Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays. NL West vs. AL East. Shohei Ohtani vs. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
It's time for Game 1 of the 2025 World Series, featuring an L.A. squad looking to repeat as champions against a team that hasn't won it all since going back-to-back in 1992-93 -- and we're here to get you ready for all the action.
With the first pitch of Game 1 scheduled for 8 p.m. ET at Rogers Centre, we break down the players and matchups that matter most for both teams. We also asked our ESPN MLB experts to make their picks for who will win the Series, how many games it will take and who will be the MVP of this Fall Classic.
Jump to: Dodgers | Blue Jays | Our predictions
Los Angeles Dodgers
Chance of winning: 60.4% | ESPN BET odds: -210
What's on the line for the Dodgers: History! Big-time history. The Dodgers are looking to become the first repeat champions since the Yankees won three years in a row from 1998 to 2000. L.A. would love to send Clayton Kershaw into retirement as a champion, even if he'll probably be watching this one from the bench or the bullpen.
And while it's fair game to hate the Dodgers for buying an entire starting rotation, it's worth noting they won it all last year with a 98-win regular season and might win this year following a 93-win regular season, but did not win in seasons of 104 wins (2017), 106 wins (2019), 106 wins again (2021) 111 wins (2022) and 100 wins (2023). This could be one of the great dynasties in MLB history but in the eyes of some, they'll need back-to-back titles to officially earn that designation. -- David Schoenfield
Three reasons L.A. can win:
Starting pitching. Dodgers starters have posted a 1.40 ERA in these playoffs, the lowest ever for a team that played at least 10 postseason games. Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani have already contributed eight starts of at least six innings and no more than three runs allowed. And if their collective dominance wasn't enough, they'll go into this World Series on extended rest, giving manager Dave Roberts more freedom to push his starters even deeper into games. The Dodgers won it all last year with a dominant bullpen that made up for a very limited starting rotation. It's the opposite this year, and it's a much easier way to live.
The depth of their lineup. Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy have all slumped to varying degrees in the two series since the Dodgers cruised past the Reds in the wild-card round, but the likes of Kik Hernndez, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernandez and Will Smith have picked up the slack along the way. And that's what's so dangerous about this team: even when their superstars are off track, others can step up. The offense never fully clicked against the Phillies or the Brewers, but that can turn at any moment -- especially with Smith seemingly fully recovered from his hairline fracture.
Roki Sasaki. Nobody will benefit more from extended rest than the converted starting pitcher who, we should note, is still navigating his first season in the States. Sasaki recaptured his velocity, displayed immediate comfort in a high-leverage bullpen role and has dominated as the Dodgers' newfound closer, allowing just one run in eight postseason innings. At this point, there are no restrictions with Sasaki. He can pitch in back-to-backs, he can come in mid-inning, and he can record up to nine outs, as he did in the NLDS clincher. The Dodgers might be weak in the bullpen, but if their starters are pitching deep and Sasaki is picking up most of the rest, it's really tough to score against them. -- Alden Gonzalez
Where the Dodgers are vulnerable: Even a casual observer would quickly note that the Dodgers' bullpen is still a question mark -- especially as compared to the rest of the team. The relievers have compiled a 4.88 ERA in nine playoff games after their 4.21 mark ranked 21st in that category during the regular season.
Manager Dave Roberts left nothing to chance last round, letting his starters throw all but 7 innings against the Brewers with Sasaki picking up 2 of those. Outside of Sasaki, no L.A. reliever has thrown more than 4 innings this postseason. Getting Dodgers starters to high pitch counts is an easier-said-than-done strategy, but it could be a winning one for Toronto because getting into that pen is the Blue Jays' best chance. -- Jesse Rogers
How the Dodgers can pitch Vlad Jr.: The unique thing about Guerrero among other power hitters is his flatter swing plane. This means that while sluggers like Ohtani and the Yankees' Aaron Judge struggle with flat four-seam fastballs at the top of the zone because their lofted swing plane doesn't intersect much with that, Guerrero's comparatively flat swing plane does. Guerrero also has more innate bat control, so his in-zone miss rate is lower, basically missing only on some of the fringes of the zone. But, since he doesn't lift the ball as well, missing a spot could mean a ball hit 110-plus mph off the bat still isn't an extra-base hit.
With this in mind, you don't want to throw Guerrero any fastballs if you can help it and definitely need to keep them away if you're going to throw some to set up an off-speed pitch. This sets up well for Snell, the Game 1 starter, to work away with fastballs and tunnel them with his emerging changeup.
The power righties on the Dodgers' staff already tend to work away from right-handed hitters with their fastballs, but Guerrero's bat speed means he's even better against cutters/sliders than curveballs/sweepers/changeups/splitters. I'd expect Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani to mix in fastballs away to keep Guerrero off of the steady diet of soft stuff away. Yamamoto's curveball and splitter are particularly well-suited for this task while Ohtani and Glasnow are more power and velocity-oriented, even with their off-speed stuff. -- Kiley McDaniel
Jeff Passan's inside intel:
The split-fingered fastball is the pitch of the postseason, something for which the Dodgers are thankful because of the nastiness of Yamamoto's, Ohtani's and Sasaki's. But Los Angeles hitters have seen only 47 splitters (3.2% of all pitches) in October. That will decidedly change over the next week. Blue Jays pitchers have thrown splitters more than 15% of the time this postseason, and whether it's Kevin Gausman or Trey Yesavage starting the first two games or Dominguez and Jeff Hoffman finishing them, Los Angeles' ability to hit the split will be a deciding factor in the effectiveness of their offense.
What's terrifying about the Dodgers is their offense really hasn't gotten going. Freeman and Muncy each have one RBI in Los Angeles' 10 games, and they're getting spun to death, with Freeman facing 38% breaking balls and Muncy 41.2%. Beyond Ohtani and Teoscar Hernandez, Dodgers hitters have just four home runs in 301 plate appearances. Their pitching has been so good that the offensive mediocrity hasn't mattered, but they've also faced two pitching staffs in Philadelphia and Milwaukee that are considerably better than Toronto's. The Blue Jays have thrown the fewest strikes by far of any playoff team. More than a quarter of opponents' plate appearances have gone to three-ball counts. There's real opportunity, a scout said, for the Dodgers "to break out in a big way."
"I want to see who wins the battle of the changeups," another scout said, "because that is Toronto's chance at making this a series." Dodgers pitchers have been the kings of change this postseason, generating swings on 60.2% of their 108 changeups and misses on 60% of those swings -- both the best numbers of any playoff team that got past the wild-card round. Blue Jays hitters, meanwhile, are destroying changeups, with three home runs and a slash of .579/.600/1.105 on the pitch. And, yes, it's only 20 plate appearances that ended on a changeup, but they've handled them well enough to cajole pitchers into being ultra-careful. It's strength vs. strength, the game inside the game. May the best team win.
Toronto Blue Jays
Chance of winning: 39.6% | ESPN BET odds: +175
What's on the line for the Blue Jays: Their first championship since the glory days of 1992-93, when the Jays won back-to-back World Series with two of the most star-studded rosters ever assembled. (Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, John Olerud, Rickey Henderson, Joe Carter, Devon White, Dave Winfield, David Cone, Jack Morris, Dave Stewart, Jimmy Key, Juan Guzman, Pat Hentgen, Tom Henke)
A title would also give validation to an organization that has had a lot of success in recent years but went 0-6 in three previous playoff trips this decade. Validation that they made the right move in signing Guerrero to a much-criticized $500 million contract. And, of course, there's the matter of saving us from the Dodgers ruining baseball.
Three reasons Toronto can win:
Low strikeout rate. The Blue Jays don't strike out. This series could come down to which strength triumphs: Toronto's contact rate or the Dodgers starters' whiff rate. The Blue Jays led the majors in contact percentage (80.5%) during the regular season and they have the lowest strikeout rate (14.8%) in the postseason by a good margin. Meanwhile, L.A.'s starting pitchers have posted the highest whiff rate (39.4%) during the postseason. The Dodgers cruised to the World Series behind their historically dominant starting rotation. That dominance allowed manager Dave Roberts to avoid overexposing his underwhelming bullpen, which is their clear weakness. Getting to the Dodgers bullpen early and often is the Blue Jays' surest path to victory. To do that, they'll have to inflict some damage on the Dodgers' starting rotation -- or at least effectively raise pitch counts to force Roberts to hand the ball to relievers in the middle innings.
Defense. Remember last year, when, after winning the World Series, the Dodgers bluntly and repeatedly said that their game plan was to apply pressure on the Yankees and make them beat themselves? The Yankees' Game 5 meltdown is infamous but a defensive miscue also proved costly in Game 1. Well, these Blue Jays are a far more sound defensive club. They ranked fourth in the majors in defensive runs saved (the Dodgers were third) and ninth in outs above average (the Dodgers were 12th) during the regular season. The prowess was recently recognized when five players were named finalists for a Gold Glove, with Ernie Clement nominated for the award at third base and as a utilityman. The Blue Jays shouldn't give the Dodgers extra outs, and that's a start in pulling off this upset.
The star duo of George Springer and Guerrero. Springer's 2025 resurgence has continued into a throwback October performance highlighted by that go-ahead three-run home run in Game 7 of the ALCS. The Dodgers know all about Springer's playoff prowess, eight years removed from him hitting five home runs and being named 2017 World Series MVP when Houston beat L.A. Springer's production later became tainted by the Astros' cheating scandal, but he still is tied for third all-time in postseason home runs with 23. Guerrero, on the other hand, had an ugly playoff history before becoming the best hitter this October, slashing .442/.510/.930 in 11 postseason games. His six home runs in these playoffs tied the franchise record for most career postseason home runs. He has twice as many walks (six) as strikeouts (three) in 51 plate appearances. The Blue Jays have received contributions from one through nine all postseason, but they need Springer and Guerrero, their two best hitters, to shine to beat the Dodgers four times. -- Jorge Castillo
Where the Blue Jays are vulnerable: Neither team has a good postseason bullpen ERA but Toronto is more vulnerable in this area, if only because of workload concerns. Hoffman, after an uneven regular season, has been dynamite in the playoffs. None of the rest of the Blue Jays' relievers have been consistent. Maybe they found something in Chris Bassitt's Game 7 high-leverage appearance against Seattle, but the key really will be for the Toronto starters to match the innings of their Dodgers counterparts as much as possible. That would simplify matters and keep manager John Schneider from having to improvise to the extent he did to survive the Seattle series. You never know when it comes to bullpens, but one thing we can say for sure is that the Blue Jays had to work a lot harder to get here than the Dodgers. -- Bradford Doolittle
How the Blue Jays can pitch Ohtani: Similar to Judge (I broke down how to attack him, too), Ohtani will whiff, strike out and has a longer swing (look for the blue on his Statcast page). You can get him to whiff or make weak contact on the fringes of the strike zone or just outside it, but the price to pay if you miss those spots is heavy. Ohtani likes the ball middle-in and middle-up -- that's where he swings and where he does damage (and he doesn't miss on middle-middle pitches). In response, pitchers tend to pitch him middle-down and middle-away. Throwing softer stuff (sweepers/curveballs from lefties and changeup/splitters from righties) down and away and four-seam fastballs above the top of the zone to try to get a frustrated chase out of Ohtani seems like the combination to lean into here. For Gausman and Yesavage (great splitters, just OK breaking stuff, medium velocity), that high heater is a little riskier, so leaning on splitters and overall command will be key. -- McDaniel
Passan's inside intel:
Of all the burning questions for the Blue Jays -- such as what they will do with Bo Bichette and how they fare against Los Angeles' four aces -- the most troubling could concern their lack of clear left-handed-pitching options. Considering Philadelphia and Milwaukee carved Ohtani up with a panoply of lefties, the struggles of the Blue Jays' lefty arms this postseason plays right into the Dodgers' hands. Three of Los Angeles' best hitters (Ohtani, Freeman and Muncy) are lefties, and Ohtani and Muncy, in particular, are far better against right-handed pitchers. Schneider needs to figure out early in the series if any of his left-handed options (Mason Fluharty, Brendon Little, Eric Lauer) will work against the Dodgers' boppers or if he'll instead turn to Seranthony Dominguez (whose splitter runs away from lefty hitters) or Bassitt (with his wide array of offerings) to try to tame them.
Based on how Blue Jays pitchers have worked during their 11 playoff games this year, Dodgers hitters should be comfortable inside the batter's box. Toronto pitchers have thrown pitches classified as "inside" just 25.3% of the time this postseason -- the lowest of any of the dozen playoff teams and lower than all 30 teams during the regular season. Toronto's propensity to hammer the outside seems destined to put Dodgers hitters in an advantageous position. During the regular season, Los Angeles had the second-highest OPS of any team on pitches on the outer half of the plate (behind, incidentally, Toronto), and the Dodgers have hit five homers on outer-half pitches this postseason (the Blue Jays have 10).
Toronto leads all teams in almost every offensive category this postseason. Beyond the runs scored (6.45 per game, with the Dodgers second at 4.6) and the obscenely gaudy triple-slash (.296/.355/.523, with every other team a combined .218/.297/.361), the Blue Jays are an excellent baserunning team and don't strike out. But there are areas of weakness that Los Angeles can expose. "They can be beat with velo," one scout said of Toronto. While the Blue Jays have batted .277 on 97-mph-plus fastballs, they've got only one home run against them, and keeping Toronto in the park is vital for Dodgers pitchers. Further, another scout said to "use their aggressiveness and get ahead in the count" because as much as the Blue Jays swing (52.6% of pitches and 37.7% first pitches, both MLB highs in the playoffs), they are susceptible in pitchers' counts, with an OPS (.548) behind the Dodgers' (.553).
Our predictions
Los Angeles Dodgers (11 votes)
Voters: Alden Gonzalez, Paul Hembekides, Kiley McDaniel, Buster Olney, Tim Keown, Doug Glanville, Jesse Rogers, Bradford Doolittle, Tim Kurkjian, Jeff Passan, Tristan Cockcroft
In how many games? Seven (1 vote), six (8 votes), five (2 votes)
MVP: Shohei Ohtani (5 votes), Mookie Betts (2 votes), Blake Snell (2 votes), Teoscar Hernandez (1 vote), Freddie Freeman (1 vote)
Toronto Blue Jays (3 votes)
Voters: Eric Karabell, David Schoenfield, Jorge Castillo
In how many games? Seven (3 votes)
MVP: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (3 votes)
Explaining our picks
Why did you pick the Dodgers to repeat as champions?
The Dodgers are winning the World Series in around 60% of my simulations, and while it's a toss-up whether a five- or six-game outcome is more likely, I like the longer series because of a combination of Toronto's momentum and the energy it'll get from an amped-up home crowd. These are intangible factors but sometimes you play a hunch.
As for why the Dodgers will win ...
1. The way they had to juggle starting pitchers all season has ended up having the effect of a carefully orchestrated program of load management. Snell, Glasnow and Ohtani combined for 198 innings during the regular season. Only Yamamoto avoided the IL and he still barely qualified for the ERA title. Now we're seeing how this quartet looks in high-stakes games with more or less full tanks of proverbial gas. And they look historically good.
2. L.A. has lost only once all postseason despite getting one home run in total out of the trio of Freeman, Betts and Smith. That's probably not great news for the Blue Jays.
3. The Blue Jays have leaned on the splitter this postseason, as has been oft-noted. In terms of total splitters thrown, they have four of the top 12: Gausman (1st), Yesavage (2nd), Hoffman (8th) and Dominguez (12th).
Well, among the 199 hitters who have seen at least 50 splitters combined during the regular season and playoffs, the WOBA leaderboard against the pitch features: Freeman (.581, 1st), Betts (.579, 2nd), Muncy (.450, 14th) and Ohtani (.409, 21st). Yes, Dodgers pitchers throw a lot of splitters as well, and the Blue Jays have been the best-hitting team in the majors against them (.753 OPS, including the playoffs, versus .725 for the third-ranked Dodgers). But just look at that list of names for the Dodgers. -- Doolittle
And why do you think the Blue Jays will win it all?
The Blue Jays are the one AL team that can match up with the Dodgers because they have an offense that can counter the Dodgers' rotation and its ability to miss bats. The Blue Jays had the lowest strikeout rate in the majors in the regular season (17.8%) and have been even better in the playoffs (14.8%) while averaging 6.5 runs per game and hitting 20 home runs in 11 games.
That's the primary reason to believe in the Jays, but here are a few of the other reasons why I think they'll beat the Dodgers:
When Guerrero is hot like this, he has the bat control and plate discipline to do damage against even the best pitching.
In Springer, the Jays have one of the great October performers of the wild-card era. He has a .939 OPS and four home runs this postseason and provides an immediate threat at the top of the Toronto lineup.
The bottom of the order did a lot of damage in the ALCS, with the 7-8-9 hitters batting .284/.338/.500 with 13 runs and 12 RBIs. Neither the Phillies nor the Brewers had the bottom-of-the-lineup production that the Jays can offer.
The Jays have done all this without Bichette, who hit .311 with 94 RBIs in the regular season, but has missed the playoffs with a knee injury. He may be ready for the World Series and while it's probably unlikely he'll play the field, he might be a possibility for DH, if Springer can play the outfield after getting hit on the knee in Game 5 against the Mariners.
Toronto's rotation has a 3.33 ERA in the playoffs while holding opponents to a .214 average. Gausman lines up against any of the Dodgers aces, with just four runs allowed in his three starts and rookie Trey Yesavage has a unique delivery combined with plus-plus stuff that can be dominant if he throws enough strikes, while Shane Bieber and Max Scherzer are certainly capable
Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman has allowed just one run so far in 7 innings this postseason (with 12 strikeouts and two walks).
The Jays have lefties in the bullpen to counter Ohtani and Freeman. Mason Fluharty held lefties to a .182 average and Brendon Little a .195 average while Eric Lauer provides a long relief option if needed.
Defense matters, and the Jays have Gold Glove finalists in center fielder Daulton Varsho, catcher Alejandro Kirk and infielders Andres Gimenez and Ernie Clement.
Finally: The Dodgers bullpen will blow a game. Or two. -- Schoenfield
