Addison Barger's pinch-hit grand slam was one of the big hits for Blue Jays as they knock around Snell, Dodgers bullpen to take 1-0 lead in best-of-seven World Series.
On Friday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers wanted to get off to a fast start against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
Well, that went out the window as the Blue Jays' offense ambushed Dodgers starter Blake Snell and the Los Angeles bullpen. Addison Barger's pinch-hit grand slam homer was the centerpiece of an 11-4 win for the Blue Jays, giving them a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven 2025 World Series.
Snell worked into the sixth inning, but he didn't have his sharpest stuff. When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts came out to get Snell, he was looking for a lift from the bullpen.
That, unfortunately, did not happen.
The Dodgers jumped out to a 2-0 lead off of Blue Jays starter Trey Vesavage behind RBI singles from Kiké Hernández and Will Smith after the top of the third inning.
Daulton Varsho, though, hit a two-run homer in the Blue Jays' half of the fourth inning to tie things up at 2-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, though, the Blue Jays started putting some things together. Ernie Clement hit a bases-loaded single off Dodgers reliever Emmet Sheehan for a 3-2 Jays lead. Nathan Lukes coaxed a bases-loaded walk, putting Toronto up 4-2.
Andrés Giménez followed with an RBI single to make it 5-2 Blue Jays.
Then Roberts brought on lefty Anthony Banda to face Barger. Banda hung a pitch over the plate and Barger didn't miss. He scorched his grand slam and that made it 9-2 Toronto at that point. That was the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a single and Alejandro Kirk smoked a two-run homer to center field. That made it 11-2 Blue Jays and, well, that was pretty much it for Game 1 in front of a raucous Rogers Centre crowd.
Dodgers leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani smacked his first World Series home run in the top of the seventh, scoring Tommy Edman in front of him, for an 11-4 Blue Jays lead. Ohtani's homer was a towering fly ball that just made it over the right-field wall.
When Roberts takes a look at this game (if he does at all), there are going to be some glaring opportunities that were there early on against Vesavage. Los Angeles had baserunners on and they could not get them home.
As Ohtani was the last hope for the Dodgers in the top of the ninth, Blue Jays fans were taunting him and yelling, "We don't need him!" Ohtani coaxed a walk, though, to prolong the game a little bit longer.
Ohtani was leaning, though, off first base a little bit and a pickoff attempt was made. The Blue Jays challenged the safe call at first. But the umpires upheld the safe call, much to the chagrin of the home fans.
After the game ended, Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke offered this thought while he sat in the Rogers Centre press box hammering out a postgame column. It's worth noting that Plaschke has seen his fair share of Dodgers games in his career.
"Did the seven days off since the NLCS sweep ruin their timing as brief October vacations have done to Dodger teams in the past?" Plaschke wrote. "After all, this is the fifth time in World Series history a team coming off a sweep played a team that was stretched to seven games, and in the previous four times, the team that was stretched won the series."
The Dodgers had Vesavage on the ropes at times. Still, a Dodgers offense that has shown to be clutch so much this season could not get the job done.
Roberts has had to use a few arms out of the Dodgers' bullpen in Game 1.
Is there a bright spot for the Dodgers? Well, they can just go ahead and forget about this game and look ahead to Saturday night's Game 2. Roberts will send Yoshinobu Yamamoto out there to, hopefully, earn a split of the first two games in Toronto.
If Yamamoto can't get the job done and the Blue Jays happen to win the first two games at home, then they'll head to the West Coast in a pretty good spot. Toronto will send Kevin Gausman out as its Game 2 starter.
Still, the Dodgers do have three straight games at Dodger Stadium starting on Monday night.
It's pretty imperative for Los Angeles to get a win on Saturday night.
Roberts doesn't want to see his team down in a 2-0 hole at all.