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BPrior to the opening throw of the 2025 World Series on Friday night, it had been 32 years and one day since the most memorable moment in Blue Jays franchise history and the most recent occasion that the team hosted a World Series game.

On 23 October 1993, right fielder Joe Carter connected on the second walk-off home run to clinch a World Series championship on a delivery that was being thrown to Philadelphia Phillies catcher Darren Daulton. On 24 October 2025, the first Blue Jays homer slugged in a World Series matchup since Carter’s was by left fielder Daulton Varsho, whose father, Gary, named his son after his ex- Philadelphia colleague … Darren Daulton. In the following inning, outfielder Addison Barger hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, the highlight of a sixth-inning nine-run outburst, which was the most productive World Series inning since the late 1960s.

Game 1 Schedule

Fixture

Seven-game series. Times in EDT (UTC-4).

• Fri 24 Oct Match 1: Blue Jays 11, Dodgers 4
• Sat 25 Oct Game 2: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8:00 PM
• Mon 27 Oct Game 3: Blue Jays at Dodgers, 8pm
• Tue 28 Oct Game 4: Blue Jays at Dodgers, 8:00 PM
• Wed 29 Oct Match 5: Toronto Blue Jays at LA Dodgers, 8pm*
• Friday, October 31 Match 6: Dodgers at Blue Jays, 8:00 PM*
• Sat 1 Nov Game 7: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8:00 PM*

*if needed

How to Watch

• Across the United States, all games will be broadcast on FOX. With a cable/satellite subscription with FOX included, you can also watch online via the FOX Sports app.
• North of the border, the English-language broadcast is on Sportsnet TV while the French broadcasts are on RDS and TVA Sports. The matches are also available online on Sportsnet Plus (in English).
• In the UK, the official broadcaster is TNT Sports channels. A subscription to their platform or their application is required.
• Down Under, the official provider is the Australian division of ESPN and related platforms.

The Blue Jays sixth-inning outburst turned a nailbiter into a dominant 11-4 win over the LA Dodgers in the opener of the Fall Classic. It wasn’t a game destined for history books, but it demonstrated that the Blue Jays might be historically underestimated against the heavily favored Los Angeles team.

Even after winning a division with three playoff teams and topping all of Major League Baseball in team batting average and having home-field advantage, the 2025 Blue Jays started the World Series as enormous underdogs to a Dodgers team that entered the series as one of the most dominant championship favorites of the past 15 years.

The Los Angeles squad are no longer viewed as Goliath anymore as much as they are regarded as an certainty: They are the defending World Series champions who have made the playoffs since 2012 and have the highest payroll in the majors. They entered the series opener with a 9-1 mark in the current playoffs and had allowed just five scores over their previous five matchups. The hurlers who began those contests (Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto) will earn more than $100 million combined in 2025 alone, which is greater than the total payrolls of five entire major-league teams. These earnings do not include what the organization is compensating three ex-MVPs (infielder Mookie Betts, pitcher Clayton Kershaw and first baseman Freddie Freeman).

Series decided? The winner of the first game of the Fall Classic has proceeded to capture the Fall Classic on 77 occasions (64.2%). This has happened in 18 of the last 22 and 23 of the past 27 championship series beginning in 1997.

During a pre-match media session, Los Angeles baseball operations head Andrew Friedman was asked to share his thoughts about the perception that the Dodgers are “ruining baseball” with their high investments. Friedman said that he feels it’s his responsibility to spend for the supporters: The LA club welcomed four million fans in the current year and have an average nightly attendance (49,537) that is higher than the seating limit of all other stadiums in the major leagues.

“Everything for us is about pouring back into our fans and that relationship that we have with them. Friedman added. “So any other concerns that arises from this – and obviously, I’ve heard of a lot of it – it’s just not front of mind for us because everything is around how do we put ourselves in the best position to win now and also to win in the future.”

What the Dodgers could not buy themselves on the opener was dependable bullpen support. Despite committing over $100m in multi-year deals to relievers this offseason (two of which are absent from the roster), the LA team depended on a converted starting pitcher (Emmett Sheehan) and one of their best relievers from the previous postseason (Anthony Banda) to attempt to maintain a 2-2 deadlock after starting pitcher Blake Snell (who agreed to a $182 million, five-year deal last November) was removed in the sixth frame.

The relievers quickly learned why the Blue Jays so dangerous and what could fuel the squad's initial title in over 30 years if the LA pitching does not get better. The first reliever let three of the four hitters he faced to reach base. By the time Banda exited the game, Toronto had slugged two additional homers and the LA squad were trailing by nine scores.

Barger’s grand slam highlighted the Toronto's offensive surge of LA's hurlers to break open what had been a close game through the initial frames. Then, Toronto scored nine runs on six hits and missed at only three deliveries in an inning where they brought 12 batters to the dish. By the end of the game, nine different Blue Jays had crossed the plate.

This persistent approach has generated some of the top hitting displays by any team in the current playoffs: They put up 34 scores over four matchups in their dominant showing of the New York Yankees in the ALDS and overcame a 0-2 series hole against the Seattle Mariners by scoring more than them 33-17 over the next five games.

In contrast to the Los Angeles, who ended up runner-up in homers, RBI and slugging percentage during the regular season, the Blue Jays avoid making power the main emphasis of their offense. The Blue Jays came into Game 1 scoring nearly seven runs per game in the playoffs and a team batting average of above .300, which is more than 50 points better than the second-place Dodgers. More notably, the Blue Jays are striking out less than six times per game, something no other playoff team can boast. Over the span of the season, the Toronto team had the second-lowest strikeout total of any lineup in the majors.

That approach is one apparently tailored to frustrate the Los Angeles, who dominated the Reds, Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers with long outings anchored by high strikeout totals. Prior to the opener, LA starters had struck out seven or more batters in nine of their 10 playoff starts. In Game 1, the pitching staff failed to get a K after the fourth inning.

“It was crucial to keep the line moving to the following batter,” said Toronto left fielder Daulton Varsho post-match. “That’s been our MO {all year