By Frank Pingue
TORONTO (Reuters) -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 division title since 2015.
The Blue Jays then eliminated the Yankees in a best-of-five AL Division Series and beat the Seattle Mariners in the AL Championship Series after George Springer hit a three-run homer late in the decisive seventh game.
In beating the Mariners, Toronto became only the fourth team in MLB postseason history to prevail in a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games at home.
HANDS FULL
Now they will need to defy the odds once again, this time on baseball's grandest stage where a Dodgers team that won it all last year and got stronger in the offseason stands between them and a World Series championship.
Not only will Toronto's pitching rotation have their hands full against a stout Dodgers lineup but their offense will also face quite a challenge against a dynamic cast of LA pitchers that includes Japan's Shohei Ohtani.
"For me, every game is a challenge, every series is a challenge," said Guerrero. "I know they have great players. So do we. But on the field it's when everything matters."
CANADA'S TEAM
The Blue Jays, back in the World Series for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993, boast a solid offense built around Guerrero, a Canadian-born slugger who has become the face of the franchise.
As MLB's only Canadian team, the Blue Jays will also bring a nation's worth of support into the World Series.
"We're the only team that gets to experience that, and we're the only team that has the following that we do and the viewership that we do," said Schneider. "From coast to coast to have this team to grasp on to is really cool."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
