Game. Seven.

On Saturday night, a World Series champion will be crowned. Will it be a Los Angeles Dodgers repeat, making them the first team to go back-to-back since the 2000 New York Yankees? Or will it be the Toronto Blue Jays‘ first title in 32 years?

Before the Dodgers and Blue Jays take the field for a winner-take-all finale to a thrilling World Series, we asked our MLB experts to break down what will decide which will be the last team standing.

We’ll cover all the action here, so tune in again later for pregame lineups, live analysis during the game and our takeaways following the final pitch.

How could the Blue Jays set up their pitching in Game 7?

The first rule of Game 7, as manager John Schneider said immediately after Game 6, is that everyone is available. He said even Kevin Gausman, who just threw 93 pitches in Game 6, will be available. No, it wouldn’t be unprecedented for him to pitch: Randy Johnson started Game 6 in 2001 for the Diamondbacks and then got the final four outs to win Game 7.

Max Scherzer is the Game 7 starter, but the Blue Jays’ bullpen is in great shape to soak up a lot of innings. Closer Jeff Hoffman didn’t pitch in Game 6, so he’s on two days of rest and could go a couple of innings. Schneider did use his four other top relievers in Game 6 (Louis Varland, lefty Mason Fluharty, Seranthony Dominguez and Chris Bassitt), but none threw more than 17 pitches, so they’re available as necessary, with Fluharty likely to be tasked at some point to get through the Shohei Ohtani–Will Smith–Freddie Freeman part of the lineup.

Bassitt didn’t pitch in the postseason until the ALCS but has now reeled off 7⅔ scoreless innings while allowing just one hit. Schneider has to consider him a multi-inning option. Game 4 starter Shane Bieber will be an option pitching on three days of rest after throwing 81 pitches.

Indeed, it all points to a very quick hook for Scherzer. Though he has survived his two postseason starts — two runs in 5⅔ innings against the Mariners and then three runs in 4⅓ innings against the Dodgers — he has allowed five walks and the three homers in those 10 innings, so he has hardly dominated. Remember, he was terrible in September (10.20 ERA), and his two postseason starts have come on 21 and 10 days of rest. Now, he’ll be starting on four days’ rest. With Bassitt and Bieber available, the Jays might ask for only three innings from Scherzer and will likely be willing to get him out before trouble hits. — David Schoenfield

How could the Dodgers set up their pitching in Game 7?

The Dodgers plan to open with Shohei Ohtani, and that makes sense for many reasons. For one, Tyler Glasnow, who was previously lined up to start Game 7, was used out of the bullpen to close Game 6. More importantly, though, starting is the smoothest path to getting Ohtani on the mound.

Because of the two-way rule, coming in as a reliever would mean Ohtani would have to play a position — in this case, the outfield, where he hasn’t played all season — to bat again after coming out as a reliever. That’s not the case if he opens. Ohtani could close, as he did to finish the 2023 World Baseball Classic for his native Japan, but that would present other logistical challenges. When does he warm up? And how would that be impacted by him preparing to take his turn to bat? Or if he’s preoccupied running the bases?

So, expect Ohtani to start — and stay on the mound for however long he is effective and throwing his best stuff. Glasnow should be available to pitch bulk innings after him. He has never thrown in back-to-back games, but he also threw just three pitches in Game 6. After that? Roki Sasaki will be available, though he threw 33 pitches Friday night. So might Blake Snell, who started Game 5. Ideally, the Dodgers won’t have to venture beyond that. — Alden Gonzalez

What should we expect to see from Ohtani in Game 7?

Ohtani made a start on three days’ rest once: April 21, 2023. But that was after throwing only two innings in the prior start. This time, he’ll take the mound on the biggest stage after a six-inning, 93-pitch start. So, there is no precedent from which to draw. But Ohtani loves the moment. He showed it two weeks ago, when he homered three times and threw six scoreless innings to clinch a pennant. And he showed it two years ago, when he emerged from the bullpen in Miami and struck out then-teammate Mike Trout to win Major League Baseball’s prestigious international tournament. Whatever the expectations might be, Ohtani will strive to exceed them. — Gonzalez

The Dodgers’ bats finally perked up in Game 6. What does L.A. need to do to keep that going?

The Dodgers need to be themselves. That sounds corny, and it is. But that’s part of what the Game 6 story was about. After all of their struggles on offense, the strikeouts piled up early against Kevin Gausman. But they kept working at-bats, driving up his pitch count, and put together the one rally they needed. It hasn’t been pretty, but it’s how the Dodgers are built. Mookie Betts finally checked in on offense and has to be feeling a lot better about things heading into Saturday. That’s huge. The Dodgers have scored six runs over the past three games, and the lineup is too loaded for that to continue. Of course, it doesn’t mean the funk will dissipate by Saturday. — Bradford Doolittle

The Blue Jays’ hitters were uncharacteristically quiet in Game 6. How can they get back on track?

Everyone has been uncharacteristically quiet against Yoshinobu Yamamoto this postseason, so it’s not like the Blue Jays need to change much after scoring just once in Game 6. They’re likely facing Ohtani on short rest, Glasnow on none, Sasaki on back-to-back nights or some combination of all of the above. Toronto has been in this situation as recently as the ALCS and isn’t likely to wilt at the plate for a second night in a row at home. Just like Brad said for the Dodgers, the message for the Jays going in should be to just be themselves. — Jesse Rogers

Who are the X factors on each side that could decide Game 7?

Game 7 has turned two players into Hall of Famers: Bill Mazeroski (1960) and Jack Morris (1991) probably wouldn’t be in without their World Series Game 7 performances. Hall of Famers such as Walter Johnson (1924), Yogi Berra (1956), Sandy Koufax (1965), Bob Gibson (1967) and Willie Stargell (1979) have starred in Game 7s. Unsung veterans such as Ray Knight (1986), Charlie Morton (2017) and Howie Kendrick (2019) have stepped up in the moment. Role players such as Gene Larkin (1991) and Craig Counsell (1997) have delivered late-inning heroics.

In other words, anything can happen. Anyone could be the hero. That’s the absolute beauty of this sport. The easiest answer here is the two stars: Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have the opportunity to put exclamation points on their wonderful postseasons. It very well could be that whoever has the better game will lead his team to victory.

If you want a less obscure X factor, let’s go with Will Smith for Los Angeles and Chris Bassitt for Toronto. The Blue Jays have at times shown their reluctance to pitch to Ohtani. If they’re giving multiple intentional walks again — although considering how that backfired in Game 6, Schneider might return to going after Ohtani like he did in Games 4 and 5 — that will give Smith opportunities to hit with a runner on base. For the Jays, it’s simply that Scherzer is unlikely to go very deep into the game, and Bassitt is the guy likely asked to chew up two or three innings in the middle section. — Schoenfield

Finally, prediction time: Who will be the last team standing?

Rogers: Toronto will win 4-2 with Max Scherzer pitching his way into the history books while Guerrero will be the easy MVP pick.

Doolittle: It’s the Dodgers’ baseball world, and the other 29 teams are just tenants. I don’t really believe that, but I do believe that the Blue Jays’ best chance to win was Friday. Now, they have to navigate a Dodgers lineup that is champing at the bit and a pitching staff that can roll out Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell in the same game. I’m taking L.A. and though I’d be shocked if it’s a runaway, I don’t see it being dramatic. Dodgers 7, Blue Jays 3.

Schoenfield: Blue Jays in seven was my pick heading into the World Series, so I’ll stick with that. Their pitching situation is in much better shape, and the Dodgers will be scrambling to fill all nine innings. And, really, it’s not as if the Dodgers’ bats broke out in a huge way in Game 6. The Jays haven’t touched Yamamoto, but he’s not starting this game.

Lineups

Series tied at 3

Starting pitchers: Shohei Ohtani vs. Max Scherzer

Dodgers

TBD

Blue Jays

TBD

Live analysis

Gamecast: Follow the action pitch-by-pitch here

Check back at first pitch for our live in-game coverage.

TORONTO — Nothing beats Game 7 of the World Series. It is sheer, unfiltered entropy, this jewel of a game gone gonzo, an out-by-out mess of nibbled nails and frazzled hair and stomachs set on perpetual loop-de-loop. If baseball is the ultimate thinking man’s game, then Game 7 is the final of its 800-level course, the definitive test of strategy and self-determination and ability to go spelunking in the deepest part of yourself and emerge with the best version. It is sports distilled to perfection.

Whether Game 7 of the 121st World Series, which will take place Saturday at 8 p.m. ET at Rogers Centre and feature the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers, turns an excellent series into an all-timer is not the point. It is the mere possibilities that so penetratingly tantalize. For all of the givens of baseball — the mound is 60 feet, 6 inches away, and the plate is 17 inches wide, and the ball is 5¼ ounces — Game 7 throws the remaining normalcy to the wolves.

There is no such thing as a pitching role; there are merely out-getting cogs whose collective output must add up to 27. There is no spot in the lineup more important than another; heroes can emerge from the No. 9 hole or bench just as easily as leadoff or cleanup. Baseball is unique in this regard, the prospect of the game being lost at any point forcing both managers to operate as they never would otherwise, with urgency bordering on folly. Game 7 is a march to glory or to doom, the most acute binary imaginable.

Other sports’ Game 7s are great, of course, but none flips the game on its head quite like baseball. In the NBA, the decision-making doesn’t change: get the ball to the best players and let them cook. In the NHL, the scheming does not differ demonstrably from the previous six games. The best lines might stay out an extra 15 seconds for their shifts, but it’s essentially the same sport with a little twist.

“Even the Super Bowl, there’s a lot of things that happen, but you’re essentially running the same playbook in one game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Baseball’s different.”

Roberts knows. He managed Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros. Eleven pitches in, the Dodgers trailed 2-0. By the middle of the second inning, the Astros had ambushed Los Angeles for another three runs. The game wasn’t over, but the degree of difficulty for the Dodgers had increased exponentially. They lost that night. The pain still sears beyond Houston’s cheating that season. It was there — history, at their literal fingertips — and then it wasn’t.

This time around, opportunity beckons. The Dodgers plan to start Shohei Ohtani, the greatest talent to ever play the game, on three days’ rest for the second time in his career. How his arm responds is this Game 7’s greatest unknown. Regardless, Roberts learned that night in 2017 that he must meet the game where it’s at, to make uncomfortable choices with unflappable resolve. Maybe it’s a pitching change, and maybe it’s a pinch runner, and maybe it’s sticking with those that brought the Dodgers to the verge of their second consecutive World Series title and third in six years. He doesn’t know. He can’t until the game unfolds.

“There’s certain guys I trust,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to be proactive in Game 7, but you can’t be overly aggressive in certain spots. That’s the beauty of Game 7. It’s gonna be so much fun, dude.”

Roberts’ counterpart is giddy at the prospect, too. A dozen days ago, John Schneider piloted the Blue Jays through Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against Seattle. The peril of do-or-die baseball manifested itself explicitly that night. Instead of treating the game with the rightful exigency, Mariners manager Dan Wilson stuck to his standard script, leaving his best available pitcher, closer Andrés Muñoz, in the bullpen and turning to Eduard Bazardo to hold a 3-1 advantage in the seventh inning with two runners on and George Springer at the plate. One swing later, the Blue Jays led 4-3, and six outs later they were soaking one another in bubbly. The Mariners were resigned to a forever of what-ifs.

Now the Blue Jays find themselves in another must-win situation, only with eight days of energy-sucking World Series baseball behind them. Toronto blitzed the Dodgers with a nine-run inning in a Game 1 win. Los Angeles countered with a Yoshinobu Yamamoto master class in Game 2. The madness of the Dodgers’ 18-inning Game 3 win will live forever. Ohtani couldn’t replicate his legendary Game 3 performance in Game 4, as Toronto evened the series. Rookie Trey Yesavage carried the Blue Jays with a no-walk, 12-strikeout Game 5. Yamamoto went god mode again in Game 6, aided by a fortuitous lodging of an Addison Barger double into the outfield fence that kept a run from scoring and then a catastrophic baserunning mistake by Barger to end the game on a double play.

Now comes Game 7, where anything can — and will — determine who spends the offseason getting fitted for rings and who is left to a winter of regret.

“It’s where legends are made, and it’s where second-guessing can happen,” Schneider said. “I’m going to try to do the former, not the latter. Just let the players put themselves in good spots and go do it. It’s crazy that nine months ago we started this and it comes down to one game, but we wouldn’t have it any other way, and I really think that we’ve had enough guys that are in this situation to where they’ll be able to navigate.

“You don’t want to leave any stone unturned. You don’t want to not fire any available bullets. But I really think going through it against Seattle, you want to try to stay normal and not just get too trigger-happy one way or another. Someone will have to make big pitches, and someone will have to make big swings. That’s just what it comes down to. Numbers objectively, people subjectively, you make the best decision and ultimately the players decide.”

Which players get to make those decisions is the fun of it. How long of a leash does Ohtani get? And when he leaves, who replaces him? Is it Blake Snell, whose entry could prompt Schneider to pinch hit for left-handed hitters in his lineup? Or Tyler Glasnow, who recorded the first save of his professional career in Game 6 and is ready to pitch again in Game 7? Or Roki Sasaki, the starter-turned-closer ready to pitch any inning, first through ninth?

Toronto will counter with Max Scherzer, the 41-year-old future Hall of Famer, who subsists on know-how as much as stuff. He no longer possesses the arsenal to compete with any of the Dodgers’ arms, but he brings experience in this form, having started Game 7 in 2019. Scherzer went five innings and allowed 11 baserunners but just two runs. He exited down 2-0, only for his Washington Nationals teammates to smack a pair of seventh-inning home runs that gave them a 3-2 lead they would not cede.

This version of Scherzer will be policed by the baserunner, and Schneider won’t be afraid to turn to his other starters, be it Yesavage, Shane Bieber or even Kevin Gausman, who threw 93 pitches in Game 6.

“Trey’s available. Shane’s available,” Schneider said. “I mean, if we go 20 innings, Kev will be available. We’ll worry about next year in the offseason.”

Schneider sipped a Left Field Greenwood IPA out of a paper cup and planned to knock back a couple more as Friday turned to Saturday and he went home with his wife, Jessy, and his sons, Gunner and Grayson. He would play some Xbox with the boys before going to bed, rising and heading back to Rogers Centre at 12:30 p.m. sharp like always.

As much as Game 7 can fray nerves, Schneider wants to approach it as if it’s any other day — a noble, if unrealistic, goal. Because this isn’t normal. Forty times baseball’s championship has been decided in a Game 7, and for the handful of duds, more often it gilds everlasting moments. Luis Gonzalez walking off Mariano Rivera, and Edgar Renteria breaking Cleveland’s heart, and Bill Mazeroski hitting the only championship-clinching home run in a winner-take-all game. The Cubs breaking a 108-year drought and the 1924 Nationals needing 12 innings to beat the Giants. Jack Morris’ 10-inning gem and Madison Bumgarner going five shutout innings on two days’ rest.

“It’s chaos,” Roberts said.

Beautiful, glorious, unbeatable chaos.

Game 7 is here. Cherish it. Sports gets no better.

TORONTO — The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ players flew here late Wednesday night, hours earlier than their coaches, and arrived at Rogers Centre for Thursday’s late-afternoon workout on their own. But Mookie Betts wasted no time. Before most of his teammates could change out of their street clothes, he had summoned Alex Call to feed baseballs onto a tee so he could repeatedly hit them into the netting of a batting cage.

For Betts, when slumps emerge, his only solution is to attempt to swing his way out of them. The work gives him comfort, but only success can provide peace. And when it arrives — like it did in the early part of Game 6, when Betts hit the two-run single that made the difference in a season-saving 3-1 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays — it tends to mean more.

“He’s really hard on himself, and he shouldn’t be because he’s still a superstar and he’s still a guy who’s going to end up in the Hall of Fame,” Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said. “But I think living in the moment for him is really big. I’m just happy for him that he got the big hit, got a big night. I know for sure that’s going to help him going forward.”

Another hitless performance in Wednesday’s Game 5 loss made Betts 3-for-23 in this World Series, after which he addressed a gaggle of media members in front of his locker and provided the pithy quote that later made the rounds on social media. “I’ve just been terrible,” he said.

Then he went to work.

Betts spent most of Thursday’s workout striving to find more stability and a more comfortable hitting position that would “let his natural talent take over,” Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said. Betts said he wanted to “get back to being athletic again in the batter’s box.”

Before they left Rogers Centre that night, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts informed Betts, his No. 2 hitter all year, that he would bat cleanup in Game 6, a spot he had not occupied since 2017.

“I told him he can hit me seventh,” Betts said. “I just want to win.”

Roberts wanted Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman to receive the most plate appearances with the Dodgers’ season on the line, while still keeping Betts high enough to receive opportunities to drive in runs. Batting him lower was never an option.

“I’m going to, as they say, ride or die with him,” Roberts said. “I’m not going to run from Mookie Betts. He’s just too good of a player.”

He proved it Friday, in the top of the third against Kevin Gausman, who spent most of the first two innings stifling the Dodgers’ hitters with his splitter. Tommy Edman lined a double in between Gausman’s sixth and seventh strikeouts, after which the Blue Jays intentionally walked Ohtani. Smith followed with a double to score the Dodgers’ first run and Freeman drew a walk, putting two on with two out for Betts, who approached the at-bat seeking fastballs. Betts took a 1-0 splitter for a strike, then swung through a fastball and fouled off another. Gausman threw a third consecutive fastball, this one slightly up and slightly in, and Betts lined it to left field, giving the Dodgers a lead that held up after a miraculous, game-ending double play.

“It felt great to come through for the boys,” Betts said. “Obviously I would love to play well for myself, but that’s kind of irrelevant. I want to play well for the boys. I love everybody in there. I know how much we lean on each other. And when they lean on me, I want to come through for them.”

Early this season, while transitioning into an everyday shortstop and attempting to recover from the debilitating virus that prompted him to shed close to 20 pounds, Betts went through the worst offensive struggles of his career. By the end of July, he was slashing just .240/.313/.369. When he turned it around shortly thereafter — slashing .294/.351/.478 over the final two months of the regular season — it seemed as if Betts would stay locked in throughout October.

But Betts’ bat slowed again. And though struggles were plaguing the entirety of the Dodgers’ offense, Betts took it harder than most.

“He takes it really hard when he’s not performing as well as he can,” Edman said, “and he just does everything he can to get out of it.”

Edman has seen it before. A little more than 12 months ago, Betts was struggling so badly that he locked himself inside the Petco Park batting cage on an off day during the National League Division Series, attempting to will an 0-for-22 postseason slump out of him. Before breaking out of it — and riding that wave to a 1.019 OPS over his last 14 playoff games that year, pushing the Dodgers to a championship — one staffer joked that Betts took a million swings on that fateful off day in San Diego.

This time in Toronto, Betts joked, “it was more like 500,000.”

Now, perhaps, he can back off. With everything on the line in Game 7, the Dodgers will have Ohtani on short rest, Tyler Glasnow available and perhaps Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki coming in after them. They’ll have the comfort of knowing they’ve overcome challenges like these before, most notably riding a bullpen game to save their season in that same series against San Diego last year. And, if recent history is any indication, they believe they’ll have the best version of Betts at their disposal.

“I’m just happy for him,” Van Scoyoc said, “that he can have a little peace and sleep a little bit better and come in fresh and help us win another game.”