The finish line of the 2025 Major League Baseball is in sight. On Friday night, the Dodgers and Blue Jays will convene on Rogers Centre in Toronto for the start of the 121st World Series.
Remember when the Dodgers opened the season in Tokyo against the Cubs in mid-March? No one would blame you if you forgot; that was seven months ago, long before we knew just how special a season the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh had in store or how catastrophically it would all end for the Phillies and Mets, two of the National League’s best teams in 2024. Far more people were picking the Orioles and Braves to make the playoffs rather than compete for optimal spots in the draft lottery. And by MLB-wide Opening Day, we were still several weeks away from learning that not only would there be a new Pope, but that he would be both an American and a trash-talking White Sox fan.
It’s been a wild ride, and the roller coaster isn’t back into the station just yet. We’ve got a Fall Classic on deck.
What’s at stake?
Dodgers: Baseball has gone longer than any of the “Big Four” American sports without seeing a repeat World Series champion, a feat last accomplished by the 1998-2000 Yankees. The 2025 Dodgers are just the third defending champion since then to even get back to the Fall Classic with a second consecutive pennant. The 2001 Yankees and 2009 Phillies both fell short, but perhaps these Dodgers will be the ones to get it done, fully cementing their status as a dynasty. They’ve won five pennants in nine years, and this would be their third World Series title in six seasons.
As an amusing side note, Toronto will be the Dodgers’ fourth different AL East opponent in this run, as they fell to a monster Red Sox squad in 2018 but beat the Rays in 2020 and the Yankees last year. Perhaps the Orioles will get it together one of these seasons to help these 21st-century Dodgers complete the set.
Blue Jays: In contrast, if the Jays win it all, it would be their third World Series title in 49 seasons of franchise history. But it’s been a long time since the World Series has been in Toronto, rendering it at least more of a true “World” Series than the standard. The Jays were the last team to repeat as champions before the late-‘90s Yankees, as after delivering Canada’s first crown in a 1992 six-game win over Atlanta, Joe Carter cemented his name in World Series history with a walk-off homer to beat the Phillies and clinch the repeat.
It’s been 32 years since Joe touched ‘em all, and until now, Toronto had never been back to the Fall Classic. It took over two decades for mere October baseball to return to The 6. Consecutive ALCS appearances in 2015-16 with José Bautista-led teams came up short, and the Jays most recently went a forgettable 0-6 in three playoff berths between 2020-23. This year has been a brand new story.
How’d they get here?
Dodgers: If you’re more of a casual baseball fan (we’re glad to have you!) who only tuned in once the playoffs began, you might be surprised that this apparent Dodgers juggernaut does not have home-field advantage despite being loaded with stars like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and more. In fact, as the NL division leader with the worst record (93-69), they had to fight through the Wild Card round for just the second time in their current streak of 13 consecutive seasons of playoff ball.
The Reds did little more than tune up the defending champs up though, as LA disposed of Cincinnati in short order, outscoring them 18-9 in two games. From there, the Dodgers were gradually tasked with beating the two NL division champions who did earn first-round byes this time around, the Phillies and Brewers. They recovered from down 3-0 halfway through the NLDS opener in Philly to steal it with a Teoscar Hernández three-run bomb, and the shaky Dodger bullpen just barely held on to win Game 2. Back home at Dodger Stadium, they suffered their only loss of the postseason thus far before bouncing back in Game 4 to break Philly’s hearts in mortifying fashion on a walk-off error by reliever Orion Kerkering, punching their ticket to the NLCS in Milwaukee. Of note: rookie Roki Sasaki flamed out of the rotation early on in 2025 and suffered a shoulder injury, but in this Phillies series, he suddenly looked like a lockdown reliever with 4.1 shutout innings of one-hit ball across three games.
The Brewers had the best record in baseball during the 2025 season at 97-65, but they proved to be no match for the daunting Dodgers rotation. Instead of entering October with a few men down (as they often have), they were fully operational and smothered the Brew Crew. Blake Snell threw eight shutout innings with one hit allowed in the opening 2-1 victory, albeit with LA narrowly escaping a bases-loaded jam in the ninth. Yoshinobu Yamamoto shined in his own right in Game 2, twirling MLB’s first playoff complete game since 2017, and after Tyler Glasnow led a more balanced pitching attack in Game 3, manager Dave Roberts gave the ball to his two-way threat Ohtani to see if he could close out Milwaukee for the sweep.
Boy, did he. Three homers at bat for Ohtani to go to along with 10 strikeouts in six shutout innings made for the greatest all-around performance in living memory, earning NLCS MVP honors for the likely 2025 NL MVP. No one else in baseball can do this. Oh, and Dodgers pitching held the Brewers to four runs in four games and a .118 team batting average — the worst of any playoff team in MLB history in a best-of-seven series.
Blue Jays: Back in spring training, plenty of people picked the Dodgers to win another pennant. Very few had the Jays anywhere close to the Fall Classic.
Toronto’s three Wild Card appearances in four years between 2020-23 had been ones to forget for the Jays faithful. Lowlights included a seven-run collapse at home in ‘22 at the hands of the Mariners, and then snapping the Twins’ ignominious 19-year, 0-18 playoff skid during their two-and-out in ‘23. They took a step backward during a lost, last-place campaign in ‘24, and with homegrown All-Stars Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette set to hit free agency after this season, the main offseason questions centered on whether they would both walk and push the Jays back into a rebuild.
In a credit to the Toronto front office, they chose to keep pushing. They made moves to add contracts in the offseason, notably committing a combined $125.5 million to sign former Orioles masher Anthony Santander and 2024 Phillies All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman. Santander’s 2025 was mostly lost due to injury and Hoffman became an inconsistent closer after a promising start, but the real power play came in early April, when the Jays and Guerrero came to terms on a 14-year, $500 million extension through 2039, all but ensuring that the 26-year-old would stay north of the border for the rest of his career.
Two months after Opening Day, the Jays were trudging along in mediocrity with a 26-28 record, eight games behind the defending AL champion Yankees. The hapless A’s helped them start buildling something though, as the Jays mopped them in a four-game sweep by a combined score of 39-18. Toronto spent a productive June cutting into the Yankees’ lead before welcoming them to Rogers Centre at the end of the month and treating them exactly the same way as the A’s. This four-game sweep was a true statement, and it knocked the slumping Yanks out of first. Toronto went 18-8 in July and never fell from the top slot in the AL East. Although New York rebounded in September to tie them late, the Jays kept pace with a four-game winning streak against Boston and Tampa Bay to end the season, and because Toronto won the season series with New York (8-5), they captured both the AL’s top seed at 94-68 and their first division title since 2015 through the tiebreaker rules.
The Yankees would get their shot at upending the Jays anyway, as they beat the Red Sox in a three-game Wild Card Series to face Toronto in the ALDS. Instead, the Jays made sure that the Yanks fell flat on their faces. Only a miracle Aaron Judge homer kept New York from suffering a sweep, as the Jays brought the thunder to outscore them in four games, 34-19. Guerrero annihilated the team that once spurned his father, slugging three bombs and posting a 1.609 OPS. It was far from a one-man show though, as center fielder Daulton Varsho and catcher Alejandro Kirk both belted a pair of homers, and little-known infielder Ernie Clement hit .643. Ace Kevin Gausman held the Yankees to one run in the opener, rookie Trey Yesavage dazzled with a 5.1 no-hit frames in Game 2 (punching out 11 in his fourth career start), and the oft-maligned bullpen handled the 5-2 clincher all on their own.
Only the Mariners remained in the Jays’ path to the Fall Classic. The ALCS was not to be taken for granted, as despite thrilling playoff moments from José Bautista’s clubs in 2015 and 2016, they were stopped dead in their tracks by Kansas City and Cleveland, respectively. It looked like the M’s might do the same en route to their first pennant in franchise history, as despite a grueling 15-inning finish to their ALDS against Detroit, they quieted the boisterous Toronto crowd by winning the first two games. Not to be outdone, the Jays returned the favor in Seattle, evening up the series with 21 runs in Games 3 and 4 while future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer turned back the clock with a Game 4 gem.
Big homers from Raleigh and Eugenio Suárez put Seattle a win away from the pennant, but with the ALCS back in Toronto for Game 6, Guerrero, Yesavage, and right fielder Addison Barger got the Jays back on track in a 6-2 victory. In Game 7, Seattle again put Toronto’s feet to the fire, as the M’s led by two in the seventh with eight outs to go. However, the Jays had the last counterpunch, erstwhile Astros World Series MVP George Springer capping an AL Comeback Player of the Year-caliber campaign by delivering the dagger to his old AL West opponent with a three-run blast. Hoffman closed it out with a perfect ninth and Toronto locked in their World Series ticket.
Storylines to watch
Beyond a shared appreciation for the likes of Russell Martin, Shawn Green, and Hyun Jin Ryu, there isn’t much of a history between the Dodgers and Blue Jays. Teoscar Hernández is at least part of the connective tissue on the active roster, as he rose to All-Star prominence with the Jays before going on to his current slugging exploits in LA. Toronto bench coach Don Mattingly was also Roberts’ predecessor as Dodgers skipper, though he is obviously more tied to the Yankees and the only Dodgers remaining from his tenure are Clayton Kershaw and Kiké Hernández.
However, Blue Jays fans have a beef with some Dodgers players. Toronto has made overtures at multiple NPB stars seeking to come over to MLB from Japan. In the past two offseasons, they’ve lost out to the Dodgers on both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, even when the latter included the Jays among his three finalists. The most painful miss, of course, came on that Ohtani fella.
The Jays pushed hard to convince Ohtani to come to Toronto upon hitting free agency in the winter of 2023 after six tedious seasons with the Angels (despite two MVPs). There were even ultimately premature reports from normally solid sources about Ohtani choosing the Blue Jays and potentially being on a flight to Toronto.* Ohtani chose the Dodgers though, and it wasn’t a matter of the Jays not submitting a high enough bid — per ESPN’s Jeff Passan, they were on board with the same terms of deferred money in a 10-year, $700 million contract.
*Yes, the “Ohtani is on a plane to Toronto” jokes were certainly out once the Jays won the pennant.
So it was no great shock when Ohtani received a rousing boo when he played in Toronto for the first time in 2024. It was also no great shock to see the star completely unbothered and responding with a homer.
The Dodgers have already announced that Snell and Yamamoto will start the first two games, so barring a setback, Ohtani’s start won’t be until the series shifts to LA. But he will certainly be hitting and leading off as the DH, so expect to hear some loud boos with the very first at-bat of the Fall Classic.
Oh, and Dodgers fans will undoubtedly be booing Toronto’s own leadoff hitter as well. Remember the note about Springer being a former Astros World Series MVP? Dodgers fans sure haven’t because that was from the infamous 2017 Fall Classic, when Springer tied a World Series record with five homers in a series that became embroiled in controversy two years after the fact when Houston’s sign-stealing scandal dropped. As far as LA is concerned, Springer and the Astros stole a ring from them, and it was especially painful since it occurred during a hard-fought series amid a 32-year Dodgers championship drought.
This should be a fun series for neutrals to watch. The Dodgers occupy a unique position because they’re the big hairy monster that always makes for a compelling villain, but Ohtani is also such magnetic source of awe because of fully incomparable feats like NLCS Game 4.
Popular sentiment for most partisans will likely lie with the Blue Jays to end their title drought rather than seeing the Dodgers repeat. Although Toronto finished the regular season with one more win (earning home-field advantage), there’s a reason why the Dodgers are considered the favorites. They’ve steamrolled through the playoffs with a 9-1 record, they’re healthier than they’ve been all year, they have championship pedigree with a star-laden lineup, and every single starting pitcher at their disposal has Cy Young-caliber stuff on their best days. The Yankees and Mariners weren’t schmucks, but they were not the October 2025 Dodgers.
Although it’s a tall task for the Jays, they do have a formidable, well-rounded offense of their own with few real holes. Guerrero and Springer are the big names, but Kirk, Varsho, Barger, Clement, Davis Schneider, and Nathan Lukes have all proved to be thorns in the side of many an opposing pitcher this year (particularly in October). Bichette has been injured since early September and missed the first couple rounds, but he says that his .311 bat will be ready for the World Series, rust or not. Heck, No. 9 hitter Andrés Giménez went yard twice in the ALCS after hitting just four in the previous six months combined. As detailed by MLB.com’s Mike Petriello, they don’t strike out much and they hit the ball hard; will that be enough against a Dodgers staff designed to limit contact? We can’t wait to find out.
As an added bonus, playoff thrillers are built on the backs on shaky bullpens. Sasaki and Hoffman have added some small degree of stability in the ninth inning this month for their teams. But it is far from ironclad, there are question marks all around the respective relief corps, and Dodgers and Jays fans with long memories can recall occasions when rock-solid closers couldn’t get the job done for them on the brightest stage anyway. I make no apology to these fanbases in my desire to see some bullpen combustion.
World Series Schedule
Game 1
Friday, October 24th
First pitch: 8 p.m. EST
TV/Streaming: FOX
Venue: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON
Game 2
Saturday, October 25th
First pitch: 8 p.m. EST
TV/Streaming: FOX
Venue: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON
Game 3
Monday, October 27th
First pitch: 8 p.m. EST
TV/Streaming: FOX
Venue: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Game 4
Tuesday, October 28th
First pitch: 8 p.m. EST
TV/Streaming: FOX
Venue: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Game 5 (if necessary)
Wednesday, October 29th
First pitch: 8 p.m. EST
TV/Streaming: FOX
Venue: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Game 6 (if necessary)
Friday, October 31st
First pitch: 8 p.m. EST
TV/Streaming: FOX
Venue: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON
Game 7 (if necessary)
Saturday, November 1st
First pitch: 8 p.m. EST
TV/Streaming: FOX
Venue: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON
