World Series Game 1 takeaways: Big inning pushes Blue Jays past Dodgers

The Toronto Blue Jays showed on Friday night that the effects of a dramatic seven-game ALCS battle lasted for roughly three innings.

Toronto's Daulton Varsho hit a game-tying two-run home run in the fourth, and the Blue Jays blew World Series Game 1 open with a nine-run sixth inning on their way to overwhelming the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-4 to open the 2025 Fall Classic.

Addison Barger's grand slam highlighted the pivotal frame, etching his place in the MLB record books with the first-ever pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history. Alejandro Kirk added a two-run home run later in the inning, giving him three hits in his first three at-bats.

Toronto's outburst may be a good omen for the Blue Jays. The winner of the first game of the World Series has gone on to win the Fall Classic 77 times (64.2%). That has been the case in 18 of the last 22 and 23 of the last 27 World Series.

Here are three other things that stood out in Game 1.

Trey Yesavage was inconsistent for the Blue Jays

It's hard to be too upset about the performance of a Game 1 starter who began the season in Low-A, but Yesavage issued three walks and four hits in 4.0 innings to fuel the Dodgers' offense early.

His back-to-back walks of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to open the third came back to haunt him as Will Smith drove Betts in with an RBI single to expand the visitors' lead to 2-0. The damage could have been worse, as Yesavage worked his way out of a jam to keep himself in the game.

The 22-year-old right-hander settled in from there, finishing with a pair of strikeouts in the top of the fourth, giving him five whiffs on the night. That bookended a night where he struck out Shohei Ohtani to open the game, but the Dodger lineup got to him in between those moments.

Blake Snell looked human for the Dodgers

Entering Game 1, Snell had been dominant this postseason for the Dodgers, making three starts and allowing just two runs on six hits with five walks and 28 strikeouts. It continued a trend where Snell had excelled in October throughout his career as he entered Friday night with a 2.58 ERA in 69.2 innings spread over 15 games (13 starts).

However, one sequence in the fourth proved that even Snell is human.

Kirk opened the frame with a long single down the right field line and Varsho followed by hitting the first pitch of the at-bat 423 feet to center field to tie the game at 2.