{"id":239654,"date":"2025-10-25T10:24:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T10:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/239654\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T10:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T10:24:04","slug":"the-blue-jays-flipped-the-world-series-script-on-baseballs-biggest-spenders-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/239654\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays flipped the World Series script on baseball\u2019s biggest spenders | World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the first pitch of the 2025 World Series on Friday night, it had been 32 years and one day since the greatest day in Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> history and the last time that the franchise hosted a World Series game.<\/p>\n

On 23 October 1993, outfielder Joe Carter hit the second ever walk-off home run<\/a> to clinch a World Series championship on a pitch that was being thrown to Philadelphia Phillies catcher Darren Daulton. On 24 October 2025, the first Blue Jays home run hit in a World Series game since Carter\u2019s was by outfielder Daulton Varsho, whose father, Gary, named his son after his former Phillies teammate \u2026 Darren Daulton. Two innings later, outfielder Addison Barger hit the first pinch-hit grand slam<\/a> in World Series history, the keynote of a nine-run sixth inning, which was the highest-scoring World Series inning since 1968.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideWorld Series 2025Show<\/p>\n

Schedule<\/p>\n

Best-of-seven series. All times Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4).<\/p>\n

Fri 24 Oct\u00a0Game 1: Toronto Blue Jays 11, LA Dodgers 4<\/a><\/p>\n

Sat 25 Oct\u00a0Game 2: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8pm<\/p>\n

Mon 27 Oct\u00a0Game 3: Toronto Blue Jays at LA Dodgers, 8pm<\/p>\n

Tue 28 Oct\u00a0Game 4: Toronto Blue Jays at LA Dodgers, 8pm<\/p>\n

Wed 29 Oct\u00a0Game 5: Toronto Blue Jays at LA Dodgers, 8pm*<\/p>\n

Fri 31 Oct Game 6: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8pm*<\/p>\n

Sat 1 Nov Game 7: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8pm*<\/p>\n

*if necessary<\/p>\n

How to watch<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the US, all games will be broadcast on FOX. If you have a cable\/satellite subscription with FOX included, you can also stream via the FOX Sports app.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In Canada, the English-language broadcast is on Sportsnet while the French-language broadcasts are on RDS and TVA Sports. The games are also streaming on Sportsnet+ (English-language).<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the UK, the official broadcaster is TNT\u202fSports. A subscription to their service or their app is required.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In Australia, the rightsholder is the local branch of ESPN\u202fAustralia and related platforms.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays sixth-inning outburst turned a nailbiter into a rollicking 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series. It wasn\u2019t a game destined for baseball lore, but it proved that the Blue Jays might be historically underestimated against the heavily favored<\/a> Dodgers.<\/p>\n

Despite winning a division with three playoff teams and leading all of Major League Baseball in team batting average and having home-field advantage, the 2025 Blue Jays started the World Series<\/a> as enormous underdogs to a Dodgers team that entered the series as one of the most overwhelming championship favorites of the past 15 years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Dodgers aren\u2019t seen as Goliath anymore as much as they are seen as an inevitability: They are the defending World Series champions who have not missed the postseason since 2012 and have the highest payroll in Major League Baseball<\/a>. They entered Friday night\u2019s game with a 9-1 record in this year\u2019s postseason and had allowed five runs over their past five games. The pitchers who started those games (Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto) will earn over $100m combined in 2025 alone, which is higher than the total payrolls of five entire major-league teams. Those salaries do not include what the team is paying three other former MVPs (shortstop Mookie Betts, pitcher Clayton Kershaw and first baseman Freddie Freeman).<\/p>\n

Game won?<\/a><\/p>\n

During a pregame press conference, Los Angeles president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was asked to comment about the perception that the Dodgers are \u201cruining baseball\u201d with their aggressive spending. Friedman said that he believes it\u2019s his responsibility to spend for the fans: The Dodgers welcomed four million fans in 2025 and have an average nightly attendance (49,537) that is higher than the capacity of every other ballpark in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything for us is about pouring back into our fans and that partnership that we have with them. Friedman said. \u201cSo anything else that comes from it \u2013 and obviously, I\u2019ve heard a lot of it \u2013 it\u2019s just not front of mind for us because everything is around how do we put ourselves in the best position to win now and also to win in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the Dodgers could not buy themselves on Friday night was reliable relief pitching. Despite committing over $100m in long-term contracts to relievers this offseason (two of whom are not on the World Series roster), the Dodgers relied on a converted starting pitcher (Emmett Sheehan) and one of their best relievers from the 2024 playoffs (Anthony Banda) to try and hold onto a 2-2 tie after starting pitcher Blake Snell (who signed a five-year, $182m contract<\/a> last November) was removed in the sixth inning.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 Mookie Betts reacts after striking out against the Blue Jays to end Game 1. Photograph: David J Phillip\/AP<\/p>\n

Sheehan and Banda quickly learned what makes the Blue Jays so dangerous and what may anchor the team\u2019s first championship in three-plus decades if the Dodgers\u2019 pitching does not improve. Sheehan allowed three of the four hitters he faced to reach base. By the time Banda exited the game, Toronto had hit two more homer and the Dodgers were losing by nine runs.<\/p>\n

Barger\u2019s grand slam highlighted the Blue Jays\u2019 blitz of Dodgers pitching to blow open what had been a tense affair through the first five and a half innings. Then, Toronto scored nine runs on six hits and swung and missed at all of three pitches in an inning where they sent 12 hitters to the plate. By the end of the game, nine different Blue Jays had scored a run.<\/p>\n

That familiar relentlessness has produced some of the best offensive performances by any team in the 2025 postseason: They scored 34 runs over four games in their demolition of the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series and overcame 2-0 series deficit against the Seattle Mariners by outsourcing them 33-17 over the next five games.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Dodgers, who finished second in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage during the regular season, the Blue Jays don\u2019t make power the focal point of their offense. Toronto entered Game 1 scoring nearly seven runs per game in the postseason and a team batting average of over .300, which is over 50 points higher than the second-place Dodgers. Even more impressively, the Blue Jays are striking out fewer than six times per game, something no other playoff team can boast. Over the course of the regular season, the Blue Jays had the second-fewest strikeouts of any offense in Major League Baseball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That approach is one seemingly designed to frustrate the Dodgers, who overpowered the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers with long outings anchored by high strikeout totals. Before Friday night, Dodgers starting pitchers had struck out at least seven hitters in nine of their 10 playoff starts. In Game 1, the pitching staff didn\u2019t record a strikeout after the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to pass the baton to the next guy,\u201d said Blue Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho after the game. \u201cThat\u2019s been our MO all year, and we trusted it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alejandro Kirk of the Blue Jays hits a single during the fourth inning of Game 1. Photograph: Cole Burston\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is just the second loss of the postseason for a Dodgers team that showed plenty of signs of its veteran savvy and discipline even in a blowout loss. Though they struggled to capitalize on early opportunities, the Dodgers forced Blue Jays starting pitcher Trey Yesavage out of the game after four innings thanks to long, patient at-bats that stretched the star rookie and triggered Blue Jays manager John Schneider to replace him in the top of the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really tried to stay stubborn in the hitting zone,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cBut we just couldn\u2019t get that one or two at-bats to really create a little bit more distance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if they are being cast as David, the Blue Jays are hardly overmatched: They have the fifth-highest payroll in the league, one of the game\u2019s most popular stars (Vladimir Guerrero Jr), two former Cy Young-winning starting pitchers (Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer) and an excellent defense that the Dodgers cannot exploit the way a sloppy New York Yankees team accommodated them<\/a> in the 2024 World Series.<\/p>\n

Even if the Dodgers might have more financial might, Friday night\u2019s sudden change from pitcher\u2019s duel to blowout showed that a thrilling and unpredictable series likely awaits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great right now,\u201d Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the game. \u201cBut in about 10 minutes, tomorrow\u2019s tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the first pitch of the 2025 World Series on Friday night, it had been 32 years and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-239654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}