World Series Trends
Los Angeles is coming off a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, while Toronto is coming off a seven-game ALCS victory over the Seattle Mariners. This is the fifth World Series, ever, in which one team is coming off an LCS sweep and the other enters off an LCS seven-game series. In each of the previous four instances, the team that won the seven-game LCS went on to win the World Series. Two of those were World Series sweeps, while the other pair were decided in five games.Matchup History
This will be the first postseason meeting between the teams, but they did meet three times in the 2025 MLB season. The Dodgers won two of those three games in an August series in Los Angeles. All-time, the Dodgers are 19–11 versus the Jays, with a winning record both at home (9–6) and on the road (10–5).Dodgers Notes
Eight times a winner of the Fall Classic, a ninth World Series championship would tie the Red Sox and Athletics franchises for the third-most in MLB history. Los Angeles is also seeking to become the first National League repeat champ since The Big Red Machine of the Cincinnati Reds won back-to-back in 1975–1976.Even with three MVPs in their batting order with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, it’s the mound which is the biggest reason why the Dodgers are back in the World Series. Counting both the regular and postseason, Los Angeles’ pitchers lead all of baseball in strikeouts per game and rank second in batting average against. After dealing with injuries to starters all year, Los Angeles finally got healthy at the right time and enter the 2025 World Series with having allowed 1 ER or fewer in five straight games, which is tied for the longest streak in MLB postseason history.
Meanwhile, Ohtani has been the talk of baseball since his first-of-its-kind performance in Game 4 of the NLDS. He hit three home runs while striking out 10 batters over six scoreless innings. He has never pitched in the World Series before, but he’ll be happy to see Toronto pitchers when he’s at the plate. During the regular season, Ohtani had a .538 batting average (7 for 13) and 1.702 OPS against the Jays, both of which were his highest versus any MLB team.
Blue Jays Notes
The Jays won both of their previous World Series appearances (1992, 1993), meaning if they win this year, they’ll join the Red Sox as the only franchises to win each of their first three trips to the Fall Classic.Toronto has been the best-hitting team all year, with a .267 batting average in the regular season and postseason combined that tops all MLB teams. Despite ranking 10th in home runs per game, the Jays manufactured runs and rank third in runs per game, thanks to excelling on the margins. The Jays strike out at the lowest rate, which has enabled them to post the best on-base percentage in baseball.
