2025 World Series preview

The 2025 World Series is set. In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers are again the champions, looking to become the first team in a quarter-century to win back-to-back championships.

A series win for Los Angeles would also tie them for fourth on baseball’s all-time list with the Red Sox and the Athletics at nine championships, and would be their third in six seasons.

Facing them and representing the American League for the first time in 32 years are the Toronto Blue Jays, seeking their third World Series title, and first since their back-to-back championships of 1992 and 1993.

The Dodgers won the National League West for the 11th time in 12 seasons, although it was closer than anyone could’ve anticipated at the start of the season. Los Angeles won 93 games, much lower than most pre-season projections, and edged out the San Diego Padres by three games to take the division.

The Blue Jays battled right to the very end in the American League East. At first, it appeared to be the New York Yankees’ division, with the Blue Jays trailing by as many as eight games in the standings on May 28.

However, Toronto took full advantage of a sluggish summer in New York, racing out to a six-and-a-half-game lead of its own on July 26. Yet, the Yankees fought back with a strong finish, winning their final seven games of the regular season.

Ultimately, it came down to a tiebreaker - won by the Blue Jays thanks to an 8-5 head-to-head record. Toronto won both the division (for the first time in 10 years) and the top seed in the American League playoff race.

It ended up making a difference right away as Toronto faced the Yankees in the American League Division Series, winning in four games. The Blue Jays crushed the Yankees in the two games played in their home ballpark, winning 10-1 and 13-7 at Rogers Centre.

In the American League Championship Series, Toronto dropped the first two games at home to the Seattle Mariners, but took two out of three in Seattle.

However, they still trailed in the series heading back home. This time, they defended their turf, with wins of 6-2 and 4-3, the latter capitalized by a three-run home run from George Springer in the seventh inning.

Los Angeles’ playoff run started earlier due to the Dodgers only receiving the third seed in the National League playoffs. They easily brushed aside the Cincinnati Reds in a two-game sweep in the wild card round before taking on the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series.

It was won on Phillies pitcher Orion Kerkering’s throwing error in the eleventh inning of the fourth game.

Now facing the top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers emerged victorious thanks to their pitching staff.

Blake Snell held the Brewers to just one hit in eight innings in game one. In game two, Yoshinobu Yamamoto fired the first complete game shutout in the MLB postseason since 2017, limiting Milwaukee to three hits.

Returning to Los Angeles for the third game, Dodger pitching held the Brewers' bats to just four more hits. And in the clincher, Shohei Ohtani fired six scoreless innings while hitting three home runs. All told, Milwaukee hit .118 in the series, a record-low for a National League postseason round.

So, let’s take a look at the matchup. The driving storyline will be the Dodgers' pitching vs. the Blue Jays' bats. Toronto is hitting .296 as a team - that is the fourth highest of any playoff team with at least 11 games played.

They’re 878 OPS- third highest, and the 1.82 home runs per game- tied for fourth highest. Meanwhile, Los Angeles has a team ERA of 2.45- the fifth lowest of any playoff team with ten playoff games played this century. Their 10.17 K/9 is the tenth highest as well.

They are bashing the ball all over the ballpark- led, of course, by the ALCS MVP Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has a .442 batting average, six home runs, 12 RBI, six walks, and just three strikeouts. Ernie Clement is hitting .429 as well. Six Toronto hitters have multiple home runs this postseason.

Although L.A.’s offensive numbers this postseason aren’t as good as Toronto’s, they have far more playoff experience. Mookie Betts is a three-time World Series champion. Freddie Freeman is making his tenth trip to the postseason. Enrique Hernandez has an .863 OPS in the postseason (just .707 in the regular season).

They’ll be tasked against a very interesting four-man rotation for Toronto. The ace of the staff, of course, is Kevin Gausman, with 18 innings. Four runs, 12 strikeouts.

Trey Yesavage, the young rookie, is getting the ball for game one- he started the season in Single-A! He’s struck out 22 in 15 innings thus far- including 11 in his playoff debut vs. the Yankees, in which he hurled five and one-third no-hit innings.

Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber round out this staff. Scherzer is a postseason veteran, having made 26 starts in his playoff career, and for six different teams- including the Dodgers in 2021.

Bieber, meanwhile, has been a decent fourth man for the Jays, with six runs allowed in 12 and one-third innings of work this postseason.

The Blue Jays will go into this series with home-field advantage, and that gives them a huge leg up, considering that this season, they posted a record of 54-27 at home this year.

That is the best total by any American League team of the last three seasons. On the road, however, their record dips to 40-41. Los Angeles carries records of 41-40 on the road and 52-29 in Dodger Stadium.

So many storylines surface during every sports championship, and this time isn’t any different. It should be a great series.

Jacob Petrarca is a fourth-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email jap6840@psu.edu