Roberts made all the right moves for Dodgers

Plugging in Rojas, Pages and Yamamoto saved the season in the ninth inning of Game 7 comeback win.

- BY KEVIN BAXTER

SHOHEI OHTANI hugs Dodgers manager Dave Roberts after their Game 7 victory in 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 Dodgers manager. 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 other Dodgers skipper did.

"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.