TORONTO (AP) — In a World Series for the ages that went back and forth again and again, Will Smith delivered the biggest swing of all for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Smith connected in the 11th for the first extra-inning homer in a winner-take-all title game, and Miguel Rojas became the first player to hit a tying home run in the ninth inning of a Game 7. On a roller-coaster night of see-sawing emotions, the Dodgers outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 Saturday to become the first repeat champion in a quarter century.
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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto lifts the World Series MVP trophy as the Dodgers celebrate after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw celebrates with the trophy after their win against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith (16) celebrates after hitting a solo home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the 11th inning in Game 7 of baseball's World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Miguel Rojas (72) celebrates after hitting a solo home run to tie the game against the Toronto Blue Jays during the ninth inning in Game 7 of baseball's World Series in Toronto on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers players celebrate after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw celebrates after the Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers players celebrate after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith celebrates a home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the11th inning in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
“You dream of those moments," Smith said after the 4-hour, 7-minute thriller. "I’ll remember that for forever.”
In the type of dramatic Game 7 that kids conjure in backyards, the Blue Jays led 3-0 on Bo Bichette's third-inning homer off Shohei Ohtani and 4-2 before Max Muncy's eighth-inning solo homer off star rookie Trey Yesavage.
Toronto was two outs from its first championship since 1993 when Rojas, inserted into the slumping Dodgers lineup in Game 6 to provide some energy, homered on a full-count slider from Jeff Hoffman and stunned the Rogers Centre crowd of 44,713.
“I’ve cost everybody in here a World Series ring," Hoffman said.
Rojas hadn't homered since Sept. 19.
“I had a conversation with my wife,” he said. “She told me something big was waiting for me.”
World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half, and Toronto reliever Seranthony Domínguez stranded three Dodgers runners in the 10th.
Smith, who hit a go-ahead homer in Game 2, sent a 2-0 pitch from Shane Bieber into Toronto's bullpen in left field, where it bounced into the seats and gave the Dodgers their first lead of the night. Running between first and second, Smith raised his arms in triumph.
“He hung a slider," Smith said. “I banged it.”
Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner, was making his first relief appearance since 2019.
"He was looking for it and I didn’t execute," he said.
Of course, there had to be even more drama in just the sixth winner-take-all Series game to go extra innings. It matched the Marlins’ 3-2 win over Cleveland in 1997 as the second-longest Game 7, behind only the Washington Senators’ 4-3, 12-inning victory against the New York Giants in 1924.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled leading off the bottom of the 11th and was sacrificed to third. Addison Barger walked and Alejandro Kirk hit a broken-bat grounder to shortstop Mookie Betts, who started a title-winning 6-6-3 double play. It was only the second double play to end a Series, after the Yankees turned one in 1947 against the Dodgers.
“I thought we had chances to sweep them,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Going back to the beginning of the Series when people were calling it David vs. Goliath, it’s not even close.”
Smith set a Series record by catching 73 innings. Betts earned his fourth title in the finale of baseball’s 150th major league season, the first that began and ended outside the United States.
In the Dodgers bullpen for the last game of his decorated 18-year career, Clayton Kershaw lost track of the outs.
"When he hit the double play, I thought the run scored and it was tied," he said. “I thought I had the next batter.”
Los Angeles and its $500 million roster overcame a 3-2 Series deficit on the road. The Dodgers became the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees won three in a row, and the first from the National League since the 1975 and '76 Cincinnati Reds.
With their ninth championship and third in six years, the Dodgers made an argument for their 2020s teams to be considered a dynasty. Dave Roberts, their manager since 2016, boosted the probability he will gain induction to the Hall of Fame.
“To do what we’ve done in this span of time is pretty remarkable,” Roberts said. “I guess let the pundits and all the fans talk about if it’s a dynasty or not.”
After throwing 96 pitches in a Game 6 win Friday, Yamamoto tossed 43 more over 2 2/3 innings for his third win of the Series. He finished the postseason 5-1 with a 1.45 ERA.
“Before I went in, to be honest, I was not really sure if I could pitch up there to my best ability,” Yamamoto said through a translator. “But as I started getting warmed up ... I started making a little bit of an adjustment, and then I started thinking I can go in and do my job.”
This Series produced the World Series’ first pinch-hit grand slam, its first complete game in a decade, an 18-inning Game 3 featuring Shohei Ohtani reaching base nine times, six outs on the bases and Freddie Freeman becoming the first to hit two walk-off homers, the first back-to-back homers opening a game, Yesavage striking out a rookie-record 12 just six weeks after his debut, and the first game-ending double play in which an outfielder had a putout or assist.
“That game had every single thing you could possibly have,” Freeman said. “Just an absolutely incredible game, incredible Series.”
Los Angeles used all four of its postseason starting pitchers, with Yamamoto joined by Ohtani and Glasnow (2 1/3 innings each) and Blake Snell (1 1/3 innings).
Bichette, eyes bulging, put Toronto ahead in the third with a 442-foot drive off Ohtani, the two-way star pitching on three days’ rest after taking the loss in Game 4.
Los Angeles closed to 3-2 on sacrifice flies from Teoscar Hernández in the fourth off 41-year-old Max Scherzer, just the fourth pitcher to start multiple winner-take-all Game 7s, and Tommy Edman in the sixth against Chris Bassitt.
Andrés Giménez restored Toronto's two-run lead with an RBI double in the sixth off Glasnow, who relieved after getting the final three outs on three pitches to save Game 6 on Friday.
There was so much more to come.
In a Series filled with key defensive plays, Rojas stumbled in the ninth while fielding Daulton Varsho's one-out, bases-loaded grounder off Yamamoto. Rojas managed to throw home for a forceout as Smith kept his foot on the plate to beat Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who had taken an unusually short 7.8-foot lead off third.
Ernie Clement then flied out to center fielder Andy Pages, who had just come off the bench for defense. Pages sprinted 121 feet and made a jumping, backhand catch on the left-center warning track as he crashed into left fielder Kiké Hernández.
Then with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th, Pages grounded to shortstop, where Giménez threw home for a forceout. Guerrero fielded a grounder to the right side and tossed to Domínguez covering first, just beating Hernández in a call upheld upon video review.
Visiting teams have won five straight World Series Game 7s after home teams won nine in a row from 1982 to 2011.
While the Dodgers were sprayed with silver confetti and they celebrated, the Blue Jays pondered how close they came in falling short. Eyes were red and voices cracked amid the sobbing.
"I’ve been crying for like probably for an hour,” Clement said long after the final out. “I thought I was done with the tears.”
In the midst of the celebration, Freeman already looked ahead to the big, bad Dodgers taking on the rest of baseball again in 2026.
“The Yankees are three-time back-to-back,” he said, “so we get to use that same narrative next year.”
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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto lifts the World Series MVP trophy as the Dodgers celebrate after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw celebrates with the trophy after their win against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith (16) celebrates after hitting a solo home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the 11th inning in Game 7 of baseball's World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Miguel Rojas (72) celebrates after hitting a solo home run to tie the game against the Toronto Blue Jays during the ninth inning in Game 7 of baseball's World Series in Toronto on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers players celebrate after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw celebrates after the Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers players celebrate after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith celebrates a home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the11th inning in Game 7 of baseball's World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act to justify deploying troops as protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement persist in Minneapolis.
Trump made the threat to “quickly put an end to the travesty” after a federal officer shot a man in the leg while being attacked with a shovel and broom handle on Wednesday. The incident further heightened the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.
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The governor of Maine and the mayors of its two largest cities acknowledged widespread speculation that ICE enforcement actions are imminent in the state, which is home to large immigrant communities from Somalia and other African nations.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said aggressive enforcement actions that undermine civil rights are “not welcome” in the state. Mills, the mayors of Portland and Lewiston and Maine’s largest school district all acknowledged that the possibility of ICE enforcement has created a nervous atmosphere in Maine.
“But if they come here, I want any federal agents — and the president of the United States — to know what this state stands for: We stand for the rule of law. We oppose violence. We stand for peaceful protest. We stand for compassion, for integrity and justice,” Mills said in video released Wednesday.
Democrats across the country are proposing state law changes to rein in federal immigration officers and protect the public following the shooting death of a protester in Minneapolis and the wounding of two people in Portland, Oregon.
Many of the measures have been proposed in some form for years in Democratic-led states, but their momentum is growing as legislatures return to work amid President Donald Trump’s national immigration crackdown following the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. Republicans are pushing back, blaming protesters for impeding enforcement of immigration laws.
When Trump entered office, immigration was among his strongest issues. An AP-NORC Poll published Thursday suggests that it has since faded, a troubling sign for Trump who campaigned on crackdowns to illegal immigration.
Just 38% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling immigration, down from 49% at the start of his second term. The most recent poll was conducted January 8-11, shortly after the death of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
There are still signs that Americans give Trump some leeway on immigration issues. Nearly half of Americans — 45% — say Trump has “helped” immigration and border security in his second term.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote Thursday on social media, “Motor Tanker Veronica had previously passed through Venezuelan waters, and was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
The Veronica is the sixth tanker seized by U.S. forces as the Trump administration moves to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products, and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
Noem wrote that the raid was carried out with “close coordination with our colleagues” in the military as well as the State and Justice departments.
“Our heroic Coast Guard men and women once again ensured a flawlessly executed operation, in accordance with international law,” Noem added.
The Associated Press has reached out to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for comment on Trump’s latest threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.
During a televised speech before the latest shooting, Walz described Minnesota as being in chaos, saying what’s happening in the state “defies belief.”
“Let’s be very, very clear, this long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement,” he said. “Instead, it’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
Threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and send troops to Minneapolis, Trump noted that presidents have used the 19th century law many times. This is true — but they haven’t necessarily done it in the circumstances found in Minneapolis, where the tensions have arisen from Trump already sending federal authorities into the city.
In modern times, the act has been used to mobilize troops to help local authorities or to ensure a federal court order is carried out.
The law was last used in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to help quell riots in Los Angeles after local officials asked for the assistance. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all invoked it during the Civil Rights Movement to help enforce desegregation orders in Southern states where state and local governments were resisting.
A 1964 Justice Department memo said the act can apply in three circumstances: when a state requests help, when deployment is needed to enforce a federal court order, or when “state and local law enforcement have completely broken down.”
In a statement describing the events that led to Wednesday’s shooting, Homeland Security said federal law enforcement officers stopped a person from Venezuela who was in the U.S. illegally. The person drove away and crashed into a parked car before taking off on foot, DHS said.
After officers reached the person, two other people arrived from a nearby apartment and all three started attacking the officer, according to DHS.
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS said.
The two people who came out of the apartment are in custody, it said.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s account of what happened largely echoed that of Homeland Security. O’Hara said the man shot was in the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
Jacob Frey spoke Wednesday night after federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas into a small crowd while protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks.
“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order,” he said.
Frey described a federal force that is five times as big as the city’s 600-officer police force and has “invaded” the city, scaring and angering residents, some of whom want the officers to “fight ICE agents.”
The Department of Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down.
Trump made the threat Thursday after a federal officer trying to make an arrest shot a man in the leg Wednesday after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle. The incident further heightened the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump said in social media post.
▶ Read more about Trump’s latest threats to Minnesota
An AP-NORC poll from January found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance as president. That’s virtually unchanged from March 2025, shortly after he took office for the second time.
The new poll also shows subtle signs of vulnerability for Trump, mainly regarding the economy and immigration.
Two senators from opposite parties are joining forces in a renewed push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort that has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida on Thursday plan to introduce legislation, first shared with The Associated Press, that would bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks.
It’s the latest in a flurry of proposals in the House and the Senate to limit stock trading in Congress, lending bipartisan momentum to the issue. But the sheer number of proposals has clouded the path forward. Republican leaders in the House are pushing their own bill on stock ownership, an alternative that critics have dismissed as watered down.
▶ Read more about the cross-party effort
Senate Republicans voted to dismiss a war powers resolution Wednesday that would have limited Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela after two GOP senators reversed course on supporting the legislation.
Trump put intense pressure on five Republican senators who joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week and ultimately prevailed in heading off passage of the legislation. Two of the Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — flipped under the pressure.
Vice President JD Vance had to break the 50-50 deadlock in the Senate on a Republican motion to dismiss the bill.
The outcome of the high-profile vote demonstrated how Trump still has command over much of the Republican conference, yet the razor-thin vote tally also showed the growing concern on Capitol Hill over the president’s aggressive foreign policy ambitions.
▶ Read more about the war powers vote
While President Donald Trump says he’ll take action on Greenland whether its people “ like it or not, ” his newly handpicked U.S. special envoy is setting off on his own approach.
Gov. Jeff Landry, appointed as envoy in December, said he is not interested in meeting diplomats. The Republican has not visited the Arctic island and did not attend Wednesday’s meeting at the White House that included Danish officials, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. However, the governor was scheduled to travel to Washington on Thursday and Friday for meetings that include the topic of Greenland, Landry’s spokesperson Kate Kelly said.
▶ Read more about Landry 's new role
Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
FILE - President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
