Baseball-Blue Jays carry hopes of a nation into World Series amid Canada-US tension

TORONTO :The Toronto Blue Jays have crashed baseball's biggest party and will have the support of an entire nation when they face the star-studded and deep-pocketed Los Angeles Dodgers in a World Series played amid ongoing Canada-U.S. political tension.

After 32 years in baseball's wilderness, Canada's lone MLB team reached baseball's biggest stage with a come-from-behind win over the Seattle Mariners in the decisive seventh game of the American League Championship Series on Monday.

Canadian support for the Blue Jays goes beyond the fact that they will be facing the Dodgers, the defending champions and a team painted as the proverbial villain given they boast some of the game's biggest stars and one of MLB's highest payrolls.

There is also national pride at stake.

If Toronto are crowned World Series champions in a sport long considered as America's pastime, it would be celebrated across a country whose economy has come under strain given the impact of tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States.

Shortly after the final out in Monday's game and with a champagne-soaked party in the Toronto clubhouse far from over, Blue Jays manager John Schneider spoke about the possibility of the World Series narrative turning into Canada versus America rather than just the Blue Jays versus Dodgers.

"We'll see. 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," said Schneider.

"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."

George Springer, still hobbled by the fastball that hit his right kneecap and forced him out of Game Five of the ALCS, hit a late three-run