This heavyweight fight has been an all-timer

LOS ANGELES — Of course there will be a Game 7. How could there not be? The teams in the 113th World Series have been throwing and receiving haymakers at an equal rate. They both have championship jaws. They can’t escape one another.

But, finally, on Wednesday we will have an actual champion.

Either the Astros or Dodgers will throw the decisive punch in the 2,468th and final game — postseason included — of this season.

The Dodgers needed to solve Justin Verlander Tuesday night to force a Game 7, and did just enough just in time to beat the great righthander and the Astros 3-1.

“I don’t think anyone is shocked that this is going to Game 7,” Verlander said.

The series — as it really should be — is tied three games apiece. On Wednesday night the Astros will win their first title ever or the Dodgers their first since 1988, and it is probably not too much to expect a classic conclusion.

After all, five of the six games have been decided by one or two runs, and the one that wasn’t was 1-1 heading to the ninth. The decisive run has scored in the sixth inning or later in all but one game, and the tying run was on deck in that one.

“It seems fitting,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of there being a Game 7. “You’ve got the two best teams in baseball going head to head. Like we’ve talked about from the beginning, these two teams mirror one another. And the compete and fight in both teams is the most important thing I see as similarities.”

Los Angeles needed its tenacity, its inner belief system. For Verlander had a one-hit shutout and seven strikeouts through five innings, his genius pushing the Dodgers closer and closer to winter. He had appeared in 10 games as an Astro since being obtained with one minute left before the Aug. 31 waiver deadline, and Houston was 10-0 in those games.

But the Astros cobbled together two runs in the sixth, Joc Pederson added a homer in the seventh off Joe Musgrove and we were headed to the 39th ultimate game in World Series history.

“Come ready to play,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said he told his players after Game 6. “This is the biggest stage, the best stage, an opportunity to win the World Series in Game 7.”

Hinch’s Astros actually took a 1-0 lead in the third when George Springer hit his fourth homer since striking out in all four at-bats in the opener.

When Springer’s spot came up again in the fifth, Dodgers starter Rich Hill was ordered to walk the leadoff hitter to load the bases with two outs. He then was removed.

This was the vital pivot Tuesday. The Dodgers’ pen had seemingly been running on fumes, particularly in Game 5 (seven runs in five innings). But Roberts simply does not trust Hill a third time around the order. Despite receiving a three-year, $48 million contract last offseason, Hill has been limited to starts of four, five, four and now 4 2/3 innings this postseason.

Roberts turned to Brandon Morrow, who has pitched in all six World Series games and 13 of the Dodgers’ 14 postseason contests. In Game 5, he threw six pitches and gave up four hits and four runs. But Morrow and the pen revitalized, combining to hold the tenacious Astros to two singles and no runs in 4 ¹/3 innings.

“When you get hit in the mouth and you see the guy [Morrow] respond by wanting the baseball again and wanting another chance for redemption or whatever you want to term it, that’s a good thing,” Roberts said. “So our guys aren’t afraid of the moment. And we’ve put a lot of time into this moment right here. So we’re not done yet.”

Roberts had said he only wanted to use Kenley Jansen for one inning because even the allworld closer has looked bedraggled in this World Series. But here came Jansen in the eighth and he was flawless for two innings.

Yep, of course, he was. Because that is what was needed to necessitate a Game 7 in a series in which neither team could distance itself from the other.

The scheduled starters Wednesday are Lance McCullers Jr. and Yu Darvish, who lasted just five outs in getting beat up in Game 3. But it is all arms on deck, all bodies will be asked for one last push with the forever treasure that is a championship at stake. So Verlander might be in the pen, and Clayton Kershaw definitely will be for the Dodgers.

The 38th game of this postseason will decide a champion, will finally separate these teams after what has been a back-and-forth series full of draining drama, titillating tension and players draining the last of their talents against fatigue and pressure.

There will be a wonderful, beautiful Game 7. More haymakers.

And, finally, a knockout.