The Los Angeles Dodgers are champions of the baseball world again. They just defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in a classic seven-game World Series and won back-to-back titles. The feat is so rare that no team has repeated it in the last 25 years, since the Yankees last did so in 2000. But the story that was supposed to be about pure dominance turned out to be about survival.

The Blue Jays, the team that was hungry for their first title in 32 years, often got the best of them. They completely battered Dodgers ace Blake Snell with an 11-4 rout in Game 1 to start the series. Then, after losing two straight games at home, the Dodgers flew to Toronto for a do-or-die Game 6. And in that game, they nearly lost it all. Addison Barger hit a drive that looked like a walk-off homer, but the ball famously got lodged under the outfield wall padding, and the umps ruled it a ground-rule double that saved the Dodgers.

Then, in Game 7, the Dodgers trailed for almost the entire night. They were down to their final two outs in the final ninth inning, when Miguel Rojas did something unforeseen. Rojas, who barely played in this World Series and had just two home runs since the All-Star break, smashed a shocking game-tying home run. His miracle swing sent the game into extra innings, setting the stage for Will Smith’s decisive shot that crowned the Dodgers champions. So, at the end of the day, they should be the best team, right?

Well, maybe not the best team, but in the celebration of that victory, veteran Kiké Hernández posted a photo on his Instagram. He held the Commissioner’s Trophy on their way back home from Toronto in that photo that has a caption that reads:  “I’M SO HAPPY THE BETTER TEAM DIDN’T WIN!!” BaseballHistoryNut’s official Twitter account posted the screenshot of that photo, writing, “Read the caption. Yes, it’s real.”

Yes, Hernández’s words were right. The Dodgers were simply outplayed. Toronto outscored Los Angeles 34-26 over the seven games. They successfully silenced the Dodgers’ biggest bats like Freddie Freeman (hit just .207), Mookie Betts (managed just .143 average), and the Dodgers’ postseason sensation, who is known as Mr. October for his playoff heroics, Hernández himself (5-for-28 for the whole series). Even their biggest superstar, Shohei Ohtani, couldn’t cause any damage after his historical Game 3.

Ohtani was also ineffective on the mound, posting a 7.56 ERA in his two World Series starts. And with key reliever Alex Vesia missing the entire series for a personal family matter, the Dodgers’ bullpen was also stretched thin. This forced the team to use starters like Blake Snell in relief during Game 7.

And most notably, the Blue Jays were not even at full strength. Manager John Schneider had to use patchwork lineups because their leadoff man, George Springer, injured his side in Game 3 and missed two full games and was clearly hampered afterward. The best bat in the lineup, Bo Bichette, was also playing with limited mobility due to his left knee sprain.

So, if the Dodgers’ offense was quiet and the Jays were outplaying them, how did they win? The answer can be summed up with one name.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers star who refused to lose

The Dodgers won because they had Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Japanese ace delivered one of the greatest pitching performances in World Series history and rightfully earned the World Series MVP award. Yamamoto earned the win in three of the team’s four victories with a final number of 1.03 ERA over 17 2/3 innings while striking out 15 batters and walking only two.

In his first appearance in Game 2, Yamamoto pitched a complete game. That was his consecutive complete game in the postseason. Then, in his second appearance, he threw 96 pitches, in another six masterclass innings to take the win when the team was trailing 3-2 in the series in the winner-take-all Game 6. And the defining moment came in the biggest game of all.

He entered Game 7 in relief when Toronto loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, and just 90 feet away from the victory. Yamamoto buckled down, escaped the jam, and forced extra innings with less than 24 hours of rest and threw another 2 2/3 scoreless innings to close out the championship.  And tbh, who deserved better than him to close that iconic game and the series?