just wow

game 7 was an absolute classic. it would have been perfect for either team to have won - i would have had no complaints if it had gone the other way, and i truly mean that.

up until last night, miguel rojas was probably going to be remembered as the guy who made a great play to preserve clayton kershaw's no-hitter back in 2014 during his first stint with the dodgers. he didn't even warrant a card when he was first with the team, and his subsequent years have seen him with only a small number of cards. here's a 2023 topps royal blue parallel

that i've shown before (i try really hard not to show cards more than once unless it's germane to the post). he's going to get a few more cards i would say after his game 7 performance. now he will be remembered for his unlikely home run in the top of the 9th to tie the game, as well as his the drawn in defensive play to preserve the tie in the bottom of the 9th. this all overshadowed his crazy short-hop pick to end game 6!

will smith, whose 2025 topps major league material card i picked up at a mall show in mid october,

will be celebrated for his game winning home run in the 11th inning, but he also gets credit for that force play at home in the bottom of the 9th - a play that could have been overturned on replay, it was that close.

and then there was max muncy

who made it a one run game in the 8th with his solo blast. i had been saving that 2022 topps photo variation card for a different post, but game 7 heroics warrant showing it now.

mookie betts (this is his 2023 topps flagship card)

struggled in the series, but he scored a run on a shallow sacrifice fly and then turned the game ending double play with one of my favorite plays to make - the 6-3 double play where you take the ball to the bag yourself. so fun.

i don't have a new card of andy pages to share, and the only kiké hernandez card i have in my scanned folder is this 2023 topps wbc card

but the defensive play pages made while knocking kiké down was incredible. then, they teamed up in the top of the 10th for some more drama, with pages hitting into a force play at home with the bases loaded and hernandez nearly reaching on an infield grounder when the pitcher got his feet turned around at first. just a crazy sequence of plays in the late innings.

the game also marked the official end to clayton kershaw's career. this is his 2025 topps confetti parallel

it was stressful to see kershaw warming up in the bullpen at one point. i had hoped for a blowout (either way) so that kersh might get into the game without any pressure. he delivered in game 3, but...

speaking of the pitching, shohei otani battled but wound up making one bad pitch too many. this is one of his three 2025 topps 2024 greatest hits inserts

we should get a bunch of pitcher ohtani cards in 2026.

justin wrobleski (2025 topps sandglitter parallel)

relieved ohtani and contributed to some drama and a surreal dugout/bullpen emptying hbp of the blue jays' number 9 batter. no way he was trying to hit andres gimenez but three pitches up and in were a bit curious. 

after wrobleski, dave roberts fully committed to "all hands on deck". he brought in tyler glasnow (2024 topps chrome refractor)

who had earned the save in game 6. glasnow gave up what seemed like an insurance run that the blue jays were going to cash in for a title courtesy of gimenez of all people. i was surprised that roberts left glasnow in to face dodger nemesis george springer after that happened, but he did and glasnow got springer and two more outs after that.

glasnow was relived by emmet sheehan, seen here on his 2024 topps gold parallel.

he left after getting the blue jays out in the 7th and issuing a lead off double in the 8th, and was relived by blake snell.

snell (here's his 2025 topps stars of mlb card)

hadn't replicated his playoff success in his two world series starts, but got the dodgers out of a jam thanks to muncy's quick reactions and two strikeouts. he left with two on and one out in the bottom of the 10th and was replaced by yoshinobu yamamoto.

before the game, i assumed that yamamoto would be the only dodger pitcher not available. i was clearly wrong. here's his 2025 bowman chrome card (which i was saving for a different post but oh well)

yamamoto created some drama of his own by hitting the first batter he faced to load the bases. that set up the force play at home from rojas to smith and then the deep flyball that pages caught over kiké's lifeless body. he then worked around the leadoff double by vladimir guerrero jr to start the bottom of the 11th and collected his third win of the series. just a classic, epic game regardless of who won.

as the later innings went on, i was less and less concerned with who would win and more concerned that it not end as the result of an error or some other sort of miscue. i suppose the only other thing that i really didn't want to see was george springer 

as the hero.

i tentatively have plans to head to toronto in april to catch the dodgers when they visit - plans that were begun back when the 2026 schedule was released. if these plans hold, i'll be sure to appreciate both teams just as i did throughout the entire series. i may never see another matchup of my favorite teams in the world series, but if i do, i hope that it is as entertaining as this one was. after all, that's the whole point of this as a fan. and wow was i ever entertained by game 7.