After being knocked off their perch in Game 1 of the 2025 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers now have a mountain to climb against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 on Saturday at Rogers Centre. The Dodgers lost 11–4 on Friday, allowing a nine-run sixth inning that included the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history.
Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts called focus to situational hitting and steady at-bats moving forward.
“There were some pivotal at-bats that can flip games that I think we can be better at,” Roberts said after the game. “At times the offense looks great building innings, but in some key at-bats you have to win pitches and use the other side of the field, get a hit, take a walk, whatever it might be. We can be better. We need to be better. Gausman and those guys are fired up and playing good baseball. One through nine, we have to continue to take good at-bats and play good baseball, then we’ll be fine.”
After the Game 1 loss, Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts says he wants to see his team improve in key ABs moving forward in the series. pic.twitter.com/AmUGjtOHrX
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 25, 2025
The beginning of Game 1 showed the Dodgers had a foot in the door. Enrique “Kike” Hernandez drove in Teoscar Hernandez in the second inning, with Will Smith bringing home Mookie Betts in the third, giving Los Angeles a 2–0 lead. However, Toronto quickly tied the game in the fourth when Daulton Varsho hit a two-run homer to center field, ending Blake Snell’s 17-inning scoreless streak in the postseason. It was his first homer allowed to a left-handed hitter since June 2024.
The sixth inning became a nightmare for the Dodgers. Snell, starting the inning with 84 pitches in a 2-2 tie, allowed a walk, a single, and a hit batter, loading the bases with no outs. Reliever Emmet Sheehan, a starter pressed into a new relief role due to bullpen limitations, allowed three inherited runners to score on two singles and a walk before recording an out.
Anthony Banda replaced him but immediately surrendered a grand slam to Addison Barger. Alejandro Kirk finished the nine-run frame with a two-run homer, turning a close game into an 11–2 deficit. Shohei Ohtani added a two-run homer in the seventh, his first career World Series home run, but it was too late to alter the outcome.
The series opener exposed the Los Angeles bullpen's vulnerabilities. Snell, Sheehan, and Banda combined to throw 44 pitches in the sixth, yielding six hits, two walks, and a hit batter. Prior to that inning, the Dodgers had allowed only eight runs across 53 postseason innings. The nine runs allowed in a single frame were a postseason high for Los Angeles, surpassing the eight runs given up in Game 1 of the 2014 NLDS and setting a World Series worst for a single inning since 1959.
