Although Will Klein was a name that few knew before the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in an 18-inning thriller to win Game 3 of the World Series, the baseball world will remember his heroics for years to come.
Klein entered the game in the 15th inning and allowed just one hit through the 18th, keeping the defending champions in the game long enough for Freddie Freeman to collect a solo home run in the bottom of the frame and win the unprecedented marathon.
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Klein, as one might expect, was met with hundreds of messages about his performance from strangers on the internet to former coaches. A message that was hard for Klein to believe was the one from Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia.
“Unbelievable performance from Will Klein,” Sabathia said. “72 pitches in the World Series extras after never throwing more than 30 ever…4 scoreless innings in a postseason winning debut…October hero salute.”
Klein was in awe, to say the least, when he was told about Sabathia’s message.
“And then when I was talking to — I think it was MLB after the game just, they showed me, like, CC’s tweet, and you know, just, like, seeing that was kind of crazy because you grow up watching these guys and now like they’re watching you and acknowledging it,” Klein said. “So that was really cool to see.”
As Sabathia noted, Klein had never thrown that many pitches in a single outing. His previous high in MLB was just 36, and his most innings were two in a given outing. When asked about the last time he went that long in a game, he pointed to his collegiate career.
“Probably college,” Klein said. “My junior year when I was still a starter. Well, I realized that when I looked around in the bullpen and my name was the only one still there (laughing).” I was just going to go until I couldn’t, and that’s kind of what happened and, thankfully, Freddie saved us from Yamamoto having to do the same thing.”
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