World Series Game 7, November 1, 2025 - Dodgers @ Blue Jays, 8PM

[JN]

All season we joked on here about how we were going to lose the WS on a Coughman 1-run blown save via HR. And then it happened.

It was the most obvious blown save in the history of blown saves. Only a FO like ours wouldn't see it coming, and wouldn't take action to avoid it, despite having months to do so.

Yeah and I'm sure it was obvious he would blow game 6 and 7 against the Mariners as well right?

He's been pitching BP out there all season. Dude is a HR waiting to happen. It won't happen every game, but it happens way too often to use him in high leverage.

He should have been demoted from the closer role months ago. Most HRs given up by a reliever. Awful ERA and peripherals. Negative WAR. No serious FO would have had a guy like that closing a WS game 7 with a 1-run lead.

Who exactly should we have promoted to a closer role, when we demoted him. And I would have liked to demoted him. Varland gave up an asinine amount of 12 extra base hits in 88 at bats during the regular season with the Jays.
But there was no better internal options. At one point, we talked about Yariel as a closer but he lost his edge quickly too.

You can argue we should have went for a closer option at the deadline. I can't argue that at all in retrospect. Our offence was great enough in the playoffs to let us play lots of games. (the counter to a trade for a closer for big assets is that they often don't impact things at all in an early short series, and bang you are eliminated). But the team's offence was going to allow them to potentially play lots of games.

Hoffman blew it in game 7, and we sort of expected a bad moment to happen and had evaded it through 10 wins. But the thing is Jeff bounced back in the playoffs, and without his work in those 11 innings we might not even have made it to game 7. Doesn't change the fact that he was always a ticking time bomb.

[JCP11]

Varland could very well be the closer next season. He has the stuff and the mentality to do it however he needs to know how to sequence his pitches better and be more consistent in his pitch locations. Hopefully Yimi comes back healthy and he can takeover Varlands role.

[Madvillainy2004]

I don't think the 3-2 slider was necessarily a bad pitch choice to Rojas there, but he certainly didn't execute it. Hanging sliders had been a season long problem and he did it in that moment. The possibility of him blowing a huge game on a HR was brought up repeatedly as the season went along and it just turned out to be game 7 of the WS.

It's fair to say that Hoffman choked in the biggest inning of his career, it cost him and this team a WS and we're just gonna have to hope he recovers from it (because he's not going anywhere and he's not losing the closer's job).

Pitch choice wasnt bad if that slider isnt a cookie and is located like the ones he threw to Julio in Game 6 Rojas misses it or rolls it over to 3rd. He just missed with it horribly. His fastball is actually the pitch that got him in the most trouble this year. And he definitely knows the numbers on his 4 seam. It had -4 run value and he gave up 9 HRs off it. His slider was his best pitch last year and probably his best pitch this year.

The better call mightve been a splitter but Hoffmans feel for that pitch is so hit or miss that he would not throw it in that kinda of count in that spot because ive seen him have a million uncompetitive misses on it. Just man really needed your closer to lock it down on 8/9/1 and he choked.

[LLJ]

At that point of the game everyone on the Dodgers was looking for Hail Mary crushes. If this were a regular game Rojas probably does a normal swing and doesn’t go yard if it connects. The hanging slider was probably an absolute gift for someone who is trying for a Hail Mary crush and isn’t usually known for his power, unfortunately

[Madvillainy2004]

At that point of the game everyone on the Dodgers was looking for Hail Mary crushes. If this were a regular game Rojas probably does a normal swing and doesn’t go yard if it connects. The hanging slider was probably an absolute gift for someone who is trying for a Hail Mary crush and isn’t usually known for his power, unfortunately

Sucks Hoffmans splitter is a mess half the time because I think that pitch wouldve got him

[Randle McMurphy]

I don't think the 3-2 slider was necessarily a bad pitch choice to Rojas there, but he certainly didn't execute it. Hanging sliders had been a season long problem and he did it in that moment. The possibility of him blowing a huge game on a HR was brought up repeatedly as the season went along and it just turned out to be game 7 of the WS.

It's fair to say that Hoffman choked in the biggest inning of his career, it cost him and this team a WS and we're just gonna have to hope he recovers from it (because he's not going anywhere and he's not losing the closer's job).

Pitch choice wasnt bad if that slider isnt a cookie and is located like the ones he threw to Julio in Game 6 Rojas misses it or rolls it over to 3rd. He just missed with it horribly. His fastball is actually the pitch that got him in the most trouble this year. And he definitely knows the numbers on his 4 seam. It had -4 run value and he gave up 9 HRs off it. His slider was his best pitch last year and probably his best pitch this year.

The better call mightve been a splitter but Hoffmans feel for that pitch is so hit or miss that he would not throw it in that kinda of count in that spot because ive seen him have a million uncompetitive misses on it. Just man really needed your closer to lock it down on 8/9/1 and he choked.

He went to his best pitch and the pitch he had the best command of in that moment and didn't execute it. It was still surprising that Rojas of all players put that good a swing on it, but it was a huge choke.

It's interesting that Hoffman isn't quite catching the blame for that that I think he otherwise would (it seems many fans are incredibly fixated on the IKF play), but that's because of the chances later.

[PushDaRock]

I don't think the 3-2 slider was necessarily a bad pitch choice to Rojas there, but he certainly didn't execute it. Hanging sliders had been a season long problem and he did it in that moment. The possibility of him blowing a huge game on a HR was brought up repeatedly as the season went along and it just turned out to be game 7 of the WS.

It's fair to say that Hoffman choked in the biggest inning of his career, it cost him and this team a WS and we're just gonna have to hope he recovers from it (because he's not going anywhere and he's not losing the closer's job).

Pitch choice wasnt bad if that slider isnt a cookie and is located like the ones he threw to Julio in Game 6 Rojas misses it or rolls it over to 3rd. He just missed with it horribly. His fastball is actually the pitch that got him in the most trouble this year. And he definitely knows the numbers on his 4 seam. It had -4 run value and he gave up 9 HRs off it. His slider was his best pitch last year and probably his best pitch this year.

The better call mightve been a splitter but Hoffmans feel for that pitch is so hit or miss that he would not throw it in that kinda of count in that spot because ive seen him have a million uncompetitive misses on it. Just man really needed your closer to lock it down on 8/9/1 and he choked.

His slider is his best pitch. Of course if he executes it how he wants, we aren't talking about this. The Julio situation is different though, you throw a meatball fastball to him and you're screwed. Rojas probably isn't doing much with a meatball fastball at 96, he was already late on all of them. And of course having Ohtani on deck changes things significantly because you cannot afford to walk him. Either way, the last thing anyone is thinking there is Rojas hits it out of the park no matter what pitch gets thrown or where.

[PushDaRock]

I don't think the 3-2 slider was necessarily a bad pitch choice to Rojas there, but he certainly didn't execute it. Hanging sliders had been a season long problem and he did it in that moment. The possibility of him blowing a huge game on a HR was brought up repeatedly as the season went along and it just turned out to be game 7 of the WS.

It's fair to say that Hoffman choked in the biggest inning of his career, it cost him and this team a WS and we're just gonna have to hope he recovers from it (because he's not going anywhere and he's not losing the closer's job).

Pitch choice wasnt bad if that slider isnt a cookie and is located like the ones he threw to Julio in Game 6 Rojas misses it or rolls it over to 3rd. He just missed with it horribly. His fastball is actually the pitch that got him in the most trouble this year. And he definitely knows the numbers on his 4 seam. It had -4 run value and he gave up 9 HRs off it. His slider was his best pitch last year and probably his best pitch this year.

The better call mightve been a splitter but Hoffmans feel for that pitch is so hit or miss that he would not throw it in that kinda of count in that spot because ive seen him have a million uncompetitive misses on it. Just man really needed your closer to lock it down on 8/9/1 and he choked.

He went to his best pitch and the pitch he had the best command of in that moment and didn't execute it. It was still surprising that Rojas of all players put that good a swing on it, but it was a huge choke.

It's interesting that Hoffman isn't quite catching the blame for that that I think he otherwise would (it seems many fans are incredibly fixated on the IKF play), but that's because of the chances later.

Bigger "choke" would have been walking him there IMO

[PushDaRock]

Varland could very well be the closer next season. He has the stuff and the mentality to do it however he needs to know how to sequence his pitches better and be more consistent in his pitch locations. Hopefully Yimi comes back healthy and he can takeover Varlands role.

He's more likely to start than close IMO

[PushDaRock]

I don't think the 3-2 slider was necessarily a bad pitch choice to Rojas there, but he certainly didn't execute it. Hanging sliders had been a season long problem and he did it in that moment. The possibility of him blowing a huge game on a HR was brought up repeatedly as the season went along and it just turned out to be game 7 of the WS.

It's fair to say that Hoffman choked in the biggest inning of his career, it cost him and this team a WS and we're just gonna have to hope he recovers from it (because he's not going anywhere and he's not losing the closer's job).

Pitch choice wasnt bad if that slider isnt a cookie and is located like the ones he threw to Julio in Game 6 Rojas misses it or rolls it over to 3rd. He just missed with it horribly. His fastball is actually the pitch that got him in the most trouble this year. And he definitely knows the numbers on his 4 seam. It had -4 run value and he gave up 9 HRs off it. His slider was his best pitch last year and probably his best pitch this year.

The better call mightve been a splitter but Hoffmans feel for that pitch is so hit or miss that he would not throw it in that kinda of count in that spot because ive seen him have a million uncompetitive misses on it. Just man really needed your closer to lock it down on 8/9/1 and he choked.

He went to his best pitch and the pitch he had the best command of in that moment and didn't execute it. It was still surprising that Rojas of all players put that good a swing on it, but it was a huge choke.

It's interesting that Hoffman isn't quite catching the blame for that that I think he otherwise would (it seems many fans are incredibly fixated on the IKF play), but that's because of the chances later.

Well, probably because he wasn't the only one to give up a run in those high leverage innings in game 7. Plus, there's numerous guys that didn't come through on offense to point fingers at too, mainly the MVP.

[Madvillainy2004]

I don't think the 3-2 slider was necessarily a bad pitch choice to Rojas there, but he certainly didn't execute it. Hanging sliders had been a season long problem and he did it in that moment. The possibility of him blowing a huge game on a HR was brought up repeatedly as the season went along and it just turned out to be game 7 of the WS.

It's fair to say that Hoffman choked in the biggest inning of his career, it cost him and this team a WS and we're just gonna have to hope he recovers from it (because he's not going anywhere and he's not losing the closer's job).

Pitch choice wasnt bad if that slider isnt a cookie and is located like the ones he threw to Julio in Game 6 Rojas misses it or rolls it over to 3rd. He just missed with it horribly. His fastball is actually the pitch that got him in the most trouble this year. And he definitely knows the numbers on his 4 seam. It had -4 run value and he gave up 9 HRs off it. His slider was his best pitch last year and probably his best pitch this year.

The better call mightve been a splitter but Hoffmans feel for that pitch is so hit or miss that he would not throw it in that kinda of count in that spot because ive seen him have a million uncompetitive misses on it. Just man really needed your closer to lock it down on 8/9/1 and he choked.

He went to his best pitch and the pitch he had the best command of in that moment and didn't execute it. It was still surprising that Rojas of all players put that good a swing on it, but it was a huge choke.

It's interesting that Hoffman isn't quite catching the blame for that that I think he otherwise would (it seems many fans are incredibly fixated on the IKF play), but that's because of the chances later.

Yeah Rojas HR is the last thing on anyone's mind in that particular spot anywyas but you still gotta make your pitch there. I think the sheer amount of chokes has made it hard for someone to have a Bucker kinda moment for one guy. But of everything that happened I think Hoffmans was the worst for sure.

Also random baseball gods hate us moment was the Gimenez line out in the 9th.

[ItsDanger]

The absolute worst pitch you can throw in baseball is the hanging slider in the middle of the zone. That's batting practice for MLB hitters.

[Randle McMurphy]

Pitch choice wasnt bad if that slider isnt a cookie and is located like the ones he threw to Julio in Game 6 Rojas misses it or rolls it over to 3rd. He just missed with it horribly. His fastball is actually the pitch that got him in the most trouble this year. And he definitely knows the numbers on his 4 seam. It had -4 run value and he gave up 9 HRs off it. His slider was his best pitch last year and probably his best pitch this year.

The better call mightve been a splitter but Hoffmans feel for that pitch is so hit or miss that he would not throw it in that kinda of count in that spot because ive seen him have a million uncompetitive misses on it. Just man really needed your closer to lock it down on 8/9/1 and he choked.

He went to his best pitch and the pitch he had the best command of in that moment and didn't execute it. It was still surprising that Rojas of all players put that good a swing on it, but it was a huge choke.

It's interesting that Hoffman isn't quite catching the blame for that that I think he otherwise would (it seems many fans are incredibly fixated on the IKF play), but that's because of the chances later.

Yeah Rojas HR is the last thing on anyone's mind in that particular spot anywyas but you still gotta make your pitch there. I think the sheer amount of chokes has made it hard for someone to have a Bucker kinda moment for one guy. But of everything that happened I think Hoffmans was the worst for sure.

Also random baseball gods hate us moment was the Gimenez line out in the 9th.

Amazing that Muncy even caught that ball where he was playing, how hard Gimenez hit it, and given that it appeared the bunt was on. The guy's clutch.

The final outcome had a lot to do with luck (anything that close in baseball generally does), but the Dodgers were able to hit mistakes, make big pitches, and execute plays that we simply were not able to do down the stretch of the final game. That was the difference and I think their experience in already winning one the previous year likely helped with that.

[Cyrus]

Man do you think this loss is a worse feeling that how PHilly (Sixers) lost to Raps with the Kawhi shot. I didn't even realize like Roja has guy apparently had a hit for like month? Then he hits a HR? The equivalent would be had we be down 1 run, and IKF or Straw hit a HR in game 7 to tie it bottom of 9th, while also make great defensive plays.

[Randle McMurphy]

Man do you think this loss is a worse feeling that how PHilly (Sixers) lost to Raps with the Kawhi shot. I didn't even realize like Roja has guy apparently had a hit for like month? Then he hits a HR? The equivalent would be had we be down 1 run, and IKF or Straw hit a HR in game 7 to tie it bottom of 9th, while also make great defensive plays.

It's worse. Philly may very well have gone on to win the title if that shot doesn't drop, but there's no guarantee of that (they could lose in overtime, lose to the Bucks, and lose to the Warriors).

In contrast, we know we would have won the title if any one of a number of events just happened slightly differently. The closest comparison is the Rangers losing the WS in 2011 when they were a strike away (twice); I think we're right there in the pantheon of worst sports losses of all time.

[Raps in 4]

Man do you think this loss is a worse feeling that how PHilly (Sixers) lost to Raps with the Kawhi shot. I didn't even realize like Roja has guy apparently had a hit for like month? Then he hits a HR? The equivalent would be had we be down 1 run, and IKF or Straw hit a HR in game 7 to tie it bottom of 9th, while also make great defensive plays.

Way worse. Losing in the second round doesn't sting that bad.

[LLJ]

All this is a moot point, if your Closer does not allow a home run to a scrub like Miguel Rojas. It is the equivalent of allowing a home run to Myles Straw in the 9th. Hoffman gets Ohtani and Smith out afterwards, but not Miguel Rojas (SMH).

All season we joked on here about how we were going to lose the WS on a Coughman 1-run blown save via HR. And then it happened.

It was the most obvious blown save in the history of blown saves. Only a FO like ours wouldn't see it coming, and wouldn't take action to avoid it, despite having months to do so.

Yeah and I'm sure it was obvious he would blow game 6 and 7 against the Mariners as well right?

No, because those actually would have hurt less. It was always fated that it would happen in Game 7 of the WS with us leading by 1 run.

I kind of wish Hoffman hadn't been so good in the playoffs and just choked it in the middle of a playoff series just to get it out of the way instead of in the very last game of the baseball season. Because of course he would wait until then to turn into Coughman again.

[LLJ]

Man do you think this loss is a worse feeling that how PHilly (Sixers) lost to Raps with the Kawhi shot. .

Well, I think the Mariners missing out on their first WS ever because of the Springer Dinger is the was probably almost as brutal for Seattle.

But of course, nothing is really worse than choking it in Game 7 of the WS. We're in 86 Red Sox, 2011 Rangers lore now.

I would've also included the 2001 Yankees because Rivera blew a save in Game 7 there which lost it for them, but they already won something like 3 in a row in the late 90s so who cares if they blew one.

[PushDaRock]

All season we joked on here about how we were going to lose the WS on a Coughman 1-run blown save via HR. And then it happened.

It was the most obvious blown save in the history of blown saves. Only a FO like ours wouldn't see it coming, and wouldn't take action to avoid it, despite having months to do so.

Yeah and I'm sure it was obvious he would blow game 6 and 7 against the Mariners as well right?

No, because those actually would have hurt less. It was always fated that it would happen in Game 7 of the WS with us leading by 1 run.

I kind of wish Hoffman hadn't been so good in the playoffs and just choked it in the middle of a playoff series just to get it out of the way instead of in the very last game of the baseball season. Because of course he would wait until then to turn into Coughman again.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, embrace the hurt!!!

[PushDaRock]

Man do you think this loss is a worse feeling that how PHilly (Sixers) lost to Raps with the Kawhi shot. I didn't even realize like Roja has guy apparently had a hit for like month? Then he hits a HR? The equivalent would be had we be down 1 run, and IKF or Straw hit a HR in game 7 to tie it bottom of 9th, while also make great defensive plays.

lol yeah that's why I was calling a Straw walk off HR too, didn't happen unfortunately