- - Dodgers' unlikely World Series heroes still can't believe what happened

Bob Nightengale, USA TODAYFebruary 15, 2026 at 4:08 AM

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PHOENIX — One was a 36-year-old career journeyman infielder from Venezuela who hadn’t produced a hit in more than a month.

The other a 26-year-old reliever with his fourth team in 11 months who wasn’t even on the playoff roster the first three rounds.

Who would have imagined that in a clubhouse full of All-Stars and future Hall of Famers, Miguel Rojas and Will Klein would be honest-to-goodness Los Angeles Dodgers World Series heroes, still basking three months later from the most glorious moments of their careers?

Rojas, who hit perhaps the most unlikely home run in World Series history, will not only forever be remembered in Dodgers lore for not that ninth-inning Game 7 homer, but also saving the game with a spectacular defensive play in the bottom of the frame.

“I’ve watched that moment over and over so many times, but it’s still hard to believe it happened," Rojas tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s just overwhelming. I’ve always wanted to have a moment in my career where I feel valuable, especially on the offensive side. And then when you do something like that, you know it’s going to be remembered for a long time.

“Probably forever."

Miguel Rojas celebrates his home run in the ninth inning of Game 7.

Klein was working out in Arizona and wasn’t even on the Dodgers’ postseason roster until Alex Vesia left the team before the World Series to be with his wife after the loss of their newborn daughter. He was summoned in the 15th inning of Game 3, and then pitched four shutout innings in the 6-5, 18-inning victory.

“It’s still crazy to think about," Klein says. “I mean, I was hearing from people I went to high school with and old teams. There were people I went to middle school and high school with that didn’t even know I was playing baseball. They saw me on TV, and started sending me random stuff."

'No one expected' Miguel Rojas home run

The Dodgers were down to their last two outs, trailing the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, in the ninth inning of Game 7. Rojas, who hadn’t had a hit in an entire month, stepped to the plate facing Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman. Rojas worked the count to 3-and-2 when Hoffman tried to fool him with a slider. Rojas belted it over the left field wall and the screaming crowd at the Rogers Centre went dead silent.

The only sound you heard was the Dodger bench and scattered fans screaming in euphoria with Rojas barely able to feel his feet trotting around the bases.

“No one expected Miguel Rojas to hit that home run," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says. “No one."

Still, it looked like it might be all forgotten when the Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth. The Dodgers pulled the infield in, and Daulton Varsho hit a bouncer to the right side of Rojas. He snared the ball, but then slipped, and had his momentum carrying him towards second base. Rojas set, and fired home just in the nick of time to nail Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the plate and prevent the winning run.

Two innings later – and after Yoshinobu Yamamto’s 2 ⅔ shutout innings in relief on no days’ rest – the Dodgers were back-to-back World Series champions with Yamamoto winning the World Series MVP.

With the Dodgers all gathering for the first time since their World Series parade, everyone still is talking about Rojas and Klein's heroics.

“(Rojas) is one of the best teammates I ever had, and just one of the best people in baseball," says third baseman Max Muncy, who delivered an eighth-inning homer in Game 7 then made his own big defensive play. “So, for something like that to happen to him, after all of the work he out in and the mentality he had about certain situations, it was so well deserved.

“It was like how the game was rewarding him for how he handled his role last year."

Rojas, who didn’t even play the first five games of the World Series, and was informed only a text message from manager Dave Roberts that he was starting Game 6 in Toronto, never complained about his role. Sure, he wanted to play more, but once Mookie Betts shifted from right field to shortstop, he did everything possible to help Betts improve so dramatically defensively that Betts became a Gold Glove finalist.

And in one glorious moment, it was Rojas who went from an understudy to an Academy Award winning performance, getting congratulatory messages from the likes of Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, and the scout who signed him out of Venezuela.

“That’s why I felt so great after it happened, not just because I hit a home run that tied the game," Rojas says, “but seeing the reaction of the people that I really care about. It was so cool. And everybody in the media had something good to say about me.

“The biggest compliment for me is that a guy like me, in front of the whole team, Doc [Roberts] told them that the game honors me because I did things the right way. I’ll remember those words forever. That makes me feel like after the 20 years that I’ve been in professional baseball, I’ve been doing something good."

Rojas, who plans to retire after the season and stay with the Dodgers in player development with hopes one day of being a manager, still has strangers stopping him and thanking him for his home run. He has had more autograph requests during the winter than he’s had in his entire life.

Yet, the question no one asks is which play meant to him, the game-tying home run or the game-saving play in the bottom of the ninth inning that forced the game into extra innings.

“The home run is going to be something that people will remember forever because you’re two outs away from being done," Rojas says. “But the play, I mean that’s the hardest play I ever made because it’s do-or-die to not only win the game but lose your season. If I don’t make the play, the home run and everything is kind of our of the window.

“So, it’s really tough to put it into context because if I don’t hit the home run, I don’t make the play, and then if I don’t make the play, the homer doesn’t count. I’m just so proud I was able to come through when it counted."

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Klein was working out at the Dodgers’ spring-training complex in Phoenix when he got the emergency call to join the team in Toronto. Klein, who had spent most of the season pitching in Triple-A, threw a grueling 72 pitches across four innings in Game 3, the most he had thrown since he was at Eastern Illinois, and became an overnight hero.

He was congratulated by legendary Dodger Sandy Koufax, who shook his hand after the game.

“I didn’t think most people," Klein says, “even knew who I was."

So now that he’s a World Series hero, do people recognize him now wherever he goes?

“I heard people say that everybody would know me now," Klein says, “but it hasn’t really changed. My wife and I went to Disneyland and Universal Studios, and maybe like two people recognized me. We’ll walk around Pasadena and LA, and no one knows who I am."

Besides, Klein says laughing, it’s not like he’s Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana University. Klein, born and raised in Indiana, is a diehard Hoosiers fan and says he may have celebrated the school's football national championship harder than he did the Dodgers' World Series win.

“I mean, to be the losingest team ever in college football history before that, and then win it all," Klein says, “it’s something I’ll remember forever. I remember going to games when Wisconsin would beat us like 82 to 20, and losing to teams like North Texas and Ball State, so it’s been a long ride.

“I can’t even imagine how many kids are going to be born in Indiana now named Fernando."

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While Rojas will be retiring after the 2026 season, Klein is hoping his World Series performance will kick-start his career. Hey, if you can throw four shutout innings in a World Series game, you’re sure not going to be fazed by a regular season relief appearance against the San Francisco Giants.

“It’s easy to look at it like that," Klein says, “but that doesn’t mean I’m going to automatically pitch well this year. I’ve still got to go out and put the work in each day, and use that confidence. But I can’t get lazy and think, 'Oh, I’m going to be great just because I did that in one game of the World Series.'"

It’s the same with the Dodgers, Roberts says. They had a bullseye on their back then, and they’ll have it now.

The Dodgers can’t simply throw $400 million worth of talent on the field each night and expect to automatically win. They have to move forward and focus on 2026 if they have a chance to make history, but still, no matter what transpires, those memories of that glorious 2025 World Series will live forever.

“Man, when I think about it," Roberts says, “it still blows my mind. Who would ever have thought that Miggy would hit that home run? Who could have ever thought that Will Klein was going to throw four scoreless innings in a World Series?

“But you have to have stuff like that go right for you."

No matter who steps up as the hero.

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers' unlikely World Series heroes still have champions in awe

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