Photo Credit: MLB.com
Photo Credit: MLB.com
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Friday will mark the 121st annual World Series featuring the American League Champion Toronto Blue Jays and the National League Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
I thought this might be a good time for a statistical preview of Game 1 of the World Series, scheduled to begin Friday in Toronto at the Rogers Centre.
• The Fall Classic has been played every year since 1903 except for two occasions: 1904, when the NL champion New York Giants and their manager John McGraw refused to play the AL champs, the Boston Red Sox; and in 1994, when the season ended on August 11th due to the players’ strike.
• The series was a best-of-nine in 1903, 1919, 1920 and 1921.
• It is the first time the Blue Jays and Dodgers are meeting in the World Series.
• The Blue Jays are making their third appearance in the World Series after winning consecutive titles in 1992-93.
• Los Angeles is appearing in its 23rd appearance in the Fall Classic, which are second-most to only the Yankees’ 41.
• Los Angeles is the first reigning World Series Champion to return to the World Series since the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies and is seeking to be the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.
• The winner of the first game of the World Series has gone on to win the Fall Classic 77 times (64.2%).
• Overall, the winner of Game 1 of a Postseason series has gone on to win the series 266 times (69.3%).
• The Dodgers are 29-33 all-time in Game 1 of a Postseason Series, including 12-21 in Game 1 of a best-of-seven series overall, and 8-14 in Game 1 of the World Series.
• The Dodgers are 10-5 at the Rogers Centre.
• Los Angeles leads the overall head-to-head, besting Toronto with a 19-11 record since 2002.
• Entering Game 1 of the 121st World Series, home teams have gone 378-319 in 697 World Series games played to a decision (54.2%).
• The home team has won the World Series opener 71 of 120 times (59.2%), and has swept the first two games of a Fall Classic 40 times (33.3%).
• The World Series has been won by the team with home field advantage 60 times (50.0%), including each of the last three seasons with the Dodgers in 2024, the Rangers in 2023 and the Astros in 2022.
• The Blue Jays are 6-11 all-time in Game 1 of a Postseason series, including 3-7 in Game 1 of a best-of-seven series overall, and 1-1 in Game 1 of the Fall Classic.
• The 2021 Braves were the last club to not have home field advantage to win the World Series.
• The 2022 Astros were the last club to clinch a World Series in their home ballpark winning Game 6 over the Phillies.
• According to Sarah Langs (MLB.com), the Blue Jays became the fourth team to lose the first two games of a best-of-seven series at home but go on to win the series, joining the 1985 Royals, the 1986 Mets and the 1996 Yankees, who all did so in the World Series.
• The Dodgers’ eight World Series victories are tied with the Giants for the fifth-most in Major League history, trailing the Yankees (27); Cardinals (11); Athletics (9); and Red Sox (9).
• Dave Roberts has led the Dodgers to the World Series for the fifth time since becoming manager in 2016.
• He is the 12th manager to appear in at least five World Series regardless of club, joining Hall of Famers Casey Stengel (10); Joe McCarthy (9); John McGraw (9); Connie Mack (8); Walter Alston (7); Miller Huggins (6); Tony LaRussa (6); Joe Torre (6); Bobby Cox (5); and Sparky Anderson (5), as well as Bruce Bochy (5).
• The starting pitcher in Game 1 for the Dodgers is Blake Snell who has made three starts this Postseason, allowing two runs on six hits with five walks and 28 strikeouts.
• Snell will face the Blue Jays for the 18th time in his career and second time this season after previously facing them 17 times as a member of the Rays, Padres, Giants and Dodgers.
• In regular season outings, went 5-4 with a 2.39 ERA, 42 walks and 97 strikeouts over 79.0 innings.
• He faced the Jays in the 2020 AL Wild Card as a member of the Rays, earning the win over 5.2 innings, allowing one hit, two walks and striking out nine.
• Snell has pitched at least 5.0 innings in 14 of his appearances against the Blue Jays, while averaging over six strikeouts per outing versus Toronto.
• Snell is 0-3 away from Dodger Stadium in his first year with the team, pitching to a 4.30 ERA (11 ER/23.0 IP) in 4 starts.
• Is 2-0 in two road starts this Postseason, allowing two hits, four walks and striking out nineteen over 14.0 innings.
• Friday will be the first time he pitches at Rogers Centre in the Postseason.
• Snell is one of seven pitchers in MLB history to win a Cy Young award in both, the American and National League and start a League Championship game. Snell previously started two games for the Rays during the 2020 ALCS (1-1) and one game for the Padres during the 2022 NLCS (1-0).
• Snell became the second pitcher this Postseason to deal at least 8.0 scoreless innings with no walks and at least 10 strikeouts, joining Cam Schlittler’s dominant start for the Yankees in Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series.
• Rookie Trey Yesavage takes to the mound for the Blue Jays in Game 1.
• He’s made three starts this Postseason, allowing seven runs on 10 hits with and seven walks over 15.0 innings.
• Yesavage started Game 2 of the ALDS against the Yankees, and Games 2 and 6 of the ALCS against the Mariners.
• Yesavage made his Major League debut on September 15th after being drafted 20th overall in the 2024 MLB draft and quickly ascending through the Minor Leagues.
• His 11 strikeouts were the most in a Postseason game in Blue Jays history, surpassing the previous record of eight shared by David Price (2x); Juan Guzman and Dave Stieb.
• Yesavage became the second youngest pitcher with a double-digit strikeout game in the Postseason (John Candelaria, 14 strikeouts at 21 years, 335 days).
• His 10 strikeouts through four innings tied the Postseason record set by Patrick Corbin during the 2019 NLCS.
• At 22 years, 83 days old, Yesavage became the youngest pitcher to start and win multiple Postseason games since Madison Bumgarner did so in 2010 at 21 years, 91 days old.
• He will be the youngest pitcher to start a World Series game since Madison Bumgarner took the ball for San Francisco in Game 4 of the 2010 Fall Classic.
• Yesavage will be the 20th pitcher (29th occurrence) under the age of 23 to make a World Series start in Baseball history.
• This year’s World Series will mark the 15th World Series matchup of teams from the NL West and the AL East divisions, and the sixth under the current six-division format.
• According to each club’s LCS Roster, at age 41.089, Max Scherzer is the oldest player in this year’s Fall Classic.
• Separated by 19 years, Trey Yesavage (22.088) is the youngest player in this year’s World Series.
• At age 37.219 Clayton Kershaw is the oldest member of the Dodgers with Roki Sasaki (23.355) coming in as the youngest on Los Angeles’ roster. (Note: ages as of Game 1).
• Shohei Ohtani was named Most Valuable Player of the 2025 NLCS. He is the third Postseason MVP (WS, NLCS or ALCS) born in Japan, joining Hideki Matsui (2009 WS) and Koji Uehara (2013 ALCS).
• With his solo homer in the seventh inning in Game 4 of the NLCS, Ohtani became the 12th player (13th occurrence) with three homers in a Postseason game and first since Chris Taylor for the Dodgers in Game 5 of the 2021 NLCS against Atlanta.
• Ohtani is the sixth player to achieve a three-homer game in a series clinching win, joining Hernández, Beltré, Kennedy, Jackson and Ruth (1928).
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was named Most Valuable Player of the 2025 ALCS. He is the first Canada-born player to win any Postseason MVP Award (WS, ALCS or NLCS).
• The first baseman hit .385 (10-for-26) with three homers, three RBI, three doubles, four walks, six runs scored, a .484 on-base percentage, an .846 slugging percentage and a 1.330 OPS.
• Overall, this Postseason Guerrero is hitting .442/.510/.930 with six homers, 12 RBI and a 1.440 OPS.
• Guerrero’s six homers are the most in a single Postseason in Blue Jays history and are tied with Joe Carter and José Bautista for the most career Postseason homers in Toronto history.
• His 19 hits in the 2025 Postseason are tied with Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar (1993) for second-most in a single Postseason in Blue Jays history, behind only Hall of Famer Paul Molitor’s 21 hits in 1993.
• The Dodgers starting rotation had a 0.63 ERA in the 2025 NLCS, the lowest in LCS history.
• Dodgers starters have pitched to a 1.40 ERA (10 ER/64.1 IP) with 81 strikeouts and a .132 opponents’ batting average in October, leading the Dodgers to a 9-1 Postseason record.
• Los Angeles has allowed just one run in each of their last five games, becoming the third club to allow one-or-zero runs in at least five consecutive Postseason games within a single Postseason, joining the 1981 Dodgers (5 G) and the 1996 Braves (5 G).
• Los Angeles has gone 8-0 when their starter throws at least 6.0 innings this October.
• The Dodgers’ six starts with at least nine strikeouts are their most in a single Postseason, surpassing 1965 and 2025 (4 starts of 9+ strikeouts).
• Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell became the first pair of teammates with at least 10 strikeouts in a single LCS since the Nationals’ Patrick Corbin (12 SO), Stephen Strasburg (12 SO) and Max Scherzer (11 SO) each had a 10-strikeout game in the 2019 NLCS.
Photo Credit: MLB.com
• Dave Roberts is bidding to become the ninth manager to lead a single club to the World Series at least five times, joining Hall of Famers Casey Stengel (10); Joe McCarthy (9); John McGraw (9); Connie Mack (8); Walter Alston (7); Miller Huggins (6); Joe Torre (6); and Bobby Cox (5).
• John Schneider is in his third full season as the manager of the Blue Jays after he was appointed the interim manager on July 13, 2022 and hired full-time on October 21, 2022, becoming the 14th manager in franchise history.
• Schneider is the only manager in franchise history to reach the Postseason in each of his first three seasons, leading the Blue Jays to their third consecutive Postseason berth.
• According to each Club’s LCS rosters, the teams combine for 13 foreign-born players from eight different countries including Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea and Venezuela. Players from 21 different states are also featured on this year’s Fall Classic roster.
• According to each Club’s LCS rosters, 20 players have previous World Series experience, including 17 from the Dodgers and three from the Blue Jays.
• Through the League Championship Series, MLB Postseason viewership is averaging 4.48 million viewers in the United States making it the most-watched Postseason since 2017 and an increase of +13% over last year.
• The Dodgers sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers was the most-watched National League Championship Series ever in Japan (7.34 million average viewers), a +26% increase over last year (5.83 million), which was the previous record.
• Roki Sasaki, who started eight games for the Dodgers this season, has appeared as a reliever six times for Los Angeles already in the Postseason, notching each of his first three career saves in Games 1 and 2 of the NLDS, and Game 3 of the NLCS.
• Sasaki became the first pitcher since saves became official in 1969 to earn each of his first three career saves (regular or Postseason) in the Postseason.
• With his go-ahead three-run blast in Game 7 of the ALCS, George Springer matched Kyle Schwarber for the third-most career Postseason home runs with 23. The duo only trails Manny Ramirez (29 HR) and Jose Altuve (27 HR).
• Max Muncy hammered a solo homer in the sixth inning of Game 2 in the NLCS to extend the Dodgers lead to 3-0. The blast marked his 14th career Postseason home run, which are now the most in Dodgers’ Postseason history, surpassing Corey Seager and Justin Turner.
Compiled by Bill Lucey
Source: MLB Press Office
October 23, 2025
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