Entering the postseason, the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners received the top two seeds in the American League (AL) respectively, while the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies received the top two in the National League (NL). In the wild card, three out of the four games went to a third game to determine who moved onto the Division Series, with only the Dodgers moving on in a swift two games against the Cincinnati Reds. The New York Yankees moved on after defeating their longtime rival, the Red Sox, and the other two teams that moved on were the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs.
The big story entering the AL Division Series was the Seattle Mariners, having their best season in a long time and still looking for their first World Series appearance. After four games, the Mariners beat the Tigers with a walkoff single after an astounding six extra innings to advance to the AL Championship. Their Eastern opponents would be the Toronto Blue Jays, who knocked off the Yankees after winning their first two games and clinching in the fourth. In the National League, the Wild Card seed Dodgers kicked off the second-ranked Phillies after a game-ending error in the 11th inning by Orion Kerkering, who made a wild throw to home and allowed a walk-off run by Hyeseong Kim. The Milwaukee Brewers continued their tear of a season in the NL East, where they won their first two games, and then won the fifth game half an inning early to clinch a spot in the NL Championship Series.
In the penultimate round of the postseason, it would be the Dodgers facing off against the Brewers in the NLCS, and the Blue Jays and Mariners facing off in the ALDS. In the National League, it was a complete blowout, with the Dodgers putting 4 straight wins on the Brewers to immediately clinch a World Series berth for the second straight season. The main highlight, as usual, was Shohei Ohtani, who in game four alone scored three home runs and ten strikeouts, becoming the first pitcher to have multiple home runs in one game in the postseason despite not having pitched for two weeks. This easily netted him the NLCS MVP award.
The American League, however, could not have been more different. Seattle won the first two games, then Toronto dropped 13 runs on the Mariners in game three to put themselves on the board. Toronto then tied it up in game four with another high-scoring win, scoring eight runs to Seattle’s two. Game 5 was looking to be an easy third win for Toronto, as they led 2-1 going into the eighth inning. Then, the hometown Seattle crowd witnessed a five-run inning, where Cal Raleigh hit a home run to tie the game up, and then Eugenio Suárez hit a Grand Slam, where the crowd of 46 thousand people was so loud it caused seismic waves. This gave the series lead back to Seattle, needing only one game to clinch. However, the Blue Jays weren’t out of it yet, getting their own 6-2 victory against the Mariners as Seattle had done just the game before. The ALCS was to be decided by a seventh game. Toronto and Seattle each got a run in the first inning, then Seattle scored one run in the third and fifth innings to take the lead of the game. In the seventh inning, the Blue Jays fought back with three runs, and in the last two innings they prevented the Mariners from scoring and allowed the Blue Jays to put a forced end to the Cinderella story in Seattle.
The World Series began on Friday, Oct. 24 between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. Notably, the only other two times that the Blue Jays have won the AL Pennant, they went on to win the World Series title the same year. Also, their star player, first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., signed an extension with the team at the beginning of April, giving the team more confidence with the knowledge that their best player is staying in Toronto. On the other hand, the Dodgers are trying to go back-to-back this year, which would be their third title this decade as well. Undoubtedly, all the Dodgers fans are eagerly waiting to see Shohei Ohtani, coming off of his fourth total and third straight MVP award, in his second straight World Series. In just his eighth season in the MLB, he is already in talks to become the greatest of all time, and a second World Series in a row might just push those talks even further. All in all, the 2025 World Series is set to be a barnburner.
