LOS ANGELES: The Shohei Ohtani-powered Los Angeles Dodgers will attempt to become the first team in 25 years to win back-to-back World Series on Friday when they face a Toronto Blue Jays side determined to end a decades-long title drought.
Twelve months after outgunning the New York Yankees in a blockbuster Fall Classic, the Dodgers are on the cusp of a second straight Major League Baseball championship.
The Blue Jays head into Friday’s Game 1 at Toronto’s Rogers Center with home advantage in the best-of-seven series due to their superior regular season record.
But the star-studded Dodgers lineup start as the clear favorites to win a ninth World Series crown, and their third in five years.
Japanese ace Ohtani is the centerpiece of an expensively assembled team which critics have accused of “ruining” baseball, which unlike many professional sports in North America, does not have a salary cap.
The Dodgers, who spent lavishly to improve their roster following last season’s World Series victory, are happy to be cast as villains.
“Before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts quipped after his team completed a 4-0 sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers to book their World Series berth. “So let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball,” Roberts added.
Few would bet against Roberts and the Dodgers following through on that promise.
In Ohtani, the Dodgers have the reigning MLB Most Valuable Player, a pitching and hitting unicorn who is inarguably the best player on the planet, possibly even of all-time.
The 31-year-old electrified Dodger Stadium in last Friday’s series-clinching win over the Brewers, belting three home runs and striking out 10 batters in what many have described as the greatest single performance in history.
The Dodgers offensive firepower also includes former former MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, while on the pitching mound, the team’s starting rotation of Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamato and Tyler Glasnow, along with Ohtani, have dominated since the playoffs got under way.
“The Toronto Blue Jays are a very, very deep team,” said Derek Jeter, a member of five New York Yankees World Series-winning teams between 1996 and 2009, and the last side to win back-to-back titles.
“But the Los Angeles Dodgers are a juggernaut. They’re playing as well as I’ve seen any team play in years. It’s going to be competitive. Toronto’s going to give them problems. But the Dodgers are as good I’ve ever seen.”
‘Got to beat the best’
Toronto manager John Schneider, though, insists his team are relishing the challenge of taking on the champions.
The Blue Jays advanced to the World Series for the first time in 32 years on Monday after defeating the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in a thrilling game seven duel in Toronto.
In Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Blue Jays have the most in-form slugger of the postseason with the 26-year-old blasting six home runs in the playoffs.
George Springer, who hit the winning home run in Monday’s win over Seattle, also offers offensive power, as well as experience of victory over the Dodgers, having been a part of the Houston Astros’ 2017 World Series triumph that was tarnished by the sign-stealing scandal.
“To get to where you want to go, you got to beat the best,” Schneider said of facing the Dodgers. “They’re a damn good team. They’ve got Hall-of-Famers up and down their lineup. And they’ve got really, really good starting pitching and really good relievers.
“I truly think that the best two teams are left standing for a variety of different reasons, and I’ll never count my guys out of any series. They’re going to be up for it.”
The cross-border nature of the World Series match-up also comes at a time of heightened geopolitical relations between Canada and the United States following the election of Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for Canada to become the “cherished 51st state” of the United States since his return to power.
Schneider was hesitant when asked if the series could become a politically charged “Canada v USA” sporting confrontation.
“We’ll see,” Schneider said. “I know it will be the Blue Jays versus the Dodgers. That’s kind of how we’re going to look at it, knowing that we have a whole country behind us. But I’m not quite sure how that will unfold.
“But I know that these guys in there know that they’re representing the country too.”
The series gets under way on Friday, with Game 2 in Toronto on Saturday. Games three, four and five will take place in Los Angeles starting from next Monday, before the series returns to Toronto for games six and seven.
