To beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs, you can’t make any mistakes.
The Toronto Blue Jays found that out Saturday night, when they lost Game 7 by the closest of margins, due in part to Isiah Kiner-Falefa not scoring in the bottom of the ninth.
The ex-Yankee was nearly a World Series hero. Instead, Kiner-Falefa’s questionable lead at third base may have cost the Toronto Blue Jays a title against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Kiner-Falefa, who pinch-ran for Bo Bichette in a tie game in the ninth, moved to third with one out when Toronto loaded the bases on a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
That’s when Daulton Varsho hit a grounder to second, where Miguel Rojas fielded it, but stumbled a bit before firing home.
The throw was just in time to get Kiner-Falefa, as catcher Will Smith — who ended up hitting the go-ahead homer two innings later — got his foot down on the plate just before a sliding Kiner-Falefa’s foot got in.
The call was confirmed on a review to extend the game and replays showed Kiner-Falefa didn’t have much of a lead off third base.
“They told us to stay close to the base,’’ Kiner-Falefa said after the game of his small lead. “They don’t want us to get doubled off in that situation with a hard line drive… They wanted a smaller lead and a smaller secondary [lead], so that’s what I did.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who replaced Blake Snell earlier in the inning, then got Ernie Clement on a flyout to deep left-center, where Andy Pages and Kike Hernandez ran into each other, but Pages made the catch to get the game to extra innings.
The Blue Jays couldn’t score against Yamamoto, even after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the bottom of the 11th with a double and Kiner-Falefa, hitting in Bichette’s spot, bunted Guerrero to third before Addison Barger walked and Alejandro Kirk grounded into a game-ending — and World Series-ending — double play.
It was the second straight game in which a baserunning miscue cost the Blue Jays, as Barger was doubled off second base for a double play to end Game 6 when he misread Andrés Gimenez’s fly ball to shallow left, where Hernandez made the catch and Rojas made a nice grab of a bounced throw.