Players from the Blue Jays and Dodgers came to the World Series with vastly different perspectives. The Dodgers are a seasoned defending champion with multiple former MVPs and Cy Young Award winners facing the rigors of global expectations. The Blue Jays, while they have some veterans with World Series experience, are mostly a talented bunch of upstarts who have reached unfamiliar heights. They also carry the weight of a city (and perhaps an entire country) that has waited three decades to return to the World Series. In a raucous atmosphere at Toronto’s Rogers Center, the Jayhawks harnessed tremendous energy to defeat the Dodgers 11-4 in Game 1.
Both teams created tension in the early going, but struggled to really break through. The Dodgers brought Los Angeles traffic to the bases in the second inning and notched their first win. A leadoff walk by catcher Will Smith and a single by Max Muncy set the stage for Enrique Hernández’s RBI single. Tommy Edman, a changeup hitter who unexpectedly hit right-handed against right-hander Trey Yesavage (perhaps to force him to use something other than a pinch-hitter), also hit a single and led with one out. After Andy Pages hit a well-placed Yesavage slider, leaving MVP favorite Shohei Ohtani with the bases loaded and two outs, it felt like the dam might break on Toronto’s rookie starter. Instead, Jesavage got Ohtani to roll over the slider and to first base.
The Blue Jays came close to an answer in the bottom half of the second inning, but after Freddie Freeman and Blake Snell struggled to make it 3-1, Ernie Clement’s overzealous attempt to sneak all the way to third base resulted in an out of the inning.
Snell’s intoxicating play prevented two-hole hitter Davis Schneider from seeing the set with multiple runners and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the field.
There was more chaos in the third inning, as Yesavich, who struck out a whopping 14 runs in just four innings but often struggled with fastball command, walked Mookie Betts and Freeman to start the inning. Smith hit a single to the opposite field, hitting Betts, but on this play, Freeman was found to have wandered too far beyond second base, causing the game to be hampered. If Freeman had simply stopped at second, Los Angeles might have had a bigger inning instead of leading 2-0 after three innings.
It probably won’t matter, at least not for long, as the Blue Jays’ lineup starts to find its footing and take over the game. Alejandro Kirk reached base four times in the game and took the lead in the home half of the fourth quarter. One pitch later, Daulton Varsho hit a 96 mph Snell fastball over the center field wall to tie the game.
Blue Jays head coach John Schneider reacted to the new state of play, starting the matchup in the middle inning. Lefty Mason Fluharty struck out Ohtani and Freeman in the fifth, then Seranthony Domínguez pitched a clean inning and a third inning.
In the second half of the sixth quarter, Toronto not only took the lead, but put the game out of reach. Snell walked the first three batters of the inning and then was replaced by Emmet Sheehan on 100 pitches in the tying run. Sheehan then allowed the first three batters he faces The Blue Jays sent left-handed hitter Addison Barger to the plate, facing Sheehan with the bases loaded instead of starting left fielder Davis Schneider, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled him out. Once Barger was announced as the pinch-hitter (Schneider’s third walk of the inning), Roberts struck out with left-hander Anthony Banda. The Dodgers didn’t fare well.
It was the first grand slam in World Series history, won by a 25-year-old who was once a top-100 prospect but struggled to fully integrate into the Toronto lineup until this year, his eighth career start. Like someone opening a bottle of shaken soda, Blue Jays Bugg scored four runs with one swing of his bat, and then the bubbles continued to swirl, a few batters later, when Kirk hit a two-run homer in his second at-bat of the inning. Twelve batters reached base in Toronto’s nine-run sixth inning. It was the most runs scored by a team in a single inning in the World Series since 1968, when the Tigers scored 10 runs in the third inning of Game 6. Only once has a team scored 10 runs in a single inning in the World Series; it was the most runs scored by a team in a World Series game since 1968. That was 96 years ago, when the Philadelphia Athletics trailed the Cubs 8-0 in Game 7 of Game 4 of the 1929 Fall Classic and finished 10th on the field.
Then the Blue Jays put on cruise control. Ohtani hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, but it was met with collective indifference at best from the crowd, who seemed to consider watching Ohtani go deep into the game a reward. Both teams used lower pitching leverage to get through the final three innings of the inning. Toronto totaled 14 hits and drove in four runs.
Nuggets to consider in Game 2
Bo Bichette, back from a knee sprain suffered in early September, went 1-for-2 with a walk but was removed with a base runner in the decisive sixth inning. Normally a shortstop, he played second base for the first time in the major leagues to take some of the load off his knees. He played some nice backhand defense in the third game, although he did look a little lame. We might expect him to be campaigned, or for Isiah Keener-Falefa to replace him in defense later in the game.
Despite the onslaught in the middle of the game, none of the Dodgers’ relievers (Sheehan, Banda, Justin Wrobleski, Will Klein) threw more than 16 pitches in the game. Dominguez, meanwhile, needed just 13 pitches to get four outs, and he’ll likely be available in Game 2 if the Blue Jays need him.
As mentioned above, in Game 1, switch hitter Tommy Edman batted right-handed against right-handed pitchers. He last did so in September against the Diamondbacks’ John Curtiss, and before that in May against Emmanuel Clase. According to Synergy Sports, Edelman has made 73 appearances since 2018, hitting .232/.260/.348 in those situations.
