TORONTO — The Los Angeles Dodgers might have a double on their minds entering the World Series, but the Toronto Blue Jays are aiming for a triple of their own.
The Dodgers have their sights set on a second consecutive World Series title when the best-of-seven series begins Friday night. They’re already the first World Series champions to come back for an appearance in the next year since the 2008-09 Philadelphia Phillies.
The last team to take consecutive World Series was the New York Yankees, who hit the trifecta from 1998-2000.
Blue Jays fans know something about winning back-to-back World Series, as the franchise did so in 1992-93. Now Toronto is aiming to make it 3-for-3 and remain with the Marlins as the only franchises to be undefeated with multiple appearances in the World Series.
That said, this is a new experience for most of the current team.
“I think that there’s a lot of firsts for a lot of these guys, me included, staff included. I want them to enjoy it,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “I think that players are going to feel certain things that they haven’t felt before. Once you get that initial kind of shock and awe off you, this team is really good about focusing on what they need to do.”
Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts sees positives for Toronto in being new to the scene.
“Some part of it you could argue that the naivete, the inexperience, is a good thing,” Roberts said on Thursday. “But I feel that the ability to manage moments, your heartbeat, is advantageous, especially in a seven-game series. So, I think that we’re equipped to play well, and we’re facing a very good ball club. I like the experience, but I also like the enthusiasm that those guys have. And we have some of those guys too.”
Rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage (2-1, 4.20 ERA) is scheduled to start Game 1 for Toronto, while the Dodgers have tabbed two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (3-0, 0.86).
Yesavage, 22, made his major league debut just five weeks ago and pitched in three regular-season games before having a breakout postseason. Yesavage’s first batter of the game will be Shohei Ohtani and that is not lost on him.
“He’s a special player. He can do damage on both sides of the baseball,” Yesavage said on Thursday. “But it doesn’t take away the fact that we are in this situation for a reason. So, just go out there and be ourselves and if there’s adjustments that we need to make to try to neutralize him, we’ll make those adjustments.”
Snell is 5-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 16 career starts against the Blue Jays. The Dodgers won two of three from the visiting Blue Jays Aug. 8-10, with Snell blanking Toronto over five innings on 10 strikeouts Aug. 9.
He feels the Blue Jays seem to be a different team at this moment.
“They’ve got a lot of confidence right now,” Snell said. “They’re doing a good job of just, like, each at-bat fueling off each other. … They have always been a good lineup. Bat to ball is good.”
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer figure to be particularly tough opponents, but Snell was not about to share how he will approach them.
“I can’t really give too much away,” he said. “They’re veteran hitters. They know what they’re doing. They know what they’re looking for.”
The Dodgers announced that left-handed reliever Alex Vesia is away from the team to deal with a personal matter.
“Right now, we’re in the mode of trying to understand the process, the rules, a way that we could sort of try to navigate the roster,” Roberts said.
–Larry Millson, Field Level Media
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