Dodgers and Blue Jays begin the clash for baseball supremacy
Dodgers and Blue Jays, two teams with pedigree in the Major Leagues, begin the exciting battle for the World Series title
TORONTO — Two teams with different history, culture and nations compete for baseball supremacy in the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series.
On one hand, we have the Los Angeles Dodgers, a franchise whose lineage goes back to the origins and epicenter of American professional baseball royalty. On the other, the Toronto Blue Jays of Canada, the only foreign team with a seat at the table of the heavyweights of professional ball.
The Dodgers, current MLB champions, are the National League team with the most appearances (23) and games (118) in the Fall Classic. Their eight titles are the third most since the World Series was founded in 1903 and they appear in the event for the fifth time in the last nine seasons.
The Dodgers broke the color barrier in 1947 and helped expand baseball to the Western United States, moving next to the New York Giants to the West Coast before the 1958 season. For the second year in a row, Los Angeles ranked first in the AM850 about the most fun clubs to watch play in the Major Leagues.
The Blue Jays entered the Major Leagues in the 1977 American League expansion and since the Montreal Expos They were moved to the capital of the United States and renamed the Washington Nationals, remaining the only representative of Canada in the Major Leagues. They won their only two appearances in the World Series, in 1992, against the Atlanta Braves, and in 1993 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Toronto finished the regular series tied with the favorite New York Yankees at the top of the American League East Division, but received the pennant thanks to winning the particular series against the Bronx. It is the seventh division title and the first since 2015 for the Canadian Blue Jays, who have 11 playoff appearances.
In the Division Series they eliminated the Yankees in four games, but needed a decisive seventh to beat the Seattle Mariners in the Championship Series. The Blue Jays reached the World Series by a clean sweep, leading the postseason in hits (115), extra-base hits (47), runs (71) and batting average (.296), OBP (.355) and OPS (.878). The troop he leads John Schneider He averages 6.5 runs per game, the fourth-best figure ever in the first 11 games of a postseason and the highest since the 2007 Boston Red Sox.
Dominican first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Most Valuable Player of the American League Championship Series, is hitting .442 (43-19) with six home runs, six walks, three doubles, 12 RBIs and 11 runs scored in the playoffs. Designated hitter George Springer has hit four home runs, including a three-run hit in the seventh inning of Game 7 against the Mariners that still resonates across Canada. Mexican catcher Alejandro Kirk has three home runs and seven RBIs and second baseman Ernie Clement is hitting .429.
The Dodgers won the National League West Division for the fourth straight year and for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons, then proceeded to sweep the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 in the Wild Card Series, beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 in the Divisionals, and beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-0 in the Championship Series.
With a starting rotation on display that borders on historic, Los Angeles pitching has a 2.45 ERA and 104 strikeouts in 92 innings.
Starters Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani combine for a 7-1 record, 1.40 ERA (10 earned runs) with 81 strikeouts in 64.1 innings. Only the rotations of the 1981 Dodgers (1.26) and the 1972 New York Mets (1.38) had better ERAs in the first 10 games of a postseason.
In an era in which the bullpen has been declared more important than starting pitching in the month of October, Dodgers starters have pitched 70 percent of the team’s innings this postseason, the highest percentage of a team reaching the World Series since the 2013 St. Louis Cardinals (70 percent). Only 45 percent of all innings pitched by all other teams this postseason have been by their starters.
Ohtani, the only star player as a hitter and pitcher at the same time in Major League history, pitched six scoreless innings and fanned 10 batters from the mound and hit three home runs from the batter’s box in the game against Milwaukee that put the Dodgers in the World Series, a historic performance that catapulted him to win the Most Valuable Player of the series.
Although they haven’t hit much in this year’s playoffs, stars like Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teóscar Hernández, Will Smith and the incredible postseason Kiké Hernandez are proven weapons on big stages.
Los Angeles is the first team to return to defend its crown since the 2008-09 Phillies and seeks to be the first to repeat championships since the Yankees’ triplet in 1998, ’99 and 2000. The last Old Circuit team to lift the commissioner’s trophy in consecutive seasons was the ‘Big Red Machine’ of the Cincinnati Reds in 1975-76.
Although the 2025 World Series will begin in Toronto, according to the consensus of AM850 BET and the betting houses, Los Angeles is a super favorite (-220) to win, with the forecast that the event will conclude in five games (+350) being the preferred one among bettors.
The Dodgers are the first team without home field advantage to be a favorite in the World Series since 2016 (Chicago Cubs -190 vs. Cleveland Guardians). Of the last 16 times the visiting team has been a favorite in the World Series, the home team has won 12 of those series. The Dodgers are tied for the second-biggest road favorites in the World Series (with the 1985 Cardinals) since 1950, according to SportsOddsHistory.com.
In fact, the Dodgers started as favorites immediately after the last World Series, which they won in five games, and the criterion was strengthened when they added Snell, Japanese rookie Roki Sasaki and relievers Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott.
While the last two have not been a factor in the postseason, due to injuries and poor performance, Snell (3-0, 0.86) leads the rotation and Sasaki (3 SV, 1.13) has become the luxury closer in the postseason.
The Dodgers have never won in consecutive years in their 142-year existence. The Blue Jays are perfect (2-2) so far in the World Series, since they debuted 49 years ago.
