A Fascinating World Series

Commentary

I have used the metaphor of a kaleidoscope in relation to baseball (and to other sports also) to indicate that while the same simple elements remain, the configuration of those elements is ever-shifting. Whenever a fan is tempted to think, “I’ve seen it all before,” something new and unexpected happens on the field of play to explode that mistaken conclusion.

The 2025 World Series between the victorious Los Angeles Dodgers and the oh-so-close runner-up Toronto Blue Jays treated baseball fans to a most thrilling and unexpected drama.

The Dodgers and Blue Jays were well matched. Both teams flashed championship-caliber players who were passionate and spirited. Each team in turn showed great resilience.

After splitting the first two games of the series in Toronto, Game Three in Los Angeles would have been an obvious turning point in most years. The Dodgers prevailed in a classic 18-inning marathon when last year’s World Series MVP, Freddie Freeman, belted a walk-off home run. Game Three was also noteworthy for what the Dodgers’ two-way superstar, Shohei Ohtani, accomplished at the plate. He absolutely smashed the all-time record by reaching base nine times in a World Series game. The previous record was six. Four of the nine times he reached base were on extra-base hits, tying the record for a World Series game that was set way back in 1906. Wow!

Such a defeat might have crushed a lesser team, suddenly down two games to one with the next two games to be played on the Dodgers’ home field. The Blue Jays, however, were undaunted. They won those two games, enabling them to return home to Toronto up three games to two with a golden opportunity to win the franchise’s third title (and first in more than 30 years) in front of the hometown fans. It wasn’t to be. The Dodgers turned the tables on them, winning two tense contests as the visiting team. So much for home-field advantage: Five of the seven games were won by the visiting team.

The 2025 Series gave fans two classic games to remember—the aforementioned Game Three marathon and a nail-biting finale. In Game Seven, the Dodgers’ Ohtani was the starting pitcher, but he was unable to replicate his historic performance in the previous series against Milwaukee when he struck out 10 Brewers batters while hitting three prodigious home runs. In this game, Ohtani showed that he was human, giving up a three-run homer to Bo Bichette and ending his night on the mound in the third inning with the Dodgers trailing, 3–0. The Dodgers made it 3–1 in the fourth and 3–2 in the sixth, only to have the Blue Jays score a run in the bottom of the sixth to restore a two-run lead. 

The rest of the night belonged to the Dodgers. Interestingly, the offensive heroics came not from the Dodgers’ marquee players—Ohtani, Freeman, and Mookie Betts—but from the supporting cast, proving once again that baseball is a team sport and that having superstars in the lineup is no guarantee of victory. 

In the eighth inning, third baseman Max Muncy, who batted less than .200 in the Series but who also holds the Dodgers’ all-time record for postseason home runs, connected for a four-bagger off rookie sensation Trey Yesavage, who, just two games earlier, became the first rookie pitcher ever to register 12 strikeouts in a World Series game. 

With one out in the ninth, Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas—a 36-year-old 12-year veteran who averages less than five home runs per season—connected to tie the game. 

And in the top of the 11th, it was catcher Will Smith who struck the decisive blow.

While the three solo home runs will be what fans remember most vividly about this game, as a former baseball coach, I think Toronto’s fatal mistake came in the sixth inning. That is when a Toronto relief pitcher walked Mookie Betts to open the inning. A cardinal rule for pitchers: Don’t walk the leadoff batter; make him earn a place on base. Betts would eventually score. If he hadn’t, the two home runs in the eighth and ninth innings would have left the Dodgers one run short, and (if nothing else changed) we wouldn’t have seen Smith’s winning home run in the 11th, and the Dodgers wouldn’t be celebrating being the first team since the Yankees a quarter of a century ago to win back-to-back World Series.

There are several other aspects of Game Seven worth saluting. In the fourth inning, Blue Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho made the greatest catch of the year, only to be followed one batter later by an equally spectacular diving catch by first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. For the Dodgers, Rojas saved the game by making a great play at second base to force out the potential winning run at the plate for the Blue Jays in the bottom of the ninth.

Most notable of all was the performance by the World Series MVP, pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who won three games—a complete game gem in Game Two, a strong six-inning start in Game Six, and then Game Seven, which he entered in relief the very next day (his first career relief appearance) to get the final eight outs for the Dodgers. Yamamoto’s ERA in those three victories was a minuscule 1.05—the stuff of legend.

Several individual performances by Blue Jays players deserve to be mentioned here. Third baseman Ernie Clement set the all-time record for hits in a single postseason with 30 and another record of most multi-hit games in a postseason: 10. Right fielder Addison Barger tied two World Series records: hits in a World Series (12) and multi-hit games in a single Series (six). Barger also became the first player in history to hit a pinch-hit grand-slam home run in the World Series. Guerrero tied with Ohtani for most home runs this postseason with eight, and he was alone atop the RBI list with 15.

It was a memorable World Series, one of those cliffhangers where you feel it’s too bad one team had to lose it. The Blue Jays lost by a hair. Congratulations to the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.