The Los Angeles Dodgers have been a dominant team in the postseason. They are four wins away from winning their second consecutive World Series and they are heavy favorites to do so. They have multiple superstars in Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, and their pitching staff is functioning on all cylinders in the playoffs. Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are pitching extremely well in the most important games of the season.
In addition to the talent level that gives them an edge in this series, they also have the motivation to win out of respect for their retiring teammate Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers lefthander has had a brilliant career and he will be hanging up his spikes after the World Series.
Kershaw's teammates love and respect their teammate. While he has had issues in his career in some of his postseason games, he has been brilliant as a regular-season pitcher throughout his career. He compares with Sandy Koufax when it comes to regular-season pitching for the Dodgers.
Yamamoto says the Dodgers want to send Kershaw out on a winning note. The Dodgers hurler thinks it would be the appropriate note for Kershaw to end his career.
Kershaw has won two World Series titles in his career with the Dodgers in 2020 and 2024.
Yamamoto will get the start for the Dodgers in Game 2
The first two games of the World Series are at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Snell got the assignment from manager Dave Roberts for the start in Game 1, while Yamamoto was scheduled to get the ball in the second game of the series. When the World Series heads back to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4 (as well as Game 5, if needed). Tyler Glasnow will get the start in Game 3 and Ohtani will get the ball in Game 4.
Kershaw has had an 18-year career with the Dodgers. He has a career record of 223-96 with a 2.53 ERA and 3,052 strikeouts in his career. He was 11-2 in 2025 with a 3.36 ERA and 84 strikeout in 112.2 innings.
