Toronto’s nine-run eruption turned an alleged mismatch into a statement, showing the Dodgers’ empire of excess can be thwarted by patience, contact and belief
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efore the first pitch of the 2025 World Series on Friday night, it had been 32 years and one day since the greatest day in Toronto Blue Jays history and the last time that the franchise hosted a World Series game.
On 23 October 1993, outfielder Joe Carter hit the second ever walk-off home run to clinch a World Series championship on a pitch that was being thrown to Philadelphia Phillies catcher Darren Daulton. On 24 October 2025, the first Blue Jays home run hit in a World Series game since Carter’s was by outfielder Daulton Varsho, whose father, Gary, named his son after his former Phillies teammate … Darren Daulton. Two innings later, outfielder Addison Barger hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, the keynote of a nine-run sixth inning, which was the highest-scoring World Series inning since 1968.
The Blue Jays sixth-inning outburst turned a nailbiter into a rollicking 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series. It wasn’t a game destined for baseball lore, but it proved that the Blue Jays might be historically underestimated against the heavily favored Dodgers.
