Baseball-Blue Jays facing toughest test yet in World Series showdown with Dodgers

TORONTO :The resilient Toronto Blue Jays have defied expectations all season and will need to do it one more time if they want to prevail in their long-awaited return to the World Series where they will face the vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers.

After 49 comeback wins during MLB's 162-game regular season during which Toronto earned the reputation of the comeback kids, the Blue Jays authored three more in the postseason, the last in a thrilling Game Seven that put them in the World Series.

For all their efforts the Blue Jays now face their toughest test yet when they open the best-of-seven World Series at home on Friday against a star-studded Dodgers team looking to become MLB's first repeat champion in 25 years.

"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," said Blue Jays manager John Schneider.

"It's going to be fun. They're going to be up for it. There's going to be some big swings and ebbs and flows in it, I'm sure, but I'm just thrilled for the guys that they get the opportunity."

UNSELFISH BASEBALL

That the Blue Jays even reached the World Series may come as a surprise given they went 74-88 last year, which left them in the American League East division basement and 20 games back of the first-place New York Yankees.

But in 2025 the Blue Jays, who boast a solid offense built around Vladimir Guerrero Jr., have played an unselfish brand of baseball in which everyone plays for one another instead of for personal numbers and the results speak for themselves.

Toronto surprised the baseball world this season as they overcame a sluggish start and withstood a late surge by the Yankees en route to a 20-win improvement from 2024 and their first