Who is the two-game MVP of this World Series — and will he win the award when all is said and done?
What surprised you most during the first two games in Toronto, and should we expect it to continue in Los Angeles?
Yamamoto throws second straight complete game as Dodgers tie series (1:18)Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches a four-hit gem for his second consecutive complete game as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 in Game 2. (1:18)
What do you expect from starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Tyler Glasnow in Game 3?
What must the Blue Jays do to regain the series lead on the road?
After two action-packed games at Rogers Centre in Toronto, the 2025 World Series shifts to Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Monday night.
Our MLB experts break down what we’ve seen so far and what it means for the rest of this Fall Classic.
Jorge Castillo: Addison Barger’s grand slam in Game 1 will be remembered in Canada for a very long time, but what Yoshinobu Yamamoto accomplished in Game 2 might have saved the Dodgers’ title hopes. The right-hander was utterly dominant again, becoming the first pitcher since Curt Schilling in 2001 to toss consecutive complete games in the postseason. The Dodgers must avoid overexposing their bullpen. Yamamoto ensured that happened in Game 2.
Castillo: They need their starters to continue pitching deep into games. The Blue Jays exposed the Dodgers’ biggest weakness — the bullpen — in Game 1, and Yamamoto didn’t let that happen again. Complete games aren’t required, but completing at least six innings greatly increases the Dodgers’ chances of winning.
Alden Gonzalez: I’ll go with Smith, who guided Yamamoto through his Game 2 masterpiece and, along with Kirk, has been the best offensive performer through these first two games. Smith’s impact is especially notable given (1) the hairline fracture he was still recovering from entering these playoffs and (2) how clearly worn down he was by this point last year. The Dodgers promoted rookie Dalton Rushing earlier than expected this season in an effort to keep Smith fresh down the stretch. A late-season hand injury could have derailed those plans, but Smith seems to be at his best at the moment — a crucial development for a Dodgers offense that has struggled as a whole since the wild-card round.
Gonzalez: The handling of Bo Bichette — that he started Game 1 at second base, a position he’d never played in the major leagues, and, to a lesser extent, that he wasn’t in the lineup for Game 2. Bichette has spent these past seven weeks recovering from a left knee sprain, and though he’s clearly not yet fully healed, he has proven to be viable nonetheless, even entering in the late stages of Game 2. The Blue Jays clearly wanted Bichette in the lineup for Game 1 against a lefty in Blake Snell. And though the rest of the Dodgers’ rotation is right-handed, Bichette is clearly going to factor into this series. Blue Jays manager John Schneider said he’ll be in the lineup against Tyler Glasnow in Game 3, which follows a day off.
Passan: Do what no team has managed to this postseason: strike out Blue Jays hitters. The Dodgers have done so at a slightly higher rate than Toronto’s previous opponents, but the Jays have taken a number of excellent at-bats already in the series’ first two games, and the key for Glasnow will be to avoid two-strike nibbling and go right for the punchout. Los Angeles’ bullpen is not exactly filled with high-strikeout options — their 6.75 strikeouts per nine are 10th of the 12 playoff teams — so the onus will be on Glasnow, Ohtani and, presumably, Snell to generate swing-and-miss over the next three games at Dodger Stadium.
Passan: Keep playing clean ball. The Blue Jays last committed an error in Game 2 of the ALCS, 67 innings ago, and in order to beat a team as talented as the Dodgers, you need to treat every out as the precious commodity it is. Toronto got here with a potent offense, elite bat-to-ball skills and exceptional glovework. And even if scoring runs is the most important element to its success, continuing to turn batted balls into outs will assist in its efforts to avoid the fate of the Yankees in the last World Series.
Gonzalez: When the Dodgers cruised past Milwaukee in the NLCS, their four starting pitchers and two best relievers, Roki Sasaki and Alex Vesia, accounted for all but nine of their outs. Their formula is obvious, and not having Vesia for the World Series constitutes a major obstacle. The Blue Jays, as Jorge said, need to run up the Los Angeles starters’ pitch counts. And so Toronto’s goal is simple: force a reliever not named Sasaki to take down at least two innings in each of these next three games. If that happens, Toronto should be in good shape.
Yamamoto throws second straight complete game as Dodgers tie series (1:18)Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches a four-hit gem for his second consecutive complete game as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 in Game 2. (1:18)
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches a four-hit gem for his second consecutive complete game as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 in Game 2. (1:18)