These Dodgers step up with their backs against (and a ball under) the wall -- can they do it again in Game 7?

TORONTO — It was already written. This series was meant to go seven games. Even though the Blue Jays seemed to be working on a World Series-winning rally, the unpredictability and randomness of baseball has a way of reeling it all back in.

It all had to happen this way for this moment to exist. Down two in the bottom of the ninth, Addison Barger laced a double off closer Roki Sasaki that should have easily scored pinch-runner Myles Straw from first. But the ball wedged at the bottom of the wall. Justin Dean, the center fielder, threw up his hands, alerting the umpires it was a ground-rule double. Straw and Barger, however, didn't break stride as both reached home plate. 

"I know the rule," Dean said after the Dodgers' 3-1 win in Friday's Game 6. "I mean, they have to respect it. But it was scary a little bit." 

Scary because it would have been a tie game. Ultimately, though, two runners had to go back to second and third. 

Still, the Blue Jays had no outs. Tyler Glasnow entered the game on the mound to face Ernie Clement, arguably the Blue Jays' best bat-to-ball hitter. Clement, however, swung at the first pitch he sees from Glasnow and pops it up. Out No. 1. 

Then with George Springer lurking on deck and Andrés Giménez at the plate, misfortune would smack the Blue Jays, ruining any hope of a comeback. On the second pitch Gimenez saw, he lined out to Kiké Hernandez in left field. Barger, even with a runner on third, leaked too far off the bag and Hernandez, already coming in, made the heads up play, throwing behind Barger, nabbing him at second base to end the game. 

What was Dodger manager Dave Roberts thinking the entire time?

"Stay up in the air. Stay up in the air," he said. "And Kiké just gets great jumps. He is one of my favorite baseball players to watch. He's one of the headiest baseball players I've ever been around. And even just getting off on the ball, the awareness to get to his arm, get the ball into second base."

"It was kind of crazy," Glasnow said. "It wasn't enough time to think. I just, I thought, off the bat, might have been a hit, but we got the double play. I didn't have time to think." 

So, welcome to Game 7, where crazy will rule, where anything can happen and randomness might shape the path to a victor. 

For the Dodgers, you should have expected the champion to punch back. That''s what they're supposed to do. Los Angeles keeps pulling on its experience from the NLDS last year against the Padres when they lost the first two games at home, but then beat San Diego twice at their place and then Game 5 back at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers are now 3-0 in elimination games in the last two postseasons. They've allowed one run in 27 innings.

Roberts is certainly confident that his team can step up again in a must-win situation Saturday night at the Rogers Centre. 

"I feel great," added Roberts. "We're going to leave it out there. I don't think that the pressure, the moment's going to be too big for us. We got to go out there and win one baseball game. We've done that all year."

No doubt, Los Angeles can pull this off. The Dodgers have the pedigree and the résumé. But, if the Dodgers are to pull this off, they will have to have to hit. 

In Game 6, the team was led by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who, again, turned in a quality start. The righty went six innings, yielding one run on a George Springer double to right-center field. Yamamoto struck out six and allowed just five hits across that six-inning span. 

The offense, however, was still relatively absent, racking up just four hits on the evening. Max Muncy, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández were a combined 0 for 11. Still, there is something to draw on from this contest that should be a good omen for Los Angeles going into Saturday. 

For much of the series, Blue Jays manager John Schneider has exploited a black hole in their lineup: Mookie Betts.

Betts typically hits behind Shohei Ohtani in the two-hole. But considering Betts' struggles, Schneider often just walked Ohtani to get to Betts, ending any chance at a rally. Roberts finally tried to counter in Game 5, moving Betts to the No. 3 spot in the order and Will Smith to Betts' spot. Then, in Game 5 he moved Betts down even further in the order, putting him in the cleanup spot for the first time since 2017. Freeman took over the three-hole. 

In the third, with a runner on second and one out, starter Kevin Gausman intentionally walked Ohtani. And, for the first time this series, the Dodgers made them pay with Smith lacing an RBI double to left field. Freeman walked, and then came Betts, who pulled a grounder through the left side for a two-run single. 

"I came in and I was hitting all day yesterday," Betts said. "Just to come up in a big spot today is really refreshing." 

Betts, in fact, looked more connected in his swing than he had in the previous five games of the series. His hands weren't dropping as much in his load, which kept him in a stronger hitting position at contact. When he gets going, he's capable of carrying a team. And if that's the case Saturday, he could very well leave with his fourth piece of hardware. 

Ohtani is set to take the ball for the Dodgers on Saturday to start. Ohtani has never pitched on three days' rest during the season. 

"This is Game 7, so there's a lot of things that people haven't done, and you've just got to trust your players and try to win a baseball game," Roberts said. 

But expect it to be a unit effort for the Dodgers. Glasnow is still part of the equation, too, after needing just three pitches to close out Game 6. If Los Angeles really wants to give itself the best chance to win, it will stay away from its leaking bullpen, which seems like it might be the case with Roberts just relying on his Ohtani, Glasnow and maybe Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to get him through. When you take into account Yamamoto was warming up for the Dodgers in Game 3 after pitching nine innings just two days prior, he, too, could even be an option for Roberts. 

Everything is on the table. 

As for the Blue Jays, they will start Max Scherzer, but that, too, will be an all-hands-on-deck situation. 

The champs aren't dead. They are 3-0 in elimination games dating back to last season. That tells you a lot. So did Friday night. 

Be ready for crazy. Game 7 it is.