Key events
It’s anthem time in Toronto. First it’s Pia Toscano, the ninth-place finisher on the 10th season of American Idol, perfoming the Star-Spangled Banner. And now out comes the giant Canadian flag. Noah Reid, of Franklin and Schitt’s Creek fame, is out to sing O Canada! and the crowd is having a good old sing-a-long. Chills!
Shohei Ohtani is doing the impossible one more time. After a month that’s already seen him break records as both slugger and ace, he’ll take the ball for the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series, facing 41-year-old Max Scherzer and a Rogers Centre crowd on full boil.
It’s only fitting that the season that began with Ohtani starting in Tokyo ends with him on the mound in Toronto, completing baseball’s first campaign to open and close outside the United States.
The two-way star has never pitched in relief in the majors, so starting was the logical play under MLB’s dual-role rule; he can keep hitting as a designated hitter even after leaving the mound. If Ohtani wins, he’ll become the first Japanese-born pitcher ever to win a Game 7 of the World Series. If he loses, he’s still the story of October.
“As far as innings, not sure,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said earlier today when asked about his setup for Ohtani. “It depends how he comes out, how he looks, how he’s throwing, how he’s feeling. So I just kind of want to withhold kind of expectation and kind of read and react.”
He added: “As far as pitching plan, everyone’s available, and so how the game plays out, I just can’t predict. I don’t think anyone can. So we’ll see how it goes. But it starts, obviously, with the way Shohei’s throwing the baseball. And, yeah, last night we talked to him, and he said he was on board for starting. To be able to start him, it allows for us to kind of let him run as long as we can versus having him on the back end of the game.”
Max Scherzer has been here before – literally. Six years ago he dragged his ailing right arm through five innings for Washington in Houston’s hostile park and left with a ring.
Tonight the 41-year-old right-hander becomes only the fourth pitcher ever to start multiple World Series Game 7s, joining Bob Gibson, Don Larsen and Lew Burdette.
He’s faced the Dodgers 24 times in his career, more than any opponent, and comes in 5-6 with a 2.38 ERA against them. Toronto manager John Schneider calls him “the guy who’s been preparing for Game 7 since Game 3”.
Scherzer’s postseason stat sheet is a museum piece: 33rd appearance, 179 career playoff strikeouts (four shy of Andy Pettitte for fourth all-time).
The city of Toronto is buzzing with the Blue Jays one win from their third World Series title and first in 32 years. Here’s a look at how some of the home fans have gussied up for the occasion as they descend on Rogers Centre for tonight’s Game 7.
Dodgers fans in search of a good omen can look southward to Del Mar Racetrack in San Diego county, where Forever Young has just held off a formidable field to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in a landmark moment for Japanese racing.
Our Greg Wood reports from the site:
A fantastic result for Japanese trainer Yoshito Yahagi, and perhaps an overdue win for Forever Young, who got the worst of the interference in the home stretch in an incredibly tight finish to last year’s Kentucky Derby.
Ryusei Sakai was sitting close behind the pace from the off and struck for home at the perfect time coming off the bend, carving out a lead that Sierra Leone and Fierceness could not close down. The same three horses as last year fill the frame in the Classic, but crucially for Japanese racing, in a different order.
Could it be an auspicious sign for another Japanese athlete looking to make his mark on the global stage just over an hour from now?
Preamble
There’s no script for nights like this. Just noise, nerves and nine innings that will live forever.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays meet one final time tonight at Rogers Centre, a Game 7 that feels destined after everything this Fall Classic has delivered – the 18-inning marathon in Los Angeles, the rope-to-second double play that sealed Game 6, and the sight of two teams still standing after six games dripping with white-knuckle tension.
Quick Guide
World Series 2025
Show
Schedule
Best-of-seven series. All times Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4).
Fri 24 Oct Game 1: Toronto Blue Jays 11, LA Dodgers 4
Sat 25 Oct Game 2: LA Dodgers 5, Toronto Blue Jays 1
Mon 27 Oct Game 3: LA Dodgers 6, Toronto Blue Jays 5 (18 innings)
Tue 28 Oct Game 4: Toronto Blue Jays 6, LA Dodgers 2
Wed 29 Oct Game 5: Toronto Blue Jays 6, LA Dodgers 1
Fri 31 Oct Game 6: LA Dodgers 3, Toronto Blue Jays 1
Sat 1 Nov Game 7: LA Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 8pm
*if necessary
How to watch
• In the US, all games will be broadcast on FOX. If you have a cable/satellite subscription with FOX included, you can also stream via the FOX Sports app.
• In Canada, the English-language broadcast is on Sportsnet while the French-language broadcasts are on RDS and TVA Sports. The games are also streaming on Sportsnet+ (English-language).
• In the UK, the official broadcaster is TNT Sports. A subscription to their service or their app is required.
• In Australia, the rightsholder is the local branch of ESPN Australia and related platforms.
For the Dodgers, it’s a chance at baseball’s first repeat championship in a quarter-century. For the Blue Jays, it’s a shot at a first title since Joe Carter’s home run rattled Canada in 1993. The matchup could hardly be richer: Shohei Ohtani, the sport’s two-way phenomenon, will start on the mound for Los Angeles, making his fourth outing of the postseason and his first on the road. Ohtani, who’s batting .318 with three home runs in the Series, can remain in the lineup as a designated hitter after leaving the hill – a wrinkle that gives Dave Roberts every reason to hand him the ball from pitch one.
Opposite him: 41-year-old Max Scherzer, who’s starting a World Series Game 7 for the second time in his Cooperstown-bound career. Scherzer already helped the Nationals to the trophy in 2019 and will tonight become the first pitcher ever to start multiple winner-take-all World Series games for different clubs.
Around them stories and subplots abound. Vladimir Guerrero Jr has eight postseason homers and a nation waiting for one more. Freddie Freeman has reached base in every Dodgers game this October. Rookie Trey Yesavage has already set strikeout records. And somewhere in the din, Ohtani will try to deliver one more seismic moment for a team that began its season in Tokyo and now stands 226 days later on the edge of another title.
All hands are on deck. Every reliever, every matchup, every pitch will matter. The road team has won each of the last four World Series Game 7s. The last home club to finish the job? The St Louis Cardinals, in 2011.
So here we are: East v West, dynasty v destiny, a season that started in Japan and ends in Canada. The 121st playing of the World Series comes down to one night. Buckle in.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Owen Weisfeld’s report off Friday night’s Game 6.
