Unfathomable. Unwatchable. Unbearable.
Undone.
The richest team in baseball is splitting apart at the seams, tearing under stress, fraying beyond recognition, collecting on the floor of the 2025 baseball season in heaping piles of disappointment.
Soon, the supposedly greatest collection of players in Dodgers history could be history.
Soon, in another country and seemingly in another reality, the Dodgers could lose the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays, a hearty band of overachievers who took a three-games-to-two lead Wednesday with a workmanlike 6-1 Game 5 victory at Dodger Stadium.
The series now moves to Toronto’s Rogers Centre for the final two games, if necessary, beginning Friday, and the former heavy favorites are now the decided underdogs. The Dodgers not only have to win both games at the American League’s toughest home field, but they will have to do so against a seemingly destined and strongly bonded franchise attempting to win its first title in 32 years.
Not that Toronto is hungry for a title, but the Rogers Centre recently filled with 30,000 fans to watch the World Series… on television.
“We understand what it means to the city and the country, and I think it’s just remarkable,” said Manager John Schneider. “There’s watch parties and then there’s watch parties, you know. That was awesome.”
He added, “We’re thrilled that we’re going back there to play… the fans kind of become a part of you, and you want to kind of do that for them too.”
The Blue Jays are the Glue Jays.
The Dodgers are in pieces.
The Blue Jays became the first team in World Series history to open a game with back-to-back home runs Wednesday against Dodger ace Blake Snell, then battled and brittled their way to another run in the fourth, two more in the seventh, and another in the eighth.
The Dodgers could only manage a Kiké Hernández home run in seven innings against Jays rookie Trey Yesavage, and then stumbled into the night.
Yesavage set a World Series rookie record with 12 strikeouts. The Dodgers set some sort of record for embarrassment with three wild pitches in the decisive seventh.
The Blue Jays made every tough defensive play look easy in shutting down every offensive threat. The Dodgers allowed the Jays to score their third run after a terrible right field play in a season full of them, courtesy of Teoscar Hernández.
In the end, the fans booed and the stands emptied and the team moved to the verge of arguably the biggest disappointment in franchise history. After winning the 2024 World Series championship, after spending around $500 million this winter to improve their roster and create the richest team in baseball history, after rolling through the first three rounds of this autumn’s playoffs looking unbeatable… they are on the brink of being beaten by a team would be going from last place to first place while being populated by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer and a bunch of anonymous grinders.
“The series is almost over!” sang one loud spectator late Wednesday. “The series is almost over!”
Almost?
Snell, who allowed five runs in five innings in his first World Series start against the Jays, uncomfortably picked up where he left off.
First pitch of the game, a fat fastball, Davis Schneider drives it 373 feet over the left-field fence for a stunning home run for a platoon guy batting .188 in the playoffs.
Third pitch of the game, another fat fastball, Guerrero Jr. blasts it 394 feet over the left-field fence, not so surprising for a guy with eight homers in the playoffs.
After Yesavage had retired the first seven Dodger hitters, Kiké Hernández finally bit back by driving a 1-and-1 fastball 407 feet into the left-field pavilion for a home run that closed the gap to 2-1.
But in the fourth, right fielder Teoscar Hernández inexplicably dived in front of a Daulton Varsho blooper and turned it into a triple. Ernie Clement followed with a flyout to center field to score Varsho.
It felt like the game ended there. But then it got worse in the seventh, when Snell departed after allowing a walk and a single while recording two outs.
Rookie Edgardo Henriquez — what was he doing in the game? — walked Guerrero on a wild pitch that scored a run. Bo Bichette then singled to score a second run, the inning ending with the Jays leading 5-1.
To add insult, in the bottom of the seventh, Edman ruined a rally for the second time in the game by grounding into a double play.
And to think, before the game the Dodgers pulled out all the pregame stops.
Keith Williams Jr. sang the national anthem. Magic Johnson threw out the first pitch. Anthony Anderson did the honors of shouting, “It’s time for Dodger baseball!”
There were even more bells and whistles on the lineup card, as Roberts made his first major renovations of the postseason.
Andy Pages, hitting .080 for the postseason with a .215 OPS that is the lowest in history for any player with at least 50 plate appearances?
Benched.
Mookie Betts, hitting .158 in the postseason with no homers or RBIs and consistent failure to make opponents pay for intentionally walking Shohei Ohtani?
Moved down in the batting order from second to third for the first time in four years.
Will Smith, with one postseason homer and four RBIs? Moved up to the second slot behind Ohtani.
The new outfielder? The energy-driven Alex Call.
“I think in the postseason, you’ve got to be a little bit more reactive than the regular season,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “When I netted out the value of what I feel gives us the best chance to win today.”
It wasn’t enough.
The winner of Game 5 of a tied baseball series wins the series 67 percent of the time.
A Dodger team that earlier backed up the Brinks Truck is now officially on the brink.
The post Plaschke: Disappearing Dodgers backed to the brink of disaster after World Series Game 5 loss appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
