There isn’t much to say about the opening game of the World Series between the Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays. Starting pitcher Blake Snell could not make it out of the sixth inning, and the much maligned Dodger’s bullpen allowed six earned runs in the bottom of the sixth, which included a grand slam home run to Addison Barger. The Dodgers got blown out at Rogers Center on Friday evening 11-4. The Dodgers were already without left hander Alex Vesia, who was tending to a personal family matter. The Dodgers announced that he would not be on the World Series roster before the game. That means that Edgardo Henriquez, and Will Klein were added to the World Series roster. It ended up being Anthony Banda who allowed the grand slam home run in that fateful sixth inning.
Before that the Dodgers had an early 2-0 lead against opposing starter Trey Yesavage. The problem was that Blake Snell was forced to throw 29 pitches in the first inning. He didn’t allow anything in that frame, stranding the bases loaded, but the Blue Jays ran up his pitch count too early. Remember if the Dodgers have to go to their bullpen that early in a game, it’s more than likely going to doom them to a loss, and that’s exactly what happened. Before that, RBI singles from Enrique Hernandez and Will Smith had put the Dodgers ahead. Toronto tied the game on a two-run home run by Dalton Varsho in the bottom of the fourth inning. That was one of three home runs they hit in game 1.
Eventually the Jays ended up scoring nine runs in the sixth inning when Snell faltered and couldn’t find his command. Snell tossed five innings plus, while struggling with his command most of the night. Snell walked three and gave up eight hits. During that sixth inning, Snell walked Bo Bichette, gave up a single to Alejandro Kirk, and hit Varsho with a pitch to load the bases. He was already at 100 pitches by then and Dave Roberts was likely looking for length this early in the game. Sheehan entered and gave up a ground ball single to center to Ernie Clement, before walking Nathan Lukes, to force in a run. After an Andres Gimenez single, George Springer’s force out resulted with Clement being thrown out at home. It was already 5-2 at that point, and Roberts came back out to bring in Banda. Barger was pinch-hitting for Davis Schneider, and cleared the bases for a grand slam. Two batters later, Kirk homered as well, and the route was on.
October’s Very Own, Kiké Hernández! pic.twitter.com/UKTn61oJaE
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 25, 2025
Shohei Ohtani hit a two-run home run in garbage time, but the game was already well over by then. Joe Davis and John Smoltz provided a stat that the Dodgers are 1-11 on the road in World Series openers. Maybe getting that home field advantage was a little more important than we had originally thought? It’s possible the Dodgers terrible bullpen could cost them a championship this season. The Dodgers will turn to Yoshinobu Yamamoto to go for a split of the first two games in Canada on Saturday night, while Toronto will give the ball to Kevin Gausman. First pitch is scheduled for the same time of 5PM PST.
