Blue Jays - 002 000 400 - 6 11 0
Dodgers - 010 000 001 - 2 6 0
Blue Jays - 200 100 210 - 6 9 0
Dodgers - 001 000 000 - 1 4 0Now that the Dodgers' starting pitching has come back down to Earth and the Blue Jays are proving that every spot in their lineup can contribute at any time, I'm finding it difficult to imagine a scenario in which the American League champions lose two consecutive games in Toronto.
The Blue Jays seem to have everything lined up to win their first World Series title in more than 30 years. The Toronto franchise is playing in its third World Series -- and it leads the Dodgers 3 games to 2 games. In the previous two, the Blue Jays beat Atlanta 4-2 in 1992 and the Phillies 4-2 in 1993. If they win on Friday night at Skydome, they will beat the Dodgers 4-2.
After the exhausting brilliance of Monday's 609-pitch marathon, the greatest game I have seen in a very long time (perhaps since the other 18-inning World Series game back in 2018), the next two games were standard contests between two good teams. Similar scoring in the first three innings, a lead-expanding rally by Toronto in the seventh, and a general feeling that the Dodgers have lost . . . something . . . cohesiveness, perhaps. They have not presented themselves as a unified team at the plate for the last two nights, that's for sure. Los Angeles is 10-for-61 (.164) in Games 4 and 5. Of those 10 hits, eight are singles. They have gone 0-for-6 with RATS. Their three runs were driven by a solo home run, a fly out, and a ground out. In Game 5, the Dodgers has as many hits as wild pitches (four).
In Game 4 on Tuesday, the Blue Jays faced the possibility of trailing 1-3 in the series and knowing they might be forced to watch the Dodgers repeat as World Series champs with 50,000 of their fans. Shane Bieber (5.1-4-1-3-3, 81) allowed a run in the second inning due to a momentary loss of control. A four-pitch walk to Max Muncy, a single to right (on a 2-1 pitch) by Tommy Edman, and a sac fly to from Kiké Hernández gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. The Blue Jays answered immediately against Shohei Ohtani in the third. With one out, Nathan Lukes, atop the lineup with George Springer out with "right side discomfort", singled and Vladimir Guerrero hammered a sweeper over the wall in left-center for a lead-grabbing two-run homer.
Bieber allowed only two baserunners over the next three innings -- a single in the third and a walk in the fourth -- and both of those came with two outs. He pitched a clean fifth but left a bit of a mess in the sixth. Freddie Freeman singled off Guerrero's glove at first for a single. Will Smith lined out to center and Teoscar Hernández singled to center. Mason Fluharty (who allowed a .157 average to lefty batters this season) came in to face LH-hitting Max Muncy -- who lifted the first pitch to left center for the second out. Edman, a switch-hitter, opted to bat righty, and struck out on three pitches.
Excited by that escape, perhaps, Toronto batted around in the seventh against three Los Angeles pitchers. Ohtani threw only three pitches before being lifted, but allowed a single to Daulton Varsho and a double off the left-center wall to Ernie Clement. Anthony Banda took over. It was during Andrés Giménez's eight-pitch at-bat that my Telus connection to Sportsnet dropped out and sputtered off and on until things cleared up in the bottom of the eighth.
Gimenez singled to left to give the Jays a 3-1 lead. Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined out to third and first base umpire Adam Hamari said Muncy's throw to first doubled off Giménez. The Dodgers challenged the call at first and Hamari's call was overturned. Ty France batted for Lukes and brought Clement in with a groundout to second. Guerrero was walked intentionally and Blake Treinen came in to pitch with Toronto up 4-1 and runners at first and second with two outs. As Ohtani had done to begin the inning, Treinen allowed two hits in a span of three pitches. Bo Bichette singled to deep left to score Giménez and Addison Barger grounded a single past shortstop to bring Vlad home. Alejandro Kirk lined out to right to end the inning. Blue Jays 6-1.
Toronto continued getting baserunners, stranding men at second and third in the eighth and first and second in the ninth. Los Angeles went in order in the seventh and had a leadoff single in the eighth wiped out on a double play. Teoscar H. walked to begin the ninth, went to third on Muncy's double to right, and scored on Edman's grounder to third. Louis Varland struck out Kiké H. and then intentionally balked Muncy to third to stop him from giving info about the catcher's positioning to the batters. The distraction having been dealt with, Varland retired Alex Call on a line drive to left.
The main story of Game 5 was Trey Yesavage (7-3-1-0-12, 104), who was as dominating and as impressive as he was against the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS, back on October 5. In that game, he pitched 5.1 no-hit innings and recorded 11 of his 16 outs "by way of the K". Facing the Dodgers in hostile territory, Yesavage became the youngest pitcher (22 years, 93 days) to have 10+ K in a World Series game. (Of his eight major league starts in 2025, five came in this postseason.)
The other story was David Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero beginning the game with two solo home runs, which had never before occurred in a World Series game. Schneider belted Blake Snell's first pitch to left, estimated at 373 feet. Guerrero looked at a called strike before also clearing the left field wall, at an estimated 394 feet. Three pitches and Toronto led 2-0. The Blue Jays also challenged a double play call and had it overturned (Jordan Baker blew the call at first this time), but could not take full advantage.
Yesavage retired the first seven batters (including five in a row) before Kiké H. got ahold of a fastball at 93 and homered to left (407 feet). It was barely a speed bump for Yesavage, who fanned three of the next four batters, and gave up only two infield singles and an HBP over the next 4.2 innings.
Varsho tripled to right to begin the top of the fourth. Teoscar H. did not have a chance to catch sinking liner and should have played it safe. Instead, he went into a dive and the ball skipped by him. Varsho tagged and scored on Clement's line out to center. Snell issued a walk, but struck out the next two. He also began the fifth with a walk, but a double play took care of the runner.
LA manager Dave Roberts trule trusts only a few bullpen arms, so he sent Snell out for the seventh at 93 pitches. Barger singled to the opposite (left) field, the ball sailing through the spot normally occupied by Muncy, who was playing the batter to pull. IKF attempted to bunt twice before Snell wild-pitched the runner to second. IFK grounded out to shortstop. Giménez worked an eight-pitch walk. After a mound conference, Schneider stepped in. Snell (6.2-6-5-4-7, 116) got two called strikes, then threw three balls (one of which was another wild pitch), before a swinging strikeout. Snell threw the most pitches in the seventh inning: 15-11-19 21-12-14 23 = 116.
Edgardo Henriquez, who was impresive with 101/102 heat in Game 3, had nothing tonight. Facing Guerrero, he went to a full count before walking him with a wild pitch that scored Barger and moved Giménez to second (where he would have been anyway because of the aforementioned walk). After a called strike to Bichette, Henriquez threw three balls (inside, away, very high) before the Son of Dante singled to right, bringing in Toronto's fifth run. Henriquez then issued a four-pitch walk before Banda got the final out (the first ball was actually a strike but the next three were: in the dirt, well outside, and up at sasahe height).
Clement led off the eighth with a single, took second on a Banda wild pitch and scored on IKF's single through the 5/6 hole into left.
As for Yesavage, he stranded two runners in the fourth, and retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth. He began the seventh with a K before Teoscar H. singled. Edman batted from an 0-2 count to 3-2 but hit into a 5-4-3 double play.
Seranthony Domínguez had an easy eighth. A first-to-pitcher ground out, a strikeout, a walk (during which plate umpire Alan Porter blew the calls on consecutive pitches), and a line out to first. Jeff Hoffman gave up a leadoff single to start the home ninth, but the runner went no further. A fly to left and two strikeouts ended the game. Describing the pitches to the last two hitters would consist of repeating the phrase "down and away" over and over, like Jim Garrison in a court room. And that's today's Sir Story.
So . . . I fuckin cannot stand Buck Martinez. His extremely nasal voice should make him a very popular target of impressionists, but he calls Blue Jays games in Canada, so no one gives a shit. Both Buck and Ron Shulman slipped up and acted professionally during Game 3, probably because both teams were so evenly matched and the game was so tense and constantly amazing, they forgot their roles as mindless shills for the Jays. I had to mute the TV several times during Game 4 and grind through a few other rough spots.
On nights I worked, the game was muted on my computer, but my partner Laura was watching Sportsnet and being tortured. She said they both had given up any pretext of neutrality and were gushing non-stop over the Blue Jays like a couple of ignorant fans in the stands. When they weren't mindlessly polluting the airwaves by repeating every worthless, overused cliche you can think of, they were busy spinning everything that happened on the field as a "win" for the Blue Jays. Even when the Jays did something that was clearly not ideal (like swinging at pitches way out of the strike zone), they argued that, no, it was great because blahblahblahblah. I kind of wanted to go back and re-watch a bit with the sound on, but I never did. (I'm amazed at people who listen to the fascists on US television (either the shameless propaganda channels or from shitposters in government) and transcribe and report on what they say. A younger me would love to work at a place like Media Matters, but I couldn't do that kind of work.)
The two dongs to start the game clearly super-charged their inanity muscles and I scribbled some of the worst examples in the first two or three innings.
Shulman, T1: "They can't wait to get to the ballpark." (Players on other WS teams avoid going to the park for as long as they can.)
Shulman, T2: He seemed truly astounded that between the ALCS and WS, Barger flew home for the birth of his third child. The ALCS ended on a Monday and the WS did not start until Friday. The more amazing thing is that the timing worked out for the Barger family, not that Barger flew round-trip from Toronto to Florida. Depending on where he lives, the flight is between three and four hours. He wasn't going to fuckin New Zealand for fuck's sake (which could take 22+ hours).
Martinez, T3: "Who does this better than Kirk?" He went gaga over Kirk fouling off a 2-2 pitch in the dirt. Here's a small example of a bad decision being presented as great. Kirk's foul kept the count at 2-2, but not swinging at a pitch off the plate and very close to the ground would have improved the count to 3-2. Kirk then swung and missed the next pitch and ended the inning. No one does it better!!
Martinez, B3: Buck also praised ALL of the Jays hitters for running up Snell's pitch count. He threw 45 pitches in the first three innings. Snell was not sharp, but the sooner the Jays got into LA's bullpen, the better, right? Probably. But after two innings, Yesavage had thrown two more pitches than Snell (27-26) and one more pitch after three (47-46). Yesavage's pitch limit was far more strict that Snell's, so in fact it was the Dodgers that were doing a better job of rushing the opposing pitcher out of the game.
Shulman, T4: "It's only the fourth inning, but that run [putting Toronto up 3-1] seems very big . . ." It turns out that Dodgers' run was the extent of their scoring, so the third run was not big at all. Toronto could have won 2-1. Admitting it's only the top of the fourth is also an admission that feeling is all in your head and has no relationship to reality.
Martinez, B4: "This is a beautiful trip to the mound." Martinez was a catcher, so he's especially tuned in to what a catcher should do. But this praise is Sutcliffian in its inflating something minor into a Hall of Fame-worthy action.
Martinez, T7: Barger made a nice sliding catch on a line drive for the first out in the B6. Yesavage said something to Barger in the dugout as the T7 began. Speaking of the 22-year-old pitcher: "He knows what's going on around him." Most fans would assume he's utterly clueless, never turns around to look at his fielders at all (probably believes he's in Pittsburgh), but Martinez's astute analysis is pure in-game education.
Both announcers have said several times how LOUD Dodger Stadium is. They do not mean the fans, they mean the sound system. They say it's the loudest system in the majors by a wide margin. (And they call games at Skydome, which can be so loud between innings, it's impossible (literally) to converse with the person next to you. Though I doubt they would complain about the noise at Skydome if it was the worst.) You can tell through the TV that everything is cranked. They are especially fond of playing the slow droney bit from the beginning of "Iron Man" and the drum/cymbal clatter from the start of "Hot For Teacher". The noise is a real shame. We were at a Dodgers game late in 2003 and it was not like that at all. Organ music between innings, as if the whole point of being there was the baseball game. What a fuckin concept.
They have also described this series as being dominated by the splitter. A lot of pitchers on both teams rely heavily on split-finger fastballs. And yet every plate umpire's judgment on pitches at the bottom of the strike zone and below has been shit. Some calls have been eye-poppingly wrong. Low pitches are tough to judge in general, but I'd be extremely surprised if anyone in power at MLB considered this and assigned umpires who are the best, relatively speaking, at calling low pitches. Extremely surprised.
Shulman and Martinez are going to be absolutely unlistenable on Friday. But I don't want to experience Game 6 in silence. . . . Sigh. . . . If I mute, how will I know if these players "understand" that it's "Game 6"? How else will I learn that "this" is what they "play for"? Will all of them be wearing his "game face" ? And, perhaps most importantly, when a ballplayer is shown on TV, how can I be sure that he is a "ballplayer"?
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