Toronto Blue Jays not only won, but with numbers that were actually reserved for the big men from Los Angeles. In Canada the score was 11-4 in the opening game of the final of the exciting baseball season every year. Due to that sensational victory, the Canadians are still far from being champions, as they were last in 1993.
To achieve this, the best-paid squad with the biggest conceivable star in contemporary sport (Shohei Ohtani earns more at his club than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the most famous footballers in the world) must be defeated three more times. The best-of-seven series continues next night, once again in Toronto.
Masterclass Blue Jays
But the way the Blue Jays belittled last year’s champion on Friday night suggests they know how to get this tough job done. In the opening game of the World Series, the Canadians initially had to deal with Blake Snell, the fantastic starting pitcher of the LA Dodgers. Snell was a kind of machine on the mound during these entire playoffs, but in the neighboring country the left-handed pitcher suddenly lost control. He allowed no fewer than six men to reach base in the first three innings and in the fourth act things really went wrong: Toronto batter Daulton Varsho equalized with a home run: 2-2.
In the sixth inning, LA coach Dave Roberts did not dare to continue with him. When all the bases were loaded he pulled Snell out, but instead of things getting better, the Dodgers collapsed. As if the floodgates were opened, Toronto hit so hard, with Addison Barger’s grand slam as a historic highlight. The hosts were already 5-2 when Barger hit a homerun with all bases loaded for the first time in Toronto World Series history: 9-2. And for dessert of that unforgettable sixth inning, Alejandro Kirk also hit a ball over the fence (with another colleague on first base): 11-2. Nine runs in an inning, the seething Rogers Center couldn’t believe how the Dodgers were being bulldozed.
Toronto already had a wonderful baseball year in the run-up to the climax of the season. It held top teams such as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the regular season, thus earning home-field advantage in the World Series because it won more than reigning champion LA Dodgers, but crushing those same Dodgers at the first opportunity was something few could have seen coming.
George Springer
In the play-offs, for example, George Springer proved invaluable. He injured his knee against the Yankees in the fifth game of their head-to-head playoff series. However, in the sixth game he was back in the starting line-up.
Even with a bruised knee, New York couldn’t silence him. “I always draft George,” said Blue Jays coach John Schneider. “Even if he only has one leg, he still plays.” Springer: “I feel honored when people talk about me like that. I love this team and this team loves me. That much has become clear this season.”
George Springer in action. © ANP/HH
The Dodgers have Major League Baseball’s best pitchers under contract. Next night it will be the turn of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Japanese with a twelve-year contract worth $325 million. However, the Dodgers’ weakness is their bullpen. Toronto has decided to let the starting pitcher throw as much as possible so that his weaker replacements come into the game earlier than planned. That tactic worked in the first match.
“Constantly making contact with the pitchers is how we are built,” Toronto coach Schneider explained the sensational first victory in the 2026 final series. “Putting the ball in play, making pitchers work. I think we did that really well against the Yankees’ best players, and we’ll have to do it against these Dodgers as well.”
The first part of an almost impossible Canadian mission has therefore succeeded. Schneider: “On to game two.”