses with the latest physical therapy technologies.

I have been a diehard baseball fan for more than 60 years, and this year’s Dodger team is the toughest, gutsiest and most resilient team I have ever seen. Toronto is an absolutely fabulous baseball team, and would’ve beaten anybody else in all of baseball without much stress.

And as for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, that young man ought to be on Mt. Rushmore.

Let’s go for a three-peat in ‘26!

Drew Pomerance
Tarzana

No doubt about it. The best team won the World Series. The Dodgers found ways to win without great hitting. Their pitching and defensive skills exceeded our expectations. Thank you everyone for another amazing baseball season.

Cheryl Creek
Anaheim

How wonderful to see grown men acting like little boys during their victory celebration. While I am not a fan of the gyrations on the bases after a hit (even when way behind), the pure joy emanating from the players at the end was to be cherished. How sports enables us to forget our problems is what has made me a lifelong sports fan.

Mark Kaiserman
Santa Monica

Who would imagine that Games 6 and 7 would both end on double plays while the losing team had men in scoring position? One different swing of the bat would have reversed the outcome of the games and series. How suddenly agonizing and euphoric. How uniquely baseball!

Mel Spitz
Beverly Hills

The Toronto Blue Jay fans taunted Shohei Othani early in the series, “We don’t need you!” I guess they did!

Edward Jimenez
Whittier

Consideration should be given to incorporating the Japanese flag into the design of the 2025 World Series ring.

Greg Thompson
Chatsworth

It took until Games 6 and 7, but the 2025 World Series lineup needed to include Miguel Rojas.

Ken Feldman
Tarzana

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ haters and naysayers can take a seat. Whether it was confidence in the starting rotation, masterful management of the bullpen, being unafraid to tinker with the lineup or making brilliant defensive replacements, every lever Roberts pulled in Games 6 and 7 ultimately resulted in another championship.

Ron Yukelson
San Luis Obispo

As my fellow Monday morning baseball critics always say, “Dave Roberts is a genius. Mookie is great at short. Last year no starting pitchers. This year no bullpen.”

So many contributed big plays. Constant tension, excitement, tenacity and, ultimately, exhilaration. Thank you Dodgers for a playoffs and World Series for the ages. Encore!

Rafael Serna
Hacienda Heights

While we bask in the euphoria of the Dodgers’ World Series win, let’s not overlook but sing the praises to the last man standing! Without the heroics of Will Klein, there might not have been a Game 6 or a Game 7.

Stan Shirai
Torrance

The World Series finished on Dia de los Muertos, but our Dodgers lived to win again. Against all odds in Game 7, the Dodgers solidified a dynasty. What a game. What a series. What a team. So many clutch moments and players. This one will be enjoyed and cherished FOREVER.

Michael Lee Manous
San Dimas

A phrase that will never be used in the same sentence with Yoshinobu Yamamoto: “load management.”

Dave Ring
Manhattan Beach

Orel, meet Yoshi!

Brian Lipson
Beverly Hills

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife, Kayla, announced on Instagram on Friday that their baby daughter, Sterling, died on Oct. 26 — a tragic loss that caused Vesia to miss the Dodgers’ appearance in the World Series last week.

“Our little angel, we love you forever & you’re with us always,” the Vesias wrote. “There are no words to describe the pain we’re going through but we hold her in our hearts and cherish every second we had with her.”

The Vesias had been expecting the birth of Sterling, their first child, during the Dodgers’ postseason run. Her death came during the World Series, forcing Vesia to step away from the club.

The day before Game 1 of the World Series, the Dodgers publicly announced Vesia was not with the team because of a “deeply personal family matter.” The Dodgers left him off their World Series roster, as well as the family medical emergency list, so as not to pressure him into feeling he needed to return.

“This is so much bigger than baseball,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the time. “And for us, it was doing whatever small part we could to just 100% be supportive.”

The Dodgers’ bullpen honored Vesia in Game 3 of the World Series, with each reliever writing his No. 51 on the sides of their caps for the rest of the series. The Toronto Blue Jays’ relievers did the same in Games 6 and 7, a gesture several Dodgers publicly recognized and deeply appreciated.

“I think it really speaks to the brotherhood of athletes, major league baseball players,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts ahead of Game 7. “Baseball is what we do, but it’s not who we are. And for these guys to recognize Alex and what he and Kayla have gone through — ‘heartbreaking’ is not even a good enough descriptor.”

“For those guys to do that, it’s incredible,” outfielder Kiké Hernández added. “They’re trying to win a World Series, but they understand that this is — life is bigger than baseball, and baseball’s just a game. For them to do that with the stakes where we’re at, hats off to them, and I want them to know that we appreciate ‘em.”

The Vesias also thanked the Dodgers, Blue Jays and baseball fans for their support.

“Our baseball family showed up for us and we wouldn’t be able to do this without them,” they wrote. “We have seen ALL your messages, comments and posts. It’s brought us so much comfort.”

Vesia was a key part of the Dodgers’ bullpen in both the regular season (when he had a 3.02 ERA in a career-high 68 appearances) and the first three rounds of the playoffs (when he allowed just two runs in seven outings).

On Thursday, the Dodgers picked up Vesia’s $3.65-million option for next season, avoiding arbitration before what will be his final year before reaching free agency.

The now two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers made their first move of the offseason on Thursday.

It will ensure a familiar face is back for their pursuit of a three-peat next year.

The team picked up its $10-million club option for third baseman Max Muncy, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly, bringing the now longest-tenured member of the roster back for what will be his ninth season in Los Angeles.

The decision was not surprising. This year, Muncy had perhaps his best all-around season at the plate since a 2021 campaign in which he received MVP votes. He hit .243, his highest mark since that 2021 season, with 19 home runs, 67 RBIs and an .846 OPS in 100 games. He atoned for a relatively quiet postseason by hitting a crucial home run in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, setting the stage for the team’s ninth-inning comeback and eventual extra-innings, title-clinching victory.

Muncy was in the final season of a two-year, $24-million extension he signed in the 2023 offseason. And injuries have been a problem for the 35-year-old in recent years (he was limited this past season by a knee contusion in July and an oblique strain in August).

However, the $10-million option was a relative bargain for a player who, prior to second-half injuries, had shaken off a slow start to the year by being one of the hottest hitters in the majors in May and June.

His return will also help keep a key part of the club’s veteran core intact, bringing back a player who — in the wake of Clayton Kershaw’s retirement — has been with the Dodgers longer than anybody else.

Muncy’s 2025 season did not start well. After an offseason in which trade rumors involving Nolan Arenado swirled, and a spring training spent working through the lingering after-effects of an oblique and rib injury that limited him in 2024, Muncy hit .176 through his first 34 games, and had only one home run.

In early May, however, he started wearing glasses to address an astigmatism in his right eye. Around that same time, he also found a breakthrough with his swing, one that helped him begin punishing fastballs up the zone. From May 7 to the end of June, he hit .315 with 12 home runs and a 1.039 OPS, one of the best stretches of his 10-year, two-time All-Star career.

That streak was derailed on July 2, when Muncy suffered his knee injury after being slid into at third base. His return a month later was cut short, too, when his oblique began bothering him during a batting practice session in August.

Those IL stints preceded a September slump that carried into the postseason, when Muncy hit just .173 entering Game 7 of the World Series.

But that night, he collected three hits, had the pivotal eighth-inning home run off Trey Yesavage that got the Dodgers back within a run, and became one of six players to contribute to all three of the Dodgers’ recent World Series titles.

“It’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here,” he joked from atop the stage at the Dodgers’ World Series celebration on Monday. “Let’s keep it going.”

On Thursday, the team ensured his run with the Dodgers will, for at least one more season.

Alex Vesia’s option also picked up

The Dodgers on Thursday also picked up their $3.55-million club option for reliever Alex Vesia in 2026, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly. That was also not a surprise, though Vesia still would’ve been under team control and eligible for arbitration if they hadn’t.

Vesia was one of the few consistent performers in the Dodgers’ bullpen this year, posting a 3.02 ERA in a career-high 68 appearances. He was also one of their most trusted relief arms in the playoffs, bouncing back from a two-run outing in the wild-card series opener with 4 ⅓ scoreless innings the rest of the way.

Vesia was not available for the World Series as he and his wife dealt with what the team described as a “deeply personal family matter.” But he figures to be a key cog in their bullpen again next season, in what will be his last before reaching free agency.

When Los Angeles County Museum of Art director Michael Govan first stepped up to the podium at the museum’s star-packed 14th annual Art + Film Gala, the Dodgers were down one point to the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighth inning of the final game of the World Series.

There was no giant screen in the massive tent where a decadent dinner was being served Saturday night in celebration of honorees artist Mary Corse and director Ryan Coogler. Instead guests in elaborate gowns and tuxedos discreetly glanced at their phones propped on tables and at the base of flower vases across the star-packed venue. This became apparent when Miguel Rojas hit a game-tying home run at the top of the ninth inning and the whole room erupted in cheers.

Michael Govan, CEO of LACMA, wearing Gucci, speaks onstage during the 2025 LACMA Art+Film Gala.

(Amy Sussman / Getty Images for LACMA)

When Govan returned to the stageto begin the well-deserved tributes to the artist and filmmaker of the hour, the game had been won, the effusive cheering had died down, and the phones had been respectfully put away.

“Go Dodgers!” Govan said, before joking that LACMA had engineered the win for this special evening. The room was juiced.

It made Los Angeles feel like the center of the universe for a few hours and was fitting for an event that famously brings together the city’s twin cultural bedrocks of art and cinema, creating a rarefied space where the two worlds mix and mingle in support of a shared vision of recognizing L.A.’s immeasurable contributions to the global cultural conversation.

“This is a celebration that can only happen in L.A. — where art, film and creativity are deeply intertwined,” Govan said. “I always say this is the most creative place on Earth.”

The event raised a record $6.5 million in support of the museum and its programs. Co-chairs Leonardo DiCaprio and LACMA trustee Eva Chow hosted a cocktail party and dinner that drew celebrities including Dustin Hoffman, Cynthia Erivo, Cindy Crawford, Queen Latifah, Angela Bassett, Lorde, Demi Moore, Hannah Einbinder, Charlie Hunnam and Elle Fanning alongside local elected officials and appointees including U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles); L.A. County Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Lindsey Horvath; L.A. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky; West Hollywood Councilmember John M. Erickson, and Kristin Sakoda, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.

Sakoda said she thoroughly enjoyed the festivities “as representative of the incredibly diverse culture of Los Angeles and how that speaks to our entire nation.”

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1. George Lucas arrives at the LACMA Art + Film Gala on Saturday. (Jordan Strauss / Invision via Associated Press) 2. Elle Fanning arrives at the LACMA Art + Film Gala on Saturday. (Jordan Strauss / Invision via Associated Press) 3. Angela Bassett arrives at the LACMA Art + Film Gala on Saturday. (Jordan Strauss / Invision via Associated Press)

A special nod of gratitude went to previous gala honorees in attendance including artists Mark Bradford, James Turrell, Catherine Opie, Betye Saar, Judy Baca, George Lucas and Park Chan-Wook. Leaders from many other local arts institutions also showed up including the Hammer Museum’s director, Zoe Ryan; California African American Museum Director Cameron Shaw; and MOCA’s interim Director Ann Goldstein.

Rising in the background was LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, the 110,000-square-foot Peter Zumthor-designed building scheduled to open in April as the new home for the museum’s 150,000-object permanent collection.

“Every day I’m in that little building behind installing thousands of artworks,” Govan said to cheers. “I can’t wait for people to rediscover our permanent collection, from old favorites to new acquisitions. It’s a monumental gift to L.A., and in addition to L.A. County and the public, I would like to thank the person whose generosity brought us to this landmark moment, Mr. David Geffen.”

Geffen sat in a sea of black ties and glittering gowns, near Disney CEO Bob Iger and DiCaprio — who had been filmed earlier in the week in attendance at Game 5 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium.

Govan also gave a special acknowledgment to former LACMA board co-chair, Elaine Wynn, who died earlier this year and was one of the museum’s most steadfast champions. Wynn contributed $50 million to the new building — one of the first major gifts in support of the effort. Govan noted that the northern half of the building will be named the Elaine Wynn wing.

Honoree Ryan Coogler, wearing Gucci, speaks onstage during the 2025 LACMA Art+Film Gala.

(Amy Sussman / Getty Images for LACMA)

Left unmentioned was the fact that earlier in the week LACMA’s employees announced they are forming a union, LACMA United, representing more than 300 workers from across all departments, including curators, educators, guest relations associates and others. One worker told The Times there were no plans to demonstrate at the gala, which raises much-needed funds for the museum.

The crowd sat rapt as the night’s guests of honor, Corse and Coogler, humbly spoke of their journeys in their respective art forms, with Govan introducing them as “artists whose brilliant groundbreaking work challenges us to see the world differently.”

The night concluded with an enthusiastic performance by Doja Cat on an outdoor stage in the shadow of the David Geffen Galleries, the lights girding its massive concrete underbelly like stars in the sky.

“It was a beautiful evening of community coming together around something that reminds us of our shared humanity at a time when we need it,” said Yaroslavsky with a smile as the evening wound down.

TORONTO — Shortly after the Dodgers won Game 6 of the World Series, Yoshinobu Yamamoto approached his longtime personal trainer.

Lowering his head, Yamamoto said to Osamu Yada, “Thank you for everything this year.”

Yamamoto figured his season was over. He’d thrown 96 pitches over six innings, and he half-joked in the postgame news conference that he wanted to cheer on his team rather than pitch again the next day. Manager Dave Roberts had the same thought, saying Yamamoto would be the only pitcher unavailable in Game 7.

The trainer had other ideas.

“Let’s see if you can throw in the bullpen tomorrow,” Yada said.

By just being in the bullpen, Yada said, Yamamoto could provide the Dodgers a psychological edge over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“That’s how I got tricked,” Yamamoto said in Japanese with a laugh.

Yada’s guiding hand transformed Yamamoto into a legend on Saturday night.

Pitching the final 2 ⅔ innings of an 11-inning, championship-clinching 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, Yamamoto won his third game of the World Series.

When he forced Alejando Kirk to ground into a game-ending double play, Yamamoto removed his cap and raised his arms toward the heavens. Catcher Will Smith rushed the mound and picked him up from the waist.

“I felt a joy I never felt before,” Yamamoto said.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith picks up Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto after the final out of a 5-4 win in 11 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Yamamoto pitched a complete game in Game 2. He pitched six more in Game 6. His contributions in Game 7 increased his series total to 17 ⅔ innings, over which he allowed only two runs.

The throwback performance earned him the series’ most valuable player award, as well as universal admiration.

“I really think he’s the No. 1 pitcher in the world,” Shohei Ohtani said in Japanese. “Everyone on the team thinks that, too.”

Freddie Freeman marveled at the workload shouldered by the 5-foot-10 Yamamoto, who was sidelined for three months last year with shoulder problems.

“I mean, he pitched last night, started,” Freeman said. “He threw the most innings out of our pitchers tonight.”

Freeman pointed out that in addition to pitching in three games, Yamamoto also warmed up to pitch in a fourth. Two days after his complete game in Game 2, he prepared in the bullpen to pitch a potential 19th inning in Game 3. The Dodgers won that game in the 18th inning.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Freeman said.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Yamamoto’s Game 7 performance, “For him to have the same stuff that he had the night before is really the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever seen on a major league baseball field.”

Did Friedman think any other pitcher could have done what Yamamoto did in this series?

“No, I don’t,” Friedman said. “In fact, yesterday morning I didn’t necessarily think Yama could either.”

Friedman said he didn’t think much of it when he was notified after Game 6 that Yamamoto was receiving treatment from Yada at the team hotel with the intention of perhaps pitching in Game 7. Friedman was told the next morning that Yamamoto received another round of treatment.

The possibility of Yamamoto pitching in Game 7 became real to Friedman after he performed his trademark javelin-throwing routine and played catch at Rogers Centre. Yamamoto still wasn’t convinced.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, celebrates with Shohei Ohtani and teammates after a 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series at Rogers Centre on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I didn’t think I would pitch,” Yamamoto said. “But I felt good when I practiced, and the next thing I knew, I was on the mound (in the game).”

Yamamoto’s interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda, was prepared.

The superstitious Sonoda wears the same pair of lucky underwear on days Yamamoto pitches. He wore the rabbit-themed boxers for Game 6. Sensing Yamamoto might pitch again, Sonoda wore the same boxers for Game 7.

“Just in case,” Sonoda admitted, “I didn’t wash them.”

Yamamoto had never pitched on consecutive days as a professional, in either the United States or Japan. When was called on to relieve Blake Snell in the ninth inning, he was uncertain of how he would perform.

Inheriting two baserunners from Snell with one out, Yamamoto loaded the bases by plunking Kirk. He forced Dalton Varsho to ground into a force out at home, only to throw a curveball to Ernie Clement that was driven to the wall in left field. Defensive replacement Andy Pages crashed into Kiké Hernández on the warning track but held on to the ball, preventing the Blue Jays from scoring the walk-off run.

Yamamoto pitched a 1-2-3 10th inning and went into the bottom of the 11th with a 5-4 lead, courtesy of a homer by Smith in the top of the inning.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. started the inning by pulling a 96.9-mph fastball for a double and advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Yamamoto walked Addison Barger to place runners on the corners, setting up the game-ending double play by Kirk.

“I really couldn’t believe it,” Yamamoto said. “I was so excited I couldn’t even recall what kind of pitch I threw at the end. When my teammates ran to me, I felt the greatest joy I’ve felt up to this point.”

Clayton Kershaw, whom Yamamoto wanted to send into retirement with another championship, embraced him harder than he’d ever embraced him. Roberts swallowed him an embrace.

Yamamoto was moved to tears.

Overwhelmed by the moment, Yamamoto didn’t sound as if he grasped the magnitude of what he’d just done. In time, he will.

On the night the Dodgers solidified their dynasty, Yamamoto made this World Series his.

TORONTO — It was a game that started on Saturday and ended on Sunday, a World Series contest so packed with the rare, the historic and the dramatic that it couldn’t possibly be confined to one day.

At 11 innings, it was the longest Game 7 this century, and it equaled the longest in more than a century. It was the first Game 7 that had a ninth-inning home run to tie the score and the first to feature two video reviews that prevented the go-ahead run from scoring.

“It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever been a part of,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 to win its second straight World Series and end the longest season in franchise history, one that began in Japan and ended in Canada.

The victory made the Dodgers the first team to win back-to-back titles in 25 years and with that championship, Roberts’ third, he passed Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda to become the second-most-decorated Dodger manager ever. He now trails only Walter Alston, another Hall of Famer, who won four World Series with the team.

Roberts, however, won his three titles over six seasons, something no Dodger skipper has ever done.

“It’s hard to reconcile that one,” said Roberts, whose jersey from Saturday’s game is on its way to Cooperstown, joining the cap the Hall of Fame requested after last year’s World Series win.

“I’m just really elated and really proud of our team, our guys, the way we fought. We’ve done something that hasn’t been done in decades. There was so many pressure points and how that game could have flipped, and we just kept fighting, and guys stepped up big.”

So did the manager.

Every move Roberts made worked, every button he pushed was the right one. Miguel Rojas, starting for the second time in nearly a month, saved the season with a game-tying home run in the top of the ninth while Andy Pages, inserted for defensive purposes during the bottom of the inning, ran down Ernie Clements’ drive at the wall with the bases loaded to end the threat.

In the 11^th he had Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch around Addison Barger, putting the winning run on base. But that set up the game-ending double play three pitches later.

“Credit to him, man. Every single move he did this postseason was incredible,” said Tyler Glasnow, one of four starting pitchers Roberts used in relief Saturday. And he had a fifth, Clayton Kershaw, warming up when the game ended.

Added Dodgers co-owner Magic Johnson: “He did some coaching tonight. This was a great manager’s game from him. He’s proven how great a manager he is. He’s a Hall of Famer.”

Roberts asked Yamamoto, who pitched six innings Friday to win Game 6, to throw another 2 2/3 innings in Game 7. It worked; Yamamoto won that game too.

“What Yoshi did tonight is unprecedented in modern-day baseball,” said Roberts, who came into the postgame interview room wearing ski goggles and dripping of champagne. “It just goes down to just trusting your players. It’s nice when you can look down the roster and have 26 guys that you believe in and know that at some point in time their number’s going to be called.”

And Roberts needed all 26 guys. Although the Dodgers players wore t-shirts with the slogan “We Rule October” when they mounted a makeshift stage in the center of the Rogers Centre field to celebrate their victory early Sunday, October was only part of it. Their year started in Tokyo in March and ended in Toronto in November, making it the first major league season to begin and end outside the U.S.

“We really extended the season,” Max Muncy, whose eighth-inning homer started the Dodgers’ comeback, said with a grin after the team’s 179^th game in 226 days.

“Look back at the miles that we’ve logged this year,” Roberts said. “We never wavered. It’s a long season and we persevered, and we’re the last team standing.”

That, too, is a credit to Roberts, who has made the playoffs in each of his 10 seasons and went to the World Series five times, trailing only Alston among Dodger managers. His .621 regular-season winning percentage is best in franchise history among managers who worked more than three seasons. And he figures to keep padding those records.

“We’ve put together something pretty special,” said Roberts, who celebrated with his family on the field afterward. “I’m proud of the players for the fans, scouting, player development, all the stuff. To do what we’ve done in this span of time is pretty remarkable.

“I guess I’ll let the pundits and all the fans talk about if it’s a dynasty or not. But I’m pretty happy with where we’re at.”

On Sunday morning Glasnow, who missed the playoffs last season with an elbow injury, was pretty happy with where he was at as well.

“To be a part of the World Series is crazy,” he said, standing just off the infield as blue and gold confetti rained down. “You dream about it as a kid. To live it out, I feel so lucky. This group of guys, I’m so close to everyone. So many good people on this team. It’s just the perfect group of guys.”

The perfect manager, too.