Oct 24, 2025, 11:39 PM ET<\/p>\n
TORONTO — Addison Barger<\/a> launched the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, Alejandro Kirk<\/a> added a two-run homer in a nine-run sixth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> overwhelmed the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> 11-4 in Friday night’s opener.<\/p>\n Daulton Varsho<\/a> started Toronto’s comeback from a 2-0 deficit with a two-run drive in the fourth off two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n The longball barrage was fitting as the Fall Classic returned to Toronto for the first time since 1993, when Joe Carter hit only the second walk-off homer to end a World Series. And in an unusual tie to that night 32 years ago, Varsho is named after Darren Daulton, the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> catcher Mitch Williams was throwing to when Carter connected.<\/p>\n Shohei Ohtani<\/a> hit his first Series home run for the heavily favored Dodgers, seeking to become the first repeat champion since the New York Yankees<\/a> took three titles in a row from 1998 to 2000. Los Angeles was trailing by nine runs when he connected off Braydon Fisher<\/a> for a two-run shot in the seventh, his fourth homer in two games.<\/p>\n Fans angry that Ohtani spurned the Blue Jays to sign with the Dodgers in December 2023 chanted: “We don’t need you!” when he came to the plate in the ninth.<\/p>\n Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is at Rogers Centre on Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oct 24, 2025, 11:39 PM ET TORONTO — Addison Barger launched the first pinch-hit grand slam in World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-249972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}