How the Dodgers Made the 2025 World Series

For the fifth time since the start of the 2017 MLB season, the Dodgers earned a spot in the World Series during the 2025 postseason. Los Angeles, thanks to a roster filled with pieces from their 2024 championship team, plus some new faces, rolled through the first three rounds. Pitching was a key reason why.

Dominance in October

To say the Dodgers cruised through the National League portion of the playoffs would be an understatement.

Los Angeles went 9-1 in the first three rounds of the 2025 playoffs, with their lone loss being in Game 3 of the NLDS. And, it wasn’t particularly close, either.

The Dodgers gave up only four runs in the NLCS against the Brewers, one in each game. The Phillies scored just nine over four games, amassing no more than three runs in any of those contests.

Lastly, the Dodgers handily took down the Reds in the NL Wild Card round. Even though Cincinnati scored nine runs across two games, Los Angeles’ average margin of victory across the series was 4.5.

The usual suspects

From an overall standpoint, it’s hard to win games without receiving production from the likes of those who are paid to be difference-makers. To go 9-1 in the playoffs thus far, it’s obvious that their pitching has been excellent.

The ex-Rays have been front-and-center. Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, two pitchers who were on the opposite side of the field during the 2020 World Series, have been among the best pitchers in baseball this October.

Glasnow struck out 18 over 13.1 IP and allowed just one earned run over the first three rounds. As for Snell, the former Cy Young Award winner struck out an NL-high 28 batters over 21 frames. Opposing batters are hitting just .090 off Snell during the playoffs.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the co-ace behind Snell, also did more than held his own. Eighteen strikeouts over 19.2 IP, including a playoff complete game to his name after holding the Brewers to one run in Game 2.

The offense, meanwhile, didn’t need to put bunches of runs against the Brewers. But overall, it’s been a good October for the Dodgers and their star hitters.

Mookie Betts doesn’t have a playoff home run yet but does have 12 hits and six RBI. Freddie Freeman, hitting just .231 thus far, got on the board with his first home run of the postseason against the Brewers.

Power has come from the likes of Teoscar Hernandez (four home runs) and Tommy Edman (two) over the first three rounds.

And, you can’t forget about Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani didn’t have a productive NLDS whatsoever. Aside from a strong pitching performance in Game 1 of that series against the Phillies, the two-way star was nearly invisible at the plate against the barrage of left-handed pitchers Philadelphia threw at him. That wasn’t the case in the NLCS.

The three-time MVP batted .357/.500/1.143 across the four games against the Brewers, highlighted by a Game 4 performance that may very well never be replicated again in Major League Baseball. Ten strikeouts on the mound, and three long home runs against Milwaukee.

A new closer

For most of 2025, the Dodgers rolled out Tanner Scott for save situations. Scott has his clear ups-and-downs, as the left-handed reliever — signed in the winter to fortify a bullpen that lost depth after 2024 — ranked among the top of the league in blown saves.

Scott didn’t pitch a game in the playoffs, as a lower-body abcess operation forced him off the NLDS roster. Instead, it’s been a different pitcher locking down games in the ninth inning: rookie starter Roki Sasaki.

Sasaki missed much of 2025 on the injured list. But before landing on the IL, the 23-year-old continued a troubling trend of diminished velocity. Now healthy, the Dodgers rookie has been nothing short of spectacular out of the bullpen since returning late in the regular season.