2025 World Series
The 2025 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 2025 season. The 121st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League champion and defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League champion Toronto Blue Jays. The series was played from October 24 to November 1. The Dodgers defeated the Blue Jays in seven games to win their second consecutive World Series and ninth overall. They became MLB's first back-to-back champions since 2000, the first from the NL since 1976, and the eighth franchise to win back-to-back titles. Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named the World Series MVP, recording three wins and a 1.02 ERA.
Both teams reached the playoffs by winning their respective divisions; the Dodgers won the National League West for the 12th time in 13 seasons, while the Blue Jays won the American League East for the first time since 2015. In the 2025 postseason, the Dodgers went 9-1 in the NL playoffs, while the Blue Jays earned a first-round bye and went 7-4 in the AL. The Blue Jays made their third World Series appearance, and their first in 32 years, after their back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993.
The Dodgers were favored heading into the Series, but the Blue Jays had home-field advantage due to their better regular-season record. In Game 1, the Blue Jays scored nine runs in the sixth inning to win easily. In Game 2, Yamamoto tied the Series with a one-run complete game. The 18-inning Game 3 was the second-longest game in World Series history by time; Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run for the second World Series in a row. However, the Blue Jays seized control with two straight wins in Los Angeles, as the Dodgers bullpen struggled. Back in Toronto, Yamamoto pitched six innings of one-run ball to help force a deciding game. Game 7 was the sixth World Series Game 7 to go into extra innings. With Toronto two outs away from the title, Miguel Rojas tied the game with a solo home run. Will Smith then hit the go-ahead home run in the eleventh. One day after throwing 96 pitches, Yamamoto pitched the final innings to clinch the title for Los Angeles.
The series was televised by Fox in the United States and by Sportsnet in Canada. The series averaged 16.1 million viewers in the U.S., making it the most-watched World Series since 2017. Game 7 was the most-watched World Series game since Game 7 in 1991, with at least 51 million viewers across the U.S., Canada, and Japan.
Several commentators have called the 2025 Series one of the greatest World Series of all time, and its Game 7 one of the greatest World Series games of all time. Several World Series records were broken, including the first pinch-hit grand slam ; the most times reaching base and the most intentional walks for a player in a game ; the most innings pitched by a team in a best-of-seven matchup ; and the most innings caught in a single Series. In addition, Ernie Clement set the record for the most hits for a player in a single postseason. Following the series, several sports outlets hailed the Dodgers as a dynasty.
Background
The 2025 World Series logo returned to the classic, scripted white "World Series" wordmark in cursive, similar to the one used across 14 consecutive World Series logos from 1987 to 2000. This was the ninth consecutive World Series to take place in either California or Texas. This was the fifth World Series since the League Championship Series round became best-of-seven in 1985 that one LCS was a sweep and the other went seven games, with the seven-game-winning LCS team winning the previous four World Series.The Dodgers won two games out of three against the Blue Jays in a three-game series at Dodger Stadium from August 8–10. The third game of this series would have an impact on the World Series, as the Dodgers blew a late-game lead in the eighth and a tie in the ninth; had they won that game, and the rest of the season played out the same, the Dodgers would have had home field advantage in the World Series instead of Toronto, who would have finished second in the AL East behind the Yankees and would have had a tougher road through the postseason. This World Series marked the first postseason meeting between the Blue Jays and the Dodgers. It also marked the first meeting between teams from Toronto and Los Angeles in a postseason series since the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Dodgers’ and Blue Jays’ relievers wore “51” patches on their hats in honor of Dodgers’ reliever Alex Vesia, who was away from the team during the World Series to allow him and his wife, Kayla, time to "navigate a deeply personal family matter," according to a team statement. It was later announced by Vesia on social media that the couple's newborn daughter had died on October 26.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers solidified their championship roster from the previous season by adding free agents starting pitcher Blake Snell, reliever Tanner Scott, and winning the bid to sign Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki, while also re-signing Teoscar Hernández and Blake Treinen. As heavy favorites to repeat, the Dodgers became the first defending World Series champion to begin their season 8–0, besting the previous record held by the 1933 Yankees, who started their season 7–0. The Dodgers had a 56–32 record with a nine-game lead in the National League West on July 3. However, from July 4 through September 6, the Dodgers experienced their worst 54-game stretch of Dave Roberts' tenure as team manager. At the heart of their struggles was an unreliable bullpen, including hitting rock bottom on a September 6 walk-off loss to Baltimore where Yoshinobu Yamamoto did not allow a hit for innings. The bullpen could not get the final out and ended up blowing a 3–0 lead. They rebounded towards the end of the season, winning five of their last six regular season series, posting a 93–69 record and winning the NL West division for the fourth consecutive season and the 12th time in the last 13 seasons. At the All-Star game, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, and Will Smith were fan-voted starters, while Yamamoto was an MLB selection and Clayton Kershaw, playing in his last season, was the "legend pick".As the third-best division winner by record, the Dodgers hosted and swept the sixth-seeded Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card Series in two games. They then defeated the second-seeded Philadelphia Phillies in four games in the National League Division Series, highlighted by an errant throw by Orion Kerkering that gave the Dodgers the series walk-off win. In the National League Championship Series, they dispatched the postseason's overall top seed in the Milwaukee Brewers in a four-game sweep. They allowed just four runs in the series and it was their first sweep in a seven-game series since sweeping the New York Yankees in the 1963 World Series. After hitting three home runs and pitching six shutout innings with ten strikeouts in the decisive Game 4 of the NLCS, Ohtani won the NLCS MVP Award. Unlike the 2024 team, which was reliant on relief pitching, the 2025 Dodgers' team strength was their starting pitchers, due to the signing of Snell, a return to pitching from two-way superstar Ohtani, a healthy second half of the season from Tyler Glasnow, and a full season of Yoshinobu Yamamoto; providing depth were also Emmet Sheehan and Clayton Kershaw, both of whom were productive throughout the season. Throughout the postseason, the staff pitched into the sixth inning in every start but one and did not allow more than three earned runs. The Dodgers entered the World Series winners of 24 of their previous 30 games.
This was the Dodgers' 23rd World Series appearance and the fifth in nine seasons. They were the first reigning World Series champion to reach the World Series since the 2009 Phillies and were looking to become the first repeat champions since the 1998–2000 Yankees, as well as the first in the National League to repeat since the 1975–1976 Reds.
Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays opened 2025 looking to improve on their dismal 2024 last-place season, which had been their first losing season since 2019. In the off-season, their most significant signing was not a player acquisition, but the hiring of new hitting coach David Popkins. Popkins's tailored each player's approach to their natural strengths, and put more emphasize on putting the ball in play; under Popkins, virtually every hitter from the 2024 team improved their numbers. The other significant signing happened in April, when the team extended star player Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was set to become a free agent at season's end, to a 14-year, $500 million contract. The Blue Jays started the season.500 over the first two months. They did not sustain success until June, when they won eight of ten games to start the month. From June 29 through July 8, they won ten straight games, including a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees at the Rogers Centre. Their sudden hot play, coupled with a Yankees' swoon, saw the Blue Jays take the lead in the American League East on July 3, a division they had once trailed by eight games in late May. At the 2025 All-Star game, Guerrero Jr. was named a starter, and catcher Alejandro Kirk was selected as a reserve. After the All-Star break, the Blue Jays won eight of nine games, further expanding their lead in the AL East over New York. An injury to Bo Bichette and a late September surge from the Yankees threatened Toronto's AL East lead, but they defeated the Tampa Bay Rays on the last day of the season, securing their first AL East division title since 2015. The Blue Jays and Yankees finished tied, but by virtue of their 8–5 regular season head-to-head record against New York, Toronto won the division.With a division title won, the Blue Jays also earned a first-round bye and the top seed in the American League. In the American League Division Series, they met the fourth-seeded Yankees for the first postseason matchup between the division rivals, where they won the series in four games. Their Game 1 win ended a six-game postseason losing streak and Guerrero Jr. hit the team's first ever postseason grand slam in blowout Game 2 win. In the American League Championship Series, they came back from a two-games-to-none series deficit against the second-seeded Seattle Mariners in seven games after being eight outs away from elimination in Game 7, highlighted by a seventh inning George Springer go-ahead three-run home run, to reach the World Series for the first time since their 1993 championship season. Guerrero Jr. won the ALCS MVP, as he altogether in the postseason had more home runs than strikeouts. As a team, the Blue Jays slugged 0.523 in 11 games prior to the World Series.
Blue Jays' bench coach Don Mattingly, the manager for the Dodgers from 2011 to 2015 and bench coach from 2008 to 2010, reached his first World Series after 34 years in Major League Baseball.
The Blue Jays won their previous two World Series, in 1992 and 1993. They were looking to win their third World Series title and Toronto's first championship in one of the "Big Four" North American professional sports leagues since the Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA Finals, as well as their first under current manager John Schneider. The Raptors and Toronto Maple Leafs changed the times of some of their games to avoid conflict with the World Series.