NEW YORK — As catcher Will Smith held up the World Series trophy after the Dodgers beat the Yankees in five games, he gave a quick glance back at the outfield to see where his team had been. He recalled the days when he was a rookie with the Chicago White Sox, and how a single by Freddie Freeman had helped the club rally to win the pennant. Then he looked at the number one and wished for more of that in his future.

In a game that was more like a rollercoaster than a baseball classic, Giancarlo Stanton restored order to the World Series with a high and relatively deep sacrifice fly in the sixth. It wiped out a five-run deficit and put the Dodgers within striking distance of winning their first title since 1981.

But it was an inning that could have been much more devastating. Yankees starter Jack Flaherty got a 3-0 lead on just 35 pitches, but in the fifth he gave up two straight homers by Juan Soto and Aaron Judge to tie it at 5-5. That allowed the Dodgers to summon a fresh arm, Blake Treinen, and he got the final out of the sixth inning.

The Dodgers are a franchise that lends itself well to narratives about David vs. Goliath, a collection of talent that has been built through the free-agent spending spree of owner Magic Johnson and a top-of-the-line rotation featuring Shohei Ohtani. The Blue Jays, on the other hand, are a scrappy underdog that ranked in the middle of the pack payroll-wise and broke through with a group of talent homegrown or acquired through savvy trades.