Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands tall to earn Dodgers second consecutive World Series title in 11-inning Game 7 thriller over Blue Jays

TORONTO — Where there was a Will, there was a way.

The Dodgers, buried in an early hole Saturday night, displayed one kind of will in recovering to catch the Blue Jays in the late innings. And then in the 11th inning there was another.

Will Smith blasted a go-ahead homer that became the game winner as the Dodgers repeated as World Series champions with a 5-4 victory in 11 innings over the Blue Jays in Game 7 at Rogers Centre.

Smith homered against Shane Bieber to give the Dodgers their first lead. The homer was the Dodgers’ third in four innings.

The Dodgers became the first team since the Yankees in 2000 to repeat as World Series champions. The Blue Jays were within two outs of the franchise’s first championship in 32 years, before closer Jeff Hoffman surrendered a game-tying homer to Miguel Rojas in the ninth.

But nobody was larger for the Dodgers than Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who fired 2 ²/₃ innings of scoreless relief a night after pitching six innings as the starter. Yamamoto’s last piece of magic was getting Alejandro Kirk to hit into a game-ending double play with the tying run at third base.