TORONTO — The World Series championship is at stake in Game 7, high enough stakes already. Yet that alone wasn’t enough to prevent a benches-clearing incident in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski hit Andrés Giménez with a pitch on a 2-2 count, Giménez immediately dropping his bat and complaining to the lefty. 

And an already passively tense Game 7 suddenly turned aggressive. 

The benches cleared, and several shoving matches broke out, as Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy restrained Wrobleski and the Blue Jays hopped over the third base dugout railing to join the fray. 

Louis Varland was warming in the Blue Jays bullpen, readying to relieve Max Scherzer. He dropped everything and led his bullpen mates to the infield. 

Both benches were warned and the next batter, George Springer, drilled a ball off Wrobleski’s foot, to the delight of the crowd. 

While the Dodgers-Blue Jays Game 7 incident grabbed the viewing public’s attention, the tension between the dugouts had been brewing since the bottom of the first inning, when Dodgers starting pitcher and leadoff batter Shohei Ohtani took almost the entire between-innings break resting in the dugout, causing manager John Schneider to complain to home plate umpire Jordan Baker.

Ohtani emerged with about 40 seconds left and the countdown clock stopped. 

After that half inning, Schneider initially conferred at length with Baker. After Ohtani batted in the third, he remained in the dugout from the 3:10 mark at the countdown’s start until 17 seconds remained. 

The crowd booed. Baker said something to Ohtani. The clock stopped. 

As Springer stepped in, it’d been 4 minutes, 20 seconds since a pitch was last thrown. In a mid-inning interview with Fox Sports, Schneider called the delay ‘egregious’ and that the umpires said they’d discuss the delay with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. 

The point became moot when the Blue Jays chased Ohtani, the pitcher, from the game on Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third.

Ohtani was pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his career

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TORONTO – When the ball left his bat, soaring up and over the Rogers Centre playing surface and forever into baseball lore, it only took a split-second to realize that Miguel Rojas, stunningly, had a Kirk Gibson moment.

Hit a ninth-inning, game-turning home run in the World Series for a franchise so steeped in history as the Los Angeles Dodgers, and your life will change forever – whether you’re on your way to winning the 1988 MVP award, or simply grinding out the 12th season of a career that’s included zero All-Star appearances and a lifetime batting average of .260.

Yet Rojas’s moment was far more Gibsonesque than any of the 44,713 fans at Rogers Centre or the tens of millions watching across the globe knew.

As it turns out, Rojas nearly couldn’t play World Series Game 7 on Nov. 1, having dislocated a rib celebrating his last, great moment: Completing a game-ending double play in Game 6 the night before, prompting teammates Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández to leap in his arms.

Celebrate Dodgers’ World Series championship with our commemorative book!

He reported to the ballpark nearly seven hours before game time for treatment. Took a significant amount of medicine, including a cortisone shot just before the game that his doctor said would last him six hours.

And then, after hitting in the batting cage and completing most of his pregame routine, finally gave the go-ahead to manager Dave Roberts that he was good to go, that Roberts could start him a second consecutive night to inject life into a sagging lineup and Rojas’s esprit de corps into the infield.

The club’s medical staff put Rojas back together again. And then Rojas saved the Dodgers’ season.

Two outs from elimination and trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by one run in the top of the ninth inning, Rojas – who hit just seven home runs all season – battled Jeff Hoffman for six pitches before the Toronto closer gave him something to handle: A hanging slider in Rojas’s hot zone.

The stocky utility infielder put a gorgeous swing on the ball, sending it out over the Blue Jays bullpen and into the glove of a fan wholly disconsolate by the time he reeled it in.

In the Dodgers’ dugout: Bedlam.

The score was tied and two innings later, just like their Game 3, 18-inning triumph, the Dodgers’ inevitable game-winning homer came, this time off the bat of Will Smith to provide a 5-4 victory in 11 innings, and consecutive Dodgers World Series championships.

Rojas was around for both of them, a valued member of their title squads for his ability to say the right thing at the right time, to mentor a younger player, to serve as a de facto coach for Mookie Betts when the now four-time World Series champion transitioned from right field to shortstop.

But Series-saving home run? Well, Rojas views it simply as part of his arc as a Dodger, one he’s confident will have another rendition come 2026, when the 36-year-old plays what he has said will be his final season.

“I think this is the end of a great story. For my chance to tell everybody what I mean to the organization,” Rojas tells USA TODAY Sports. “Not many people know what happened behind the scenes, but I’m happy I got to hit the homer tonight. And help the team defensively yesterday.

“I can tell you that I’m here to serve others and be there for my teammates. But at the end of the day, if I can have a moment like this, it’s great.”

It’s been 37 years since Gibson, hobbled by injuries to both knees, took just one World Series at-bat for the 1988 Dodgers against the Oakland Athletics, perhaps the most documented plate appearance in modern history: The physical treatment, the clandestine batting cage session, the signal to manager Tommy Lasorda that yes, he was good to go.

And finally, the ill-fated backdoor slider peerless closer Dennis Eckersley threw Gibson, who, almost all arms, lifted it over the wall in right field for a two-run homer, a Game 1 walk-off job before Eckersley himself coined that phrase four years later.

This time, the circumstances were different. Rojas played 10 innings of defense, making a fantastic play in the bottom of the ninth, the Blue Jays 90 feet from winning the World Series and rendering his homer a footnote.

With the infield in, he one-hopped a grounder hit by Daulton Varsho and, with pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa chugging home, fired to catcher Will Smith to choke off the run.

The Dodgers escaped the inning. Rojas did not feel good.

“I felt it. Not gonna say that’s why (the play) was so close,” he says. “I was on my knees a little bit after that play. I felt it a little bit.”

He took one more at-bat in the top of the 11th, grounding out to third, and once again felt severe pain, which he described as arm-numbing and potentially cutting short his breath. Two batters later, Smith’s home run off Shane Bieber gave the Dodgers the lead for good.

And Rojas finally relented, telling Roberts he could go no more. Rookie Hyeseong Kim was on the field for the bottom of the 11th and the celebratory moment on the infield.

So be it. Rojas’s work was done.

“I think it was too late to take another shot, to calm it down,” says Rojas. “I took one before the game. The doctor told me I could do one every six hours.

“But I didn’t want to put myself in that situation where we already had the lead and we got another second baseman who is capable.”

No worries. The Dodgers know who Rojas is, and what he means, not just when the lights are brightest but more often when it’s the dog days, or the dark days, of a bid to repeat as champions and things go awry.

 “It couldn’t have been a better guy. Oh my gosh,” says first baseman Max Muncy, part of the Dodgers’ cabal of three-time titlists in the past five years. “I mean, you’re talking about the ultimate team guy. He is willing to do whatever it takes to help this team win.

“When he wasn’t getting his playing time, he went to the coaches and said hey, how can I help out? They talked to him and he did everything they asked him to do.

“For him to get that home run to tie it up, brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.”

Rojas had taken 51 postseason at-bats in his career. And had just one extra-base hit – a homer for the 2020 Marlins.

This one was a little bit bigger, one that Roberts felt was karma, working in a positive direction.

“He deserved that moment,” says Roberts.

Says first baseman Freddie Freeman: ‘When you play the game right, when you treat people right, when you’re a teammate like Miguel is, the game honors you. To come up with that moment when you’re 36 years old, when you’re saying you’re going to retire after next season, to have that moment in World Series Game 7?

‘Just absolutely incredible.’

For Rojas, the hourglass is running out of sand. He hopes a Dodgers reunion is in order for his 2026 swan song; it is not hard to envision a longer-term future between de facto coach and an organization that clearly holds him in high regard.

“Doc has been great. A friend to me for three years now,” says Rojas. “I’ll never be more proud and satisfied of the way this organization has been treating me the last three years.”

On a crisp night in Canada, he carved out his permanent space within it, a legend forever thanks to the right swing at the most important time.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named the 2025 World Series MVP after the Los Angeles Dodgers earned a 5-4 victory after 11 innings in Game 7 on Saturday.

Yamamoto started two games on the mound for the Dodgers before coming in as the closer for Game 7.

In Game 7, the Japanese pitcher allowed just one hit and a walk while striking out one in 2.2 innings pitched. He entered the game with two members of the Blue Jays on base in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“That guy is everything you can ask for,” Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas told Fox about Yamamoto after the game.

In Game 6, Yamamoto allowed five hits and an earned run in six innings pitched on Friday. He also struck out six and allowed a walk against the Blue Jays.

Los Angeles becomes the first team to win back-to-back World Series since the New York Yankees, who won three consecutive titles from 1998 to 2000.

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USA TODAY has all the results and highlights from the 2025 World Series Game 7.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the 2025 World Series in Toronto.

With a champion crowned and the season coming to a close, it’s never too early to look at the potential champion for the 2026 season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees are not only two of the more notable franchises in the league, but they are also considered early favorites to compete for the next title.

If the two were to meet in the World Series next season, it would be a rematch of the 2024 World Series, with Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge expected to serve as the featured players in the series.

A lot can happen to shake up the league in the coming months, but here’s how things stand currently.

Celebrate Dodgers’ World Series championship with our commemorative book!

Odds for World Series 2026 winner

(As of Saturday, Nov. 1, on Fanduel)

Los Angeles Dodgers: +350
New York Yankees: +700
Philadelphia Phillies: +1000
New York Mets: +1100
Seattle Mariners: +1200
Houston Astros: +1300
Boston Red Sox: +1700
Atlanta Braves: +2000
San Diego Padres: +2000
Toronto Blue Jays: +2000
Chicago Cubs: +2200
Milwaukee Brewers: +2200
Baltimore Orioles: +2700
Cleveland Guardians: +2700
Detroit Tigers: +2700
Kansas City Royals: +3500
San Francisco Giants: +3500
Cincinnati Reds: +4000
Texas Rangers: +4000
Tampa Bay Rays: +5000
Arizona Diamondbacks: +6500
Minnesota Twins: +8000
Athletics: +10000
St. Louis Cardinals: +12500
Miami Marlins: +15000
Pittsburgh Pirates: +22500
Los Angeles Angels: +30000
Colorado Rockies: +50000
Chicago White Sox: +50000
Washington Nationals: +50000

AUSTIN – Arch Manning’s got jokes, man.

The unrelenting pressure of this season didn’t strip him of his personality or sense of humor. If anything, his quips are his antidote.

To what did he attribute his career-best performance in a 34-31 win against Vanderbilt?

“Maybe the concussion helped,” Manning said with a smile.

OK, so it probably wasn’t the head injury Manning suffered last weekend. Instead, start with Texas’ offensive line that protected Manning, sack-free, against Vanderbilt.

“They played really well today,” he said.

It’s also nice when a swing pass can turn into a 75-yard touchdown. That’s what happened when Manning flipped a pass to Ryan Wingo on the first play from scrimmage. Two Vanderbilt missed tackles and a sprint by Wingo later, and the Longhorns had seven points.

“Receivers made plays,” Manning said. “That makes it a little easier.”

Credit all around, sure, but Manning looked sublime.

He completed 10 straight passes before his final first-half toss — a Hail Mary heave — sailed out of the back of the end zone. Manning’s got a one-liner about that, too.

“I’m probably still going to get chewed out. Did you see that Hail Mary?” Manning said. “I (almost) threw it into the freaking” stands.

Texas schedule stays tough, with Georgia next

No joking about this: If Manning and his supporting cast play like this a few more times, the Longhorns can rally their way into the College Football Playoff.

Not that Manning’s ready to toast that thought yet, not with Georgia up next.

“Dawgs at their place is going to be no joke,” Manning said.

As Texas defensive end Ethan Burke put it, the playoff’s already begun for Texas. That’s the mentality any team saddled with two losses must have.

The playoff committee’s never selected a three-loss team. Could Texas become the first? Maybe. Its strength of schedule will help. But, that’s playing with fire. The only sure path for the Longhorns is to keep winning.

“It’s playoff football, before the playoffs. Everyone’s fighting for those 12 spots,” Burke said. “You’ve got to keep winning, no matter what.”

How Arch Manning impressed his coach

Coach Steve Sarkisian particularly loved Manning’s completions when he worked his way to secondary or tertiary reads. Those throws told Sark two things: Manning’s learning how to move through his progressions, and his offensive line gave him time to do it.

“I don’t know if we were doing that even three weeks ago,” Sarkisian said. “He’s really growing up before our eyes, and he’s making great decisions, and he’s throwing the ball accurately, and that’s why we were 7-for-11 on third down.”

Well, there’s one decision Manning probably wishes he could have back.

Did you see that viral photo that surfaced showing Manning in his GMC Denali talking to a police officer during a traffic stop?

Yep, it’s true. He got pulled over this week. Here’s what went down.

“It was a crosswalk, and it was a solid red, and no one was around, and I went,” Manning said.

Wait, if no one was around …

“I guess someone was around,” Manning said, with another hint of humor.

Indeed. At least two someones. The officer who pulled over Manning, and the person who snapped the viral photo.

“My first time getting pulled over in Austin,” Manning said. “Didn’t help that I didn’t have my wallet on me, so I didn’t have my license,”

Hello, viral photo.

“That was definitely weird,” Manning said of the photo making the rounds online.

Manning received a warning and was not ticketed, a Texas athletics official confirmed to USA TODAY.

Vanderbilt couldn’t stop Texas pass game

On Thursday, Manning got medical clearance to play after he spent the week in concussion protocol. He exited in overtime of Texas’ win against Mississippi State last weekend. By the next day, Manning felt confident he’d be OK to play against the Commodores.

He played up to all of his five-star hype, finally. Up to this point in the season, Manning’s legs had been his most reliable asset. He let his arm do the work in this one, and his receivers piled up yards after the catch against a flimsy Vanderbilt defense that suffered amnesia on how to tackle. Eight Texas receivers caught at least two passes.

And although Vanderbilt rallied to make the end of the game tenser than necessary, Manning could smile and joke afterward.

This is exactly the quarterback Texas needs in this critical November stretch run.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It was eventually going to break bad. Only a matter of time and circumstance. 

Just like all things associated with former coach Billy Napier’s tenure at Florida. The inevitable unraveling was right on cue. 

So it should come as no surprise Georgia flexed, and Florida wilted and all that has defined nearly four years of incomprehensible incompetence in Gainesville — on and off the field — unfolded this time with an interim coach running a lost program. 

Same scene, different Saturday.

Georgia beat Florida again in this storied rivalry, but the story isn’t Georgia’s come-from-behind 24-20 victory and march to the College Football Playoff. It’s the death spiral of the Florida program. 

“Hats off to our players for not giving in,” said Florida interim coach Billy Gonzales. 

And he may as well have been DJ Durkin, or Randy Shannon or Greg Knox — former interim coaches at Florida over the previous 15 years who said the exact same thing while picking up the pieces from the guy fired before them. 

Only this time, this mistake, is the biggest of all. 

Once the elite of the sport, Florida has tumbled all the way to irrelevancy on the tail end of a brutal run of three and half seasons with Napier. The undoing — on and off the field — is as shocking as it is surreal.  

There’s a reason ESPN’s College Game Day show planted stakes in Salt Lake City for that riveting Utah-Cincinnati game instead of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.

I mean, Utah and Cincinnati, for the love of Yormark.

The harsh truth is Florida doesn’t move the needle anymore, and has taken one of the sport’s greatest rivalries down with it. Empty seats, dysfunctional teams and for the first time since the 1980s, an interim coach in the marquee game on the schedule.

But the latest Florida stumble and ensuing reboot — the search for a fifth coach since 2011 — is more damaging than any other for a program that not long ago won three national titles in 13 seasons. Because in an ever-changing college football world, those who hesitate lose. 

This, everyone, is why what should be done eventually must be done immediately.

Why Napier should’ve been fired during the first half of last year’s disastrous start, and not last week. That could’ve been Lane Kiffin coaching a talented Florida team in the biggest game of the season.

Or Eli Drinkwitz. Or Jeff Brohm. Or, what the heck, at this point, Jon Gruden.

Instead of another interim coach in another difficult spot of trying to hold together a team, all because those in charge make poor decisions. And then double down.

Understand this: Florida will have a much more difficult time hiring Kiffin ― the one coach deep-pocket boosters and a rabid fan base badly want ― to rebuild the program, than it would’ve had last season.

A year ago, Kiffin failed to make the CFP after a late loss at Florida, a game that went a long way in Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin hiring Napier a second time. Because that’s what last year’s decision to keep Napier was. 

Instead of firing Napier, whose teams had an indelible track record of operational dysfunction despite being given every possible advantage, Stricklin essentially hired him again for a one-shot season. When Stricklin should’ve taken advantage of Kiffin’s position in 2024.

Kiffin was primed to move after a disappointing finish with a stacked roster, and would’ve been more likely to leave. Now Stricklin must deal with a surging Ole Miss team, and the uncertainty Kiffin will leave what he has built in Oxford for the mess in Gainesville. 

What’s worse, that uncertainty in the transfer portal world of free player movement could gut a talented roster. A roster that, despite the 22-24 record since 2022, can compete with most in the country. 

There was scant difference in talent between Georgia and Florida this time around, the first time Florida could claim that in more than a decade. Florida has better skill players on offense, and — I can’t believe I’m writing this — a better defensive line.

Give the Florida roster to Georgia coach Kirby Smart and his staff, and there’s a greater chance the Dawgs win their third national title since 2021. 

How many of those Florida players will wait to see if Stricklin can land Kiffin, or any other elite coach, before jumping into the transfer portal for more money and/or a chance to get away from a sinking ship?

Florida was playing on guts and guile Saturday, a group of talented players who have been coached poorly for the past three seasons but were finally unshackled for two weeks since the firing. They played loose and fast, and had Georgia on its heels for 50-plus minutes. 

They had the ball inside the Georgia 25 with six minutes to play and leading 20-17, and couldn’t close it out. Two poor play calls on 3rd- and 4th-and-short led to a turnover on downs. 

Then Georgia did what good teams — smartly-coached good teams — do, responding with a go-ahead touchdown drive and suffocating any hope of one of the biggest upsets in series history. And leaving Florida players stunned and in disbelief while walking off the turf at Everbank Field. 

“Whatever the situation, nothing stops,” said Florida defensive end Tyreak Sapp. “No matter if this helicopter crashes, we’re going to be there for each other.”

Because what else is there? It’s the same thing players said after the three previous failed hires (Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen), the same thing the previous three interim coaches said, too. 

Stay strong. Overcome challenges. Believe in the program. 

Want the lasting takeaway from a fifth straight Florida loss in the series? The Gators not only wasted a season with a loaded roster, it wasted an opportunity to have this team coached by Kiffin.

That may be the greatest unraveling of all. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders benched starting quarterback Kaidon Salter during a game against Arizona.
Salter was benched after completing 11 of 15 passes for 49 yards, fumbling, and throwing an interception in the first half.
Backup quarterback Ryan Staub also threw an interception shortly after entering the game.

The Colorado football team hasn’t been nearly as good since starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders moved on to the NFL in April.

Sanders, now with the Cleveland Browns, got to see just how badly his former team has fallen without him Saturday night in Boulder. He watched from the sideline as his father, Colorado coach Deion Sanders, benched Shedeur’s replacement again in a 52-17 loss at home against Arizona.

Deion Sanders benched Kaidon Salter, Colorado’s regular starter at quarterback, near the end of the first half, when the Buffs trailed 38-7. Salter had completed 11-of-15 passes for 49 yards and one touchdown before halftime. But he also fumbled the ball and threw an interception, leading Sanders to put backup quarterback Ryan Staub in the game with 21 second left in the half.

By the time the game was over in Boulder, Colorado had used four quarterbacks and lost freshman quarterback Julian ‘JuJu’ Lewis to a hand injury with 1:03 left in the game. It’s not known how serious the injury is as the Buffs next play at West Virginia on Nov. 8. The loss dropped Colorado to 3-6 in Deion Sanders’ third season in Boulder.

After the game, Deion Sanders blamed himself.

‘We’re not getting it done,’ Deion Sanders said. ‘And that’s from lack of preparation, I suppose. That’s on me.’

Why was Shedeur Sanders at the Colorado game?

Shedeur Sanders surprised his father by visiting him in Boulder Saturday during an off week for the Browns. He renewed his former pregame ritual with his father by walking with him on the field before kickoff.

‘These shenanigans put a damper on it,’ Deion Sanders said. ‘I haven’t seen my son in a long time. Forget the game. Forget this. Forget that. I haven’t seen my son in a long time, so that was quite emotional for me, him surprising me today in the office.’

His presence at the homecoming game also served as a reminder of one of Colorado’s biggest problems this season: lackluster play at quarterback.

Deion Sanders finally puts in freshman QB Julian Lewis

Salter has been disappointing for Colorado except for a couple of games after transferring from Liberty in December.

Deion Sanders previously benched Salter in favor of Staub for a game at Houston in September. Colorado lost that game, 36-20. But since beating Iowa State on Oct. 11, the Buffs have hit new lows with Salter behind center. They’ve been outscored 81-7 in the first half of their past two games, including Saturday night at Folsom Field.

But things didn’t immediately get better with Staub behind center, either. In fact, they got worse. Staub threw an interception on the second play of the second half, his first pass of the game. Then after Staub threw another interception on his next pass, Sanders benched Staub in favor of freshman Lewis, who entered the game in the third quarter with Colorado losing, 45-7. Lewis responded by throwing a 59-yard touchdown pass to receiver Omarion Miller, helping cut Arizona’s lead to 45-14 with 10:13 left in the third quarter.

Will Colorado quarterback Julian Lewis redshirt this season?

Asked what led him to put Lewis into the game, Sanders said, ‘Common sense.’

It’s still possible Lewis could redshirt this season. He’s played in two games this season. He can play in up to four games and still redshirt, which would allow him to have four more seasons of college eligibility after this season instead of three. Sanders said that decision would be up to Lewis.

‘You got to understand, I’m for the kids,’ Sanders said. ‘If that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get. I’m not gonna mandate.’

Fourth-string quarterback enters game for Colorado

Staub attempted just two passes before getting benched himself. Both of those passes were intercepted by Arizona. His replacement, 18-year-old Lewis, completed 9 of 17 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown but left the game with injury to his right throwing hand with 1:03 left. He was replaced by fourth-string quarterback Dominiq Ponder, a transfer from Bethune Cookman. Ponder attempted only one pass, which fell incomplete. He also was sacked for a loss of 8 yards.

The loss was Deion Sanders’ worst loss at home at Colorado and comes a week after Sanders suffered a 53-7 loss at Utah, the worst loss of his coaching career in college.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Auburn football fans didn’t hold back their frustration after watching the latest setback of the Hugh Freeze era.

The loss for the Tigers is their fifth loss in their last six games and comes against a Kentucky squad that entered the night alongside them at the bottom of the SEC standings with a 1-5 record in conference play.

Freeze made a change at quarterback going into the Nov. 1 game by giving the start to Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels over Jackson Arnold. Daniels completed 13 of 28 passes for 108 yards and an interception in the first half while Auburn had just 117 total yards of offense.

Auburn didn’t improve much on offense in the second half, as Kentucky’s defense held the Tigers to zero points and just 124 total yards of offense — seven more yards than it had in the first half alone — in the final 30 minutes.

The loss for the Tigers drops them to 1-5 in SEC play this season and 6-16 in SEC play all-time under Freeze.

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