TORONTO (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto beat Toronto for the second time in a week, slumping Mookie Betts hit a two-run single in a three-run third inning and the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers held off the Blue Jays 3-1 on Friday night to force the World Series to a decisive Game 7.

Yamamoto was not quite as sharp as in his Game 2 four-hitter, the first World Series complete game in a decade. He lasted six innings and allowed only a third-inning RBI single by George Springer, who returned after missing two games with an injury to his right side.

Rookie relievers Justin Wrobleski and Roki Sasaki combined for six outs before starter Tyler Glasnow came out of the bullpen to escape a ninth-inning jam and rescue the Dodgers.

Glasnow needed only three pitches to do it. With runners on second and third, he got Ernie Clement to pop up his first delivery on the infield for the first out. Andrés Giménez then hit a line drive to left field that Kiké Hernández turned into a game-ending double play.

Hernández caught the ball on the run in shallow left-center and fired to second base, where Miguel Rojas made a tough pick of a one-hop throw to double off Addison Barger.

Max Scherzer will start Game 7 on Saturday night for the Blue Jays. He also started the last World Series Game 7, getting a no-decision when Washington won the 2019 title over Houston.

Glasnow had been lined up to potentially start for the Dodgers, seeking to become the first team to win consecutive titles since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani also could be used as an opener.

Los Angeles kept alive its bid for a third title in six seasons and its hopes to be recognized as a dynasty.

Yamamoto, a 27-year-old right-hander in his second season with the Dodgers after winning three MVP awards in Japan, was coming off the first consecutive postseason complete games since 2001.

He allowed one run and five hits with six strikeouts and a walk, stranding two runners in the sixth when he struck out Daulton Varsho with a splitter on his 96th and final pitch. Yamamoto is 4-1 with a 1.56 ERA in five postseason starts and has a 1.20 ERA in his two Series outings.

Kevin Gausman lost to Yamamoto for the second time despite matching a Series record by striking out eight in the first three innings behind a dominant splitter.

Tommy Edman doubled with one out in the third for the Dodgers’ first hit. Ohtani was intentionally walked for the fifth time in the Series and Will Smith hit an RBI double off the left-field wall on a high splitter.

Freddie Freeman walked, bringing up Betts. The three-time World Series champion entered just 3 for 23 in the Series and had been dropped from second to third in the lineup for Game 5. He was moved down another slot to cleanup Friday, his lowest in the batting order since 2017.

Behind 1-2 in the count, Betts fouled off two pitches and laced Gausman’s third straight fastball between shortstop and third for a 3-0 lead. That ended an 0-for-13 slide with the bases loaded for the Dodgers that dated to the Division Series.

Seeking their first World Series title since 1993, the Blue Jays wore powder blue uniforms at home for the first time since September after getting wins with them in Games 4 and 5 in LA.

Toronto scored when Barger doubled to start the third and scored on Springer’s two-out single.

Gausman gave up three runs and six hits in six innings, getting 15 swings and misses with his splitter.

Sasaki, a starter turned reliever as the Dodgers tried to shore up their bullpen, escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth by retiring Bo Bichette on a foul out and Varsho on a groundout.

But hiring security personnel and putting antitheft tags on merchandise would strain her already thin profit margins on a street with some of the highest rents in the country, she said.

“[It’s] a burden on small businesses,” she said. “Everything is very tight here, and the rent is very high.”

Her unease is shared by business owners across the city, from the Back Bay to Downtown Crossing to the South End.

According to crime data from the Boston Police Department, incidents of shoplifting this year increased by 11 percent citywide compared with data from this time last year, rising from 3,086 to 3,433.

But arrests for shoplifting related incidents, according to BPD data, are more than double what they were this time last year, from 341 to 712.

Just down the street from Gu’s new boutique, four teenagers allegedly stole more than $6,000 from a Lululemon store Oct. 13, police said, the latest in a string of high value retail thefts in the city.

In response to the problem, BPD has increased the presence of officers on foot, bicycle, and vehicle patrols “to address shoplifting and other quality of life issues” in the city Boston, as part of an ongoing “safe shopping initiative,” said spokesperson Mariellen Burns.

The city launched the initiative in March 2024, a partnership between police, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, and retail associations with the goal of tracking trends and prosecuting repeat offenders, said Ryan Kearney, vice president and general counsel for the Massachusetts Retail Association.

At a July press conference about the initiative, Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the program is “designed to deter crime, hold perpetrators accountable, and send a clear message that there are consequences for these crimes.”

But a recent rash of high-value shoplifting incidents have raised questions about its effectiveness.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” Kearney said. “We’re appreciative of the accommodations and the reallocation of resources to address this problem, but we still think it’s going to be a long time.”

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he added.

On Sunday, a Boston man on probation for larceny allegedly stole several items from a CVS store on Massachusetts Avenue and threatened an employee with pepper spray before running out, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.

Over the summer, shoplifters targeted a Sunglass Hut in Faneuil Hall at least seven times, making off with over $18,000 worth of merchandise. The Lululemon in the Prudential Center was the target of thieves at least three times last year.

On Oct. 18, three women allegedly stole clothes from an Alo Yoga store in the Prudential Mall after kicking an employee who confronted the group and demanded they return the items, according to a police report.

In that instance, mall security stopped the women and recovered the merchandise before letting them go and calling 911, the report said.

They have still not been arrested, police said Thursday.

At a hearing Oct. 17, Boston city councilors heard from a local community leader and a resident, both of whom offered bleak assessments on the state of shoplifting in the city.

“Small businesses are having a really hard time,” Randi Lathrop, president and chief executive of Lathrop Consulting, which represents small businesses, said at the hearing. “Bottom line is, every time somebody loses something, it hurts their bottom line.”

Citywide statistics from previous years show large jumps in a category of crime called “other larceny,” which includes shoplifting, from 6,631 in 2022 to 7,547 in 2023, an almost 14 percent increase.

In the district that includes Downtown Crossing, reported “other larceny” incidents increased by 126 from 2022 to 2023, from 1,180 to 1,306.

In the district that contains Back Bay, reported incidents of “other larceny” jumped from 1,603 in 2022 to 2,086 in 2023.

In an interview Tuesday, Boston City Councilor Edward M. Flynn said shoplifting in the city is a “major problem,” although he acknowledged that authorities have “made progress.”

“It’s bad for the quality of life and for the city,” Flynn said. “When theft is left unchecked, neighborhoods pay the price.”

Mayor Michelle Wu’s office deferred comment to Boston police Thursday.

Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said in a statement that “we need to strengthen partnerships between city agencies, public safety including the District Attorney’s office, and local businesses, while also addressing the deeper issues that lead to theft, like addiction and lack of opportunity.”

Officials said enduring high numbers in shoplifting incidents are due in part to increased reporting by business owners.

“We fully anticipated that increased retail-theft enforcement through the Safe Shopping Initiative would result in increased reporting, increased arrests, and increased prosecutions,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “All of these outcomes have occurred. These increases are attributable to enhanced enforcement and reporting, not increases in shoplifting occurrences themselves.”

But in an interview, Lathrop said the city needs to do more to protect small businesses.

“Frankly, I don’t know if people at City Hall really understand small business shoplifting,” she said. “To make this work, you got to go door to door.”

Kearney said store employees are often instructed not to intervene during shoplifts, “because we’ve seen in the past that those types of instances can quickly turn violent,” he said.

He cited an incident from 2019 when a store employee at Giblees Clothing in Danvers tried to stop a group of thieves from stealing expensive Canada Goose jackets.

That employee, a man in his 60s, was knocked to the ground and “lost a couple teeth” in the process, according to Kearney.

“That’s what we’re trying to avoid,” he said.

A large part of the safe shopping initiative, according to Michael Nichols, president of the Downtown Business Alliance, is differentiating between thieves who steal for “need” versus those who steal for “greed,” and prosecuting members of the latter category.

Hayden said his office regularly seeks incarceration and stay-away orders for “repeat offenders and violent offenders.”

“This office routinely prosecutes shoplifters, with a focus on repeat offenders,” Hayden said. “Assertions that shoplifters are not being arrested or prosecuted are inaccurate.”

Rachael Rollins, the Suffolk district attorney before Hayden, said her office would not prosecute 15 of what she described as minor crimes, including shoplifting.

Kearney said that Rollins’ policy sent the “wrong message” to shoplifters, and that the increased number of thefts are the result of “policy decisions that have been made in the past coming home to roost.”

“If you don’t stop somebody when they were a juvenile stealing, they then become a repeat offender,” Kearney said. “If you intervene and hold them accountable early, the hope is that they will learn their lesson and then that will stop.”

Truman Dickerson can be reached at truman.dickerson@globe.com.

Downtown Crossing’s Estella (49 Temple Place) expands to a 250-seat Foxborough space in December (226 Patriot Place), new from owners Lillian and Helder Brandão.

Expect Latin-African fusion: kreyol pasta, branzino, rasta pasta (pappardelle in spicy oxtail cream), and plenty of veggie choices like roasted vegetable vegan ravioli, bang bang cauliflower, and candied-apple Brussels sprouts.

Pair it all with a lychee martini — and a bigger beer selection than at the Boston original, befitting the Gillette-adjacent location.

Chef Sarah Wade (Sloane’s, Stillwater) opens SJ’s in early November (745 Atlantic Ave.). She’s known for comfort food, including outrageous versions of mac and cheese. Her newest spot keeps with that theme. Try shrimp toast on white bread filled with sesame and scallion; a trio of pork rillette macarons; caviar and blinis; and steak frites.

Closings: Birds of Paradise at the Charles River Speedway (525 Western Ave.) pours its final drink on Friday, Oct. 31, confirms Will Isaza, a longtime familiar face behind their bar.

An Instagram post, soundtracked to John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane”— an homage to the golden age of air travel theme — thanked staff, past and present, for “taking part in our journey around the world.”

It opened in 2022, helmed by Ran Duan, then at the top of his career with hot spots such as Baldwin Bar and Blossom Bar.

“The whole concept behind Birds of Paradise is traveling and escapism. The menu is going to be based on plane tickets. Think of Pan Am,” he said at the time. “We thought, especially with the timing of the pandemic, the space, and everything that’s been going on, it was the perfect concept with the perfect timing to get people to travel somewhere they miss.”

Lately, Duan has been in the news after the closure of another Brookline bar, Ivory Pearl, and the departure of several long-term bartenders and a beverage manager amid the personal upheaval chronicled in a September 2025 Globe story.

Isaza continues to run Salsa Shack at the Speedway, serving corn tortilla tacos and corn chowder.

Relocations: James Beard Award finalist Erin Miller will move her Urban Hearth from North Cambridge to a flagship location in Inman Square (1281 Cambridge St.), opening in early 2026. This space will be larger, with a six-seat chef’s counter, a salon area, and a full-service bar. The smaller, original branch (2263 Massachusetts Ave.) will stay open, serving Miller’s local, seasonal menu.

Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com. Follow her @kcbaskin.