Play at the plate during Blue Jays-Dodgers World Series Credit: Fox
By Sam Neumann on

Four months after getting thrown out at home to end Game 7 of the World Series, Isiah Kiner-Falefa finally explained what happened.

The problem, according to Kiner-Falefa, wasn’t the decision to stay close to third base or the Blue Jays coaching staff telling him to protect against getting picked off. The problem was that nobody put a camera in his face afterward to let him tell his side of the story.

“The biggest regret is that there were no cameras in my face after the game,” Kiner-Falefa said earlier this week. “I think that was the toughest thing for me. If it was going to be such a big deal, it would have been nice to have the camera in my face and have a chance to speak, but it blew up without me getting a proper interview, so I thought that was unfair. Everybody was just kind of going off of it without getting — without me really being able to talk about the play. So that was tough.”

Kiner-Falefa is talking about the play that cost Toronto its first championship since 1993 and turned him into the focal point of four months of criticism. He was thrown out at the plate after Miguel Rojas — who tied the game at 3 apiece with a home run in the top of the inning — made an incredible off-balance stop and throw to cut down the would-be game-winning run.

According to Statcast data cited by The Athletic, Kiner-Falefa’s lead from third was unusually conservative. His primary lead measured just 7.8 feet — among the shortest taken by any runner at third base during the 2025 World Series — and his secondary lead at release was similarly tight at 8.9 feet.

If Kiner-Falefa had been another step or two down the line when Varsho made contact, he would have scored easily, even with Rojas stumbling.

Instead, he was out by an inch, Toronto’s season ended in the most painful way imaginable, and Kiner-Falefa watched everyone form opinions about what happened without him saying a word about it.

Kiner-Falefa finally addressed all of it this week after signing a one-year, $6 million pact with Boston. He explained his thinking on the play, acknowledged he would have taken a bigger lead if he could do it over, and made it clear the Blue Jays coaching staff told him to stay close to third base to avoid getting picked off. But what stood out most wasn’t his explanation of what happened. It was his frustration that he didn’t get to explain it immediately afterward.

“At the end of the day, I did what I was told, and it was an organizational policy,” Kiner-Falefa added. “We win as a team, we lose as a team.”

What’s clear from his comments is that he wanted a chance to explain what happened immediately after the game, but he didn’t get one, leaving him watching the criticism pile up without being able to respond. Whether that was because the Blue Jays prevented him from speaking, because the media didn’t seek him out, or for some other reason, Kiner-Falefa didn’t elaborate on during his first talk with reporters since then.

Kiner-Falefa said Tuesday he’s “still not over it” and that he “won’t ever get over that.” He wants another chance to get back to the World Series, and he thinks Boston gives him the best opportunity to do it. He’s ready to focus on the new season with the Red Sox, who need him to contribute if they’re going to compete with his former team in the AL East.

But four months after Game 7, he’s still thinking about what happened and frustrated that he didn’t get to tell his side of the story when it mattered most. Whether the circumstances that prevented that interview were within his control or not, the result is the same. Kiner-Falefa became the face of one of the most painful losses in Blue Jays history, and he had to watch everyone form opinions about it without his voice being part of the conversation.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann