Dodgers return to Toronto, trounce Blue Jays in underwhelming World Series epilogue
TORONTO — In some methods, it nonetheless appears like October right here.
There’s a chunk in the air, a chill in the wind, the identical as there was 5 months in the past for essentially the most unforgettable ballgame anybody in attendance had ever witnessed. Torontonians stroll the streets with lengthy coats, gloves, scarfs and Jays caps. A bar one block from the ballyard boasts an indication that reads “We Run October.” The sky is overcast, the Rogers Center dome is closed, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in city.
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And so, forward of this comparatively meaningless April matchup, it was unattainable to not dwell on World Series 2025 Game 7 — what occurred that evening and what did not. Neither Miguel Rojas nor Yoshinobu Yamamoto began Monday, but each had been dominant subjects of pregame dialog. The two skippers, Toronto’s John Schneider and LA’s Dave Roberts, tried to downplay the importance of this Fall Classic rematch, however the ghosts of November had been too weighty, too lasting for Monday’s contest to imply nothing.
“A few short months ago, it was bedlam in here,” Schneider mentioned earlier than hand. “So, looking forward to it.”
“I don’t feel as much anxiousness as I did the last time, understandably so,” Roberts remarked.
Unfortunately, the sport itself — a resounding 14-2 Dodgers victory — was a lackluster doubt devoid of something resembling drama.
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Asked about his anxiousness degree after the sport, Roberts was unflustered. “It was probably a 10 in October, and it was probably a one tonight,” he mentioned.
That’s as a result of Toronto regarded nothing like that unstoppable freight practice of camaraderie we noticed final autumn. Jays starter Max Scherzer lasted two innings, restricted by forearm tendinitis. That allowed Los Angeles’ star-studded offense to leap throughout a carousel of overmatched relievers. The Dodgers completed the evening with 17 hits and 5 homers, together with two from younger backstop Dalton Rushing. Jays catcher Tyler Heineman, whose struggles earlier in the week actually introduced him to tears, was introduced in to lob lifeless lollipops in the ninth.
Toronto’s offense had a distinct expertise. Before the ninth, the Jays managed simply 4 hits, solely three of which left the infield and solely considered one of which was successful exhausting. They failed to capitalize on 4 free passes from Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski. It was a night of grimaces, hung heads and sluggish trudges. Things acquired ugly sufficient for Roberts to pull his starters in the seventh. By the time Game 7 hero and veteran infielder Miguel Rojas was introduced in to sponge up the ninth, the scattered Jays followers nonetheless in attendance hardly had the vitality to boo.
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In quick, a night that would have been a celebration changed into a circus. As unexpectedly as Monday’s sport was, there was one thing acquainted about the entire thing.
Scherzer, the longer term Hall of Famer, began for Toronto, as he did in Game 7. When Dodgers slugger Teoscar Hernández clobbered a Scherzer cement-mixer for a first-inning homer, the hoots and hollers echoing from the visiting dugout all through a upset stadium elicited recollections of Will Smith’s crowd-quieting blast final yr.
Ernie Clement, he of the document 30 hits in a single postseason, looped an RBI duck snort into middle for Toronto’s first RBI. Andy Pages practically bulldozed his left fielder on a operating catch in the third. Shohei Ohtani sizzled one over the center-field wall in the sixth. After the ultimate out, Los Angeles took the sector to have a good time, albeit in a extra subdued vogue. Louis Varland, who pitched in 15 of 18 postseason video games for Toronto, warmed up however didn’t pitch.
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Still, for the Jays, Monday was a horrendous, impassive, unbecoming exhibiting, one which highlights the present disparity between Toronto and the crew it got here inches from topping in October. Yes, there’s ample time for the reigning American League champions, at the moment 4-6, to get issues sorted out. Last yr’s membership, for example, was two video games below .500 as late as May 27. It is way, far too early to panic.
However, it is also tough to envision Toronto’s previous week having gone any worse. After a season-opening sweep of the A’s at residence, the Jays dropped a sequence to a Colorado Rockies membership coming off a traditionally unhealthy 2025. Then they rolled into the South Side of Chicago and acquired swept by a rebuilding White Sox crew. They adopted all that with… no matter Monday was.
“It’s no secret — it’s not working right now,” Schneider mentioned after the sport. “[But] better now than in July or August. You know, we’re 10 games into the season, and if we sit here and dwell on it, that’s when s*** snowballs.”
The Jays spent the final winter spending cash to set up themselves as an imposing drive, an American League analogue to the Dodgers. They gave hurler Dylan Cease a king’s ransom to lead the rotation, inked Japanese star Kazuma Okamota to a four-year deal and made a tough cost for Kyle Tucker, the highest participant available on the market, solely to lose him to LA
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But early accidents have already sidetracked this operation to a staggering diploma. Veteran arms Shane Bieber and José Berríos are injured. So are free-agent addition Cody Ponce and 2025 breakout star Trey Yesavage. Catcher Alejandro Kirk, set to undergo surgery on a thumb fracturemight show to be the largest lack of all. The All-Star backstop, essential to every part Toronto does on protection, doubtless will not be again for at the least a month.
Los Angeles, in the meantime, is firing on all cylinders. The Dodgers have the perfect run differential in MLB and are tied for the perfect document. Ohtani, after a slow startyou’ve three round-trippers. Pages looks like an All-Star. Mookie Betts is on the shelf due to an oblique issuehowever the Dodgers in all probability have the depth to climate that storm.
They actually did Monday, an evening that might be remembered as an unworthy epilogue to an epic piece of baseball historical past.
