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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 Series with Tanner Scott and Alex Vesia both unavailable.
He appeared in mop-up duty in Game 1 before taking the ball in the 15th inning Tuesday night in a 5-5 game, knowing he would have to push himself.
“Well, I realized that when I looked around in the bullpen and my name was the only one still there,” Klein said with a laugh. “I was just going to go until I couldn’t, and that’s kind of what happened and, thankfully, Freddie saved us from (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto having to do the same thing.”
The righty had a relatively stress-free first three innings, facing just one batter over the minimum.
Trouble finally presented itself in the 18th when a pair of walks and a wild pitch put men at second and third with two outs.
Klein fell behind Tyler Heineman, 3-1, before battling back to strike him out on an 86-mph curveball.
He pumped his fists while bending over after escaping the huge jam.
Six pitches into the bottom of the frame, Freeman hit another iconic walk-off homer for the Dodgers.
“You don’t ever plan on playing 18 innings and you just kind of ask more from the player. He delivered,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“He threw probably three times as much as he’s ever thrown before, and certainly with the adrenaline on this stage what did he was incredible. That’s not even enough of a credit to him on this outing.”
As if the Koufax encounter didn’t prove enough of a surreal experience, Klein said he had more notifications on his phone after game than he had ever before in his life.
With four heroic innings, he went from an unknown reliever to a Dodgers postseason hero.
“Yeah, I don’t think I could have ever imagined that this would happen. At the start of this year I was still with the A’s, and then ended up with the Mariners, and here. Even that was crazy. And then we were at home, and then got to go to Toronto, get added, and I was excited for that,” Klein said.
“And now, like, you don’t ever expect these things, but you got to stay in it mentally and physically just in case. And you never think it’s going to be, like, this crazy, but just being able to stay ready and help the guys that have worked their butts off for this.”
