Will Klein was the most unlikely of Dodgers World Series heroes in epic Game 3 win

In the aftermath of the greatest outing of his career, which just happened to come in the biggest game of his life, Dodgers reliever Will Klein had a franchise icon approach him in the clubhouse.Sandy Koufax, the standard for Dodgers’ pitchers, sought out the unheralded 25-year-old righty to applaud him on his four shutout innings in extras that bought time for the Dodgers’ 6-5 walk-off win in 18 innings in Game 3 of the World Series on Tuesday night.“Nice going,” Koufax told Klein, according to ESPN.While Game 3 may be remembered more in time for Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer or Shohei Ohtani’s pair of blasts, the Dodgers don’t take a 2-1 series lead without Klein.He threw a career-high four innings and allowed just one hit while striking out five spanning 72 pitches.It was “surreal” as his wife Carson remarked in an Instagram Story.Klein has appeared in only 22 career major league games and maxed at two innings and 36 pitches before he became a part of Dodgers postseason lore.The Dodgers circled around Klein on the field at Dodgers Stadium and jumped up and down to celebrate their perhaps series-changing win.“That was so cool.I never dreamed that anything like this would happen.

So just having the guys like (Clayton Kershaw), Freddie, Shohei, Mookie (Betts), all those guys like kind of celebrating me for a second there was just insane,” Klein said.“I don’t think I could have dreamt a dream that good.So that was, yeah, that was crazy.”Baseball seasons are grinds that require plenty of depth up and down the organization, and the Game 3 hero didn’t even begin the year with the team — or in the majors.He entered 2025 with the A’s before being sent to the Mariners, and then opened the season with Seattle’s Triple-A team before being traded to the Dodgers in June.Klein appeared in 14 regular-season games for the team and didn’t have a roster spot through the first three rounds of the postseason before being added for the World ...