Tonight, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers will begin their seven-game series that will end with a World Series champion being crowned. The Blue Jays will be playing for the franchise's third-ever World Series title. On the other side, the Los Angeles Dodgers are seeking their ninth championship and are trying to be the first team in 25 years to win back-to-back World Series.
Blue Jays All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knows how much a championship would mean to the city of Toronto, which hasn't seen its baseball team reach the World Series since 1993.
"It feels amazing," Guerrero said while celebrating the team's ALCS victory on October 20th. "We worked so hard for this, and thank God we did it."
Toronto manager John Schneider also recognized the importance of leading the Blue Jays to the World Series.
“[I’m] pretty humbled to be part of it,” he told reporters after the ALCS win. “I've said it before, besides my wife and kids, this is what I pour my life into. To be leading the team that's going back to the World Series for the first time in 32 years kind of hits me a little bit. I couldn't be happier for every single guy on the team and in the clubhouse. Not just the players, but the staff, too.”
The Blue Jays will need to beat the insanely talented Los Angeles Dodgers four times in order to earn their first World Series title in over 30 years. As difficult as that may sound, John Schneider knows his guys are up for the challenge.
“I think - to get to where you want to go – you’ve got to be at the best, right? Whether it's talent, payroll, whatever you want to call it, man, they're a damn good team,” Schneider said. “They’ve got Hall of Famers up and down [and at the] top of their lineup. They’ve got really, really good starting pitching and really good relievers. I truly think that the best two teams are left standing for a variety of different reasons. I'll never count my guys out of any series. It's going to be fun. They're going to be up for it.”
The Dodgers, on the other hand, are looking for their third World Series win in the last six years. After winning the championship last season, the 2025 World Series has been on the minds of everybody in the Dodgers organization. Manager Dave Roberts admitted that he had mentioned the idea of going back-to-back early in the year.
“I haven't brought it up in the season. I brought it up, I think, on the first day of spring training and haven't talked about it since,” Roberts told members of the media on Tuesday. “I think it's one of those added pressures that I don't think that I want to take on. I don't think our players need to take [it] on. So, I think - for us - it's kind of being in the moment, taking care of business, and then, at the end of the day, at the end of the season, then you can look back. But right now the only focus is winning game one and winning four more games here.”
Even though the Dodgers have reached the World Series twice in the last two years, the feeling of playing in the Fall Classic isn't something that LA's players have completely gotten used to.
“Getting to the World Series is what we all dreamed about as kids. And you never know how many you're going to get to, or if it's going to be the last one,” explained Dodgers All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman on Tuesday. “And there's so many Hall of Famers that didn't even get to win one or even get to one. It's not routine. I'm excited.”
The Dodgers are not going to waltz into Toronto and expect the Blue Jays to just hand them the World Series. They're going to lean on the experience they had last year to help them potentially win a second straight championship.
“You could argue that the naivety, the inexperience, is a good thing. But I feel that the ability to manage moments, your heartbeat, is advantageous, especially in a seven-game series,” Dave Roberts said yesterday. “I think that we're equipped to play well. We're facing a very good ball club, but I like [our] experience.”
Prediction for the 2025 World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers' pitching staff is absolutely dominant, with the third-best ERA this postseason (2.45). Meanwhile, the Blue Jays have allowed the second-most earned runs in the playoffs (47), which doesn't bode well when facing an LA team that averages 4.6 runs per game. Toronto will probably not be as effective at hitting homers since the Dodgers have only allowed four in the postseason. It also seems unlikely that the Blue Jays' pitching staff will be able to contain LA's murderers' row lineup. Maybe we're hyping up the Dodgers too much, but it feels like Toronto will be lucky to win two games in this series.
Prediction: Dodgers win the series 4-1
How to watch
Game One of the World Series starts at 8:00 p.m. EDT at the Rogers Centre. You can watch it on Fox or stream it via the Fox Sports app or on Sling TV.
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