2025 World Series

The 2025 World Series (branded as the 2025 World Series presented by Capital One) was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2025 season. The 121st edition of the World Series was a best-of-seven playoff series between the National League (NL) champion and defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League (AL) champion Toronto Blue Jays. The series lasted from October 24 to November 1, with the Dodgers defeating the Blue Jays in seven games. Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named the World Series MVP, recording three wins in the series and a 1.02 ERA. It was televised by Fox in the United States and by Sportsnet in Canada. It was the Dodgers 23rd World Series appearance and second consecutive. The Dodgers successfully navigated through a 22–32 stretch from early July through early September to win the National League West for the 12th time in 13 seasons. They were looking to become the first back-to-back World Series champions since 2000, and were seeking their ninth title. The Blue Jays made their third appearance and sought their third title following a 32-year absence from the series after back-to-back victories in 1992 and 1993. Toronto secured home-field advantage through the playoffs, clinching the top seed in the American League and winning the American League East for the first time since 2015. This marked a significant improvement from their 2024 season, where they finished last in their division. Despite Los Angeles being favored heading in, the Series was closely contested between both clubs throughout, beginning with a split of the first two games in Toronto. The Blue Jays won Game 1 on the back of a sixth-inning offensive explosion, while the Dodgers took Game 2 behind Yamamoto's dominant pitching performance and several late runs. In Los Angeles, the Dodgers prevailed in an 18-inning Game 3, capped off by Freddie Freeman's walk-off home run for the second consecutive World Series, but the Blue Jays capitalized off a struggling Dodger bullpen to win Games 4 and 5 to take a 3–2 Series lead back to Toronto. The Dodgers responded by winning a low-scoring Game 6, which sent the 2025 Series into a winner-take-all seventh game. In Game 7, Toronto took an early three-run lead in the third and still held a one-run lead heading into the ninth. However, two outs away from Toronto clinching the title, the Dodgers' got a crucial game-tying home run from Miguel Rojas in the top of the ninth inning before narrowly escaping a Toronto bases-loaded situation in the bottom half to send Game 7 into extra innings. After a scoreless tenth from both clubs, catcher Will Smith hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the eleventh inning, then Yoshinobu Yamamoto withstood a Blue Jays rally in the bottom to secure the title for Los Angeles, four games to three. The Dodgers won their ninth World Series championship and first repeat championship in franchise history, and they became the first team since the 2000 New York Yankees and first NL team since the 1976 Cincinnati Reds to repeat as champions. The Dodgers became the eighth franchise in MLB history to win back-to-back titles, with several sports outlets beginning to refer to the Dodgers as a dynasty following the series. The Blue Jays were subsequently handed their first World Series loss in franchise history. This World Series is considered one of the greatest World Series of all time, and it included several notable feats, and records that were either matched or broken during the championship. Toronto's pinch hitter Addison Barger hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history in Game 1. Game 3 was the second-longest World Series game in terms of time after Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, each of which went a record 18 innings and were won by the Dodgers. In Game 3, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani reached base nine times and was intentionally walked four times, both individual records. Will Smith would break the record for most innings caught in a World Series by a catcher. Toronto's utility player Ernie Clement broke the record for most hits in a single postseason with 30. Game 7 of the series, considered one of the greatest World Series games of all time, set several records, which included the sixth Game 7 in World Series history to go into extra innings, the Dodgers becoming the first team ever to trail in the 9th inning of a World Series Game 7 on the road and come back to win, with Rojas and Smith setting Game 7 home run firsts in the 9th and in extra innings, and also brought in the largest audience for an MLB championship since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series at over 51 million viewers worldwide.