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The Dodgers were tantalizingly close to hosting Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night.
Instead, their Fall Classic opponent came storming back in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
With a 4-3 defeat of the Seattle Mariners in a winner-take-all classic on Monday night, the Toronto Blue Jays won their first AL pennant in 32 years — and will have home-field advantage in the World Series against the Dodgers, with the Fall Classic set to begin north of the border at the end of this week.
The matchup will offer star power on both sides, with the AL’s No. 1 seed this postseason squaring off against a defending-champion Dodgers team trying to cement a dynasty.
For the Blue Jays, this will be their first World Series trip since winning back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993.
Ahead of Game 1 of Friday night, here are nine things to know about the Blue Jays.
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Swatting the soft stuff
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The Blue Jays had one of the best offenses in the majors this year, ranking fourth in scoring, first in batting average and third in OPS.
The way they did it: By being the best lineup in baseball against off-speed and breaking pitches.
Against non-fastballs this season, no team in MLB had a higher average (.258), a better slugging percentage (.423) or a lower whiff rate (25.8%) than Toronto.
They were fine against heaters, too, hitting .272 (seventh-best batting average) with a .431 slugging percentage (matching the league-average mark). But their ability to hit the soft stuff was singular. The next closest team in average against non-fastballs was the Kansas City Royals, and were 16 points behind the Blue Jays in that category.
It could pose a challenge for a Dodgers staff that has leaned heavily on secondary stuff this postseason (throwing non-fastballs more than 50% of the time) and features a rotation of pitchers with premium breaking stuff (from Blake Snell’s changeup to Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s splitter to Tyler Glasnow’s slider/curveball combination).
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Vlad Jr.’s coming out party
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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was a big name in baseball — thanks to his famous name — from the day he arrived in the majors in 2019.
In seven seasons since, he has blossomed into one of the sport’s biggest stars, becoming a five-time All-Star who has averaged more than 30 home runs per year since 2021.
And this October, his rise has culminated with one of the best playoff hitting performances in MLB history, with Guerrero batting .462 to go along with six home runs, 12 RBIs and a 1.532 OPS (third-best in all-time among players with at least 40 plate appearances in one postseason).
The 26-year-old slugger is a tough out (he’s struck out just twice in 10 playoff games entering Monday’s Game 7 of the ALCS, a constant on-base threat (he’s reached safely in more than half of his 47 trips to the plate) and Toronto’s biggest slugging threat (he also has three doubles).
He is the face of the franchise, and the epitome of what makes the Blue Jays’ lineup so dangerous. Also, he has good numbers against the Dodgers’ rotation, with a career .323 average against Glasnow, Snell and Ohtani combined (he has never faced Yamamoto).
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Springer’s still got it
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Entering his age-35 season, and coming off his worst career offensive performance in 2024, Springer’s career appeared to be on the decline at the start of the year.
Instead, he produced perhaps the best of his 12 MLB seasons.
Springer, now 36, hit a career-best .309 for the Blue Jays this year with 32 home runs, 84 RBIs and a .959 OPS (marks he hadn’t previously reached since 2019, when he was a member of the Houston Astros).
He has continued to be a threat in the playoffs, with his .233 average offset by three home runs and an .864 OPS.
He’s a familiar villain for the Dodgers fans, having been part of the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing team. But he has found renewed success in his second chapter in Toronto, giving the Blue Jays a battled-tested October veteran on a team with no other lineup regulars above the age of 30.
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The October surprises
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Utilitymen Ernie Clement, Addison Barger and Nathan Lukes were productive players for the Blue Jays this year, combining to hit .260 with 42 home runs and 189 RBIs in the regular season.
But this fall, the previously anonymous role players have taken their game to a different level.
Clement, a 29-year-old journeyman who has found a home with the Blue Jays the past two seasons, is hitting .447 with five extra-base hits, seven RBIs and a 1.121 OPS this October. Barger, a former sixth-round pick in Toronto, and Lukes, a former minor-league signing, both have an OPS in the .800s as the team’s best threats from the left side of the plate.
They’ve giving the Blue Jays’ lineup length, balance and unexpected pop, helping compensate for the absence of shortstop Bo Bichette with the kind of breakout performances that can often make the difference between a short postseason and deep October run.
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Bichette coming back?
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About Bichette…
After a dismal 2024 season, the two-time All-Star returned to form this year with a .311 average, 18 home runs and 94 RBIs, trailing only Guerrero and Springer on the team with an .840 OPS.
However, he hasn’t played since Sept. 6 because of a sprained knee. The question for this week: Whether he’ll be a factor in the World Series.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider has left that possibility open, noting recently that Bichette has made “significant progress” in his recovery. And if he can play any sort of role in the Fall Classic, it will add that much more depth to an already humming Toronto offense.
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An experienced rotation
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The Blue Jays can’t match the in-their-prime talent of the Dodgers’ starting rotation. But they have had plenty of experience on the mound this October.
Kevin Gausman, a 34-year-old two-time All-Star has anchored the staff, posing a 2.12 ERA in three starts (despite having just 12 strikeouts in 17 innings). Former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, a trade deadline acquisition from Cleveland, returned late in the season from Tommy John surgery and has also been good in three starts (including a 3 ⅔-inning, two-run outing in Game 7 of the ALCS on Monday).
And then there’s 40-year-old future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer, who had a career-worst 5.19 ERA in an injury-shortened regular season but gave up just two runs in 5 ⅔ innings in his lone ALCS start.
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A breakout rookie star
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The other member of Toronto’s rotation is on the complete opposite end of the age spectrum.
Though he began this season in low-A ball, and didn’t even make his MLB debut until the middle of September, 22-year-old Trey Yesavage has become an October sensation north of border, having won two of his three starts thanks first and foremost to a nasty splitter that drops from the sky in his 6-foot-4 delivery.
Yesavage used the pitch to dominate the New York Yankees in the ALDS, when he had 11 strikeouts in 5 ⅓ scoreless innings. Then, after giving up five runs in four frames in Game 2 of the ALCS, he bounced back with a 5 ⅔-inning, two-run performance in Game 6 that helped Toronto stave off elimination.
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Big outs from the bullpen
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The Blue Jays’ bullpen, frankly, has not been very good in this postseason. Entering Monday’s Game 7, the group had a 6.02 ERA and only one successful save.
In that Game 7, however, the Blue Jays showed the ability that still resides in that group.
Louis Varland, a right-hander acquired at the trade deadline, recorded four outs while giving up just one run, and has a 3.27 ERA in the playoffs. Seranthony Domínguez, another right-handed deadline acquisition, pitched a scoreless inning to lower his October ERA to 4.05.
Toronto used a couple starters from there, getting scoreless innings from Gausman and fellow veteran Chris Bassitt.
But at the end, the final three outs belonged to veteran right-hander Jeff Hoffman, a 2024 All-Star who had a disappointing debut season after signing in Toronto this offseason, but now has both of their postseason saves.
The Blue Jays’ one big bullpen weakness is its lack of dominant left-handed depth. Mason Fluharty has been their best southpaw, but has a 6.23 ERA in the playoffs. Brendon Little, Eric Lauer and ex-Dodger Justin Bruihl are also on their roster, but haven’t been any more effective.
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Home-field advantage
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The Blue Jays won one more game than the Dodgers in the regular season. Which means they’ll get a potential important home-field advantage for the World Series.
Toronto’s 54 home wins this year were second most in the majors, only one worse than the Philadelphia Phillies’ league-best home record. And in the playoffs, Rogers Centre has been a fortress when it has mattered most, with the Blue Jays winning both games at home in the ALDS and then, despite dropping Games 1 and 2 at home in ALCS, returning for back-to-back elimination victories in Games 6 and 7.
The Blue Jays’ offense has been particularly good at Rogers Centre this year, with the club averaging 5.32 runs-per-game there in the regular season (compared to 4.53 on the road).
The post Nine concerns the Dodgers should have about facing the Blue Jays in the World Series appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
