The Los Angeles Dodgers started their twenty-third World Series on Friday, Oct. 24, playing against the Toronto Blue Jays at Toronto, Canada. The Dodgers have won eight World Series championships, the annual championship series that determines the league champion of the season, and twenty-six National League pennants, which are the championship awards given to the winners of the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball, which is a flag that allows the team to play in the World Series.
The Dodgers previously played the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, which is a playoff series that determines which team will represent the NL, and won to get into the World Series this year.
With a Dodgers win in 2020 against the Tampa Bay Rays, and in 2024 against the New York Yankees, fans are hoping for another win this year, which would make it two consecutive wins for the Dodgers. According to the Los Angeles Times, Dodgers fans see persistence in the players in the way they fight through the season, despite any hardships they may face. A dominant starting rotation, including players Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell, also contributes to that hopefulness.
Ohtani started off the game by being first to bat, but struck out. He is playing his second season with the Dodgers this year after playing for the Los Angeles Angels from 2018 to 2023.
According to Project Muse, an online database that provides articles on sports media, Ohtani is such a dominant player because he is the first player to hit 50 home runs in one season. He has one of the fastest batting speeds, which allows him to have such a powerful swing.
Another dominant player in this game was Blake Snell, who started off the game by being the first to pitch. Snell has been playing for the Dodgers since Nov. 2024 and is 1 of 5 of the Dodgers’ starting pitchers. Sports Illustrated stated that Snell pitched 10 strikeouts and one hit over eight innings in a game. This is because he can adapt his pitching strategy based on how the batter hits. With these components, fans are expecting a first win for the Dodgers.
They started the game by scoring two runs in the first inning, which gave them a lead and gave many fans hope for a successful first game. But this first game of the World Series lasted three hours, with the sixth inning being the most eventful. The Blue Jays scored nine runs just in this inning alone, the third-highest-scoring inning in World Series history. There were two home runs in this inning, one of which featured the first pinch-hit grand slam by Addison Barger, which is a home run
with bases loaded that lets the batter hit a grand slam, resulting in four runs.
Blake Snell pitched the first five innings of the game before being replaced by Emmet Sheehan. Throughout the game, he could not find his momentum while pitching, and his command faltered because he claimed that he was not locating the ball. Since Sheehan came into a tough spot for the Dodgers, he unfortunately did not do as good as people hoped either. He gave up three runs, which was a significant reason the Blue Jays scored so many runs in this inning.
While Ohtani did hit a home run in the seventh inning of the game, that was the last run of the game for them. The Dodgers did not get any other chance to score for the rest of the game.
Dodgers fan and junior, Ariel Valdez, said that there were a lot of little things that the Dodgers could have done better. She said that the errors were getting to the players, but it was an overall good game.
“It was very stressing seeing how many slip-ups we had and how many little errors we had that could have cost us the game,” Valdez said.
With an unsuccessful first game, fans are disappointed with the result. A score of 11-4 gives the Blue Jays an early lead following the next few games. With their second game being on Oct. 25 and the next few games this week, there is still hope for the Dodgers in this World Series.
