For months, the play was debated, analyzed and debated in baseball’s collective memory.
Frame by frame. Raised spike. A desperate slide.
Blue Jays fans stare at the replay the way gamblers stare at dice that keep ringing, convinced that somehow the outcome might change if they watch long enough.
Baseball fans say Isiah Kiner-Falefa should have earned more. Their frustration and anger was directed at him until he revealed that he was the third coach who drew a line in the dirt and told him how much he should lead.
Millions watched from home believing that the outcome of the 2025 World Series was decided by inches.
Now MLB has made a final decision — and it’s not even close.
According to a newly released MLB report provided to the Associated Press, the legendary Game 7 at the plate between the Dodgers and Blue Jays was not decided by inches, a slippery foot or the controversial moment when Dodger catcher Will Smith briefly raised his nail at home plate.
Kiner-Falefa was already dead in the water.
“After reviewing all relevant angles, the replay official determined that the catcher’s foot made contact with the plate when the ball contacted the inside of his mitt,” MLB wrote in the report.
Translation: It came right out when Miguel Rojas threw and it hit Smith’s glove.
Three feet before Kiner-Falefa arrived.
The game itself unfolded like chaos wrapped in tension. The bases are loaded. One out. Bottom of the ninth at 4-4 Game 7. Blue Jays third baseman Carlos Febles had drawn a line in the dirt, telling Kiner-Falefa not to get too far from third while Yoshinobu Yamamoto battled Daulton Varsho at the plate.
Varsho hit a grounder. Rojas stumbled slightly at second before firing home. Smith caught it. The plate umpire signaled: out.
“I cared that he was out,” Smith said later.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider admitted the moment could haunt him forever.
“I will think about it until the day I leave this earth,” said Schneider.
But the numbers don’t lie. Playing again is not possible.
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The Blue Jays didn’t lose the World Series by inches.
They lost three feet.
And hours later, Smith hit an exclamation point — a towering home run in the 11th inning that helped seal the Dodgers’ second straight championship, while the most-debated game in baseball history slipped quietly from controversy to cold, hard reality.
The California Post recently asked Smith if he has returned to watch the game.
“I honestly haven’t rewatched it,” said Smith, who admitted he was afraid the result might change if he did.
Now he doesn’t need to worry about that.
