Jorge CastilloOct 24, 2025, 11:39 PM ET
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
TORONTO — For the Blue Jays, what happened in the sixth inning — a nine-run bludgeoning in an 11-4 win over the heavily favored Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night — was not surprising. The stakes were elevated. The opponent was mighty. The confidence, stemming from their exceptional ability to annoy and frustrate opposing pitchers, did not waver.
The Blue Jays spent five innings making Blake Snell, the best pitcher through the first three rounds of the postseason, labor as they have made other elite pitchers labor in 2025, and it was only a matter of time before the dam broke.
When it did, when Addison Barger launched the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history five batters and two relievers after Snell’s exit, the Blue Jays demonstrated what they have been for the past six months in the franchise’s first World Series game in 32 years.
“We’re a pain in the ass,” Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes said.
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Toronto, which finished in last place in the American League East with 74 wins last season, is three wins from its first World Series title since 1993. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the franchise’s cornerstone, had two hits and a walk, and Bo Bichette, Guerrero’s right-hand man since they debuted together in 2019, returned from a knee sprain to play in his first game in seven weeks at second base, a position he had never played in the majors.
But the list of contributors was long. Daulton Varsho’s two-run homer off the batter’s eye against Snell in the fourth inning erased an early Blue Jays deficit. Alejandro Kirk went 3-for-3 with a nine-pitch walk, two singles and a two-run homer. And of course, Barger, a left-handed hitter, came off the bench to hit a grand slam off left-hander Anthony Banda and become the second player in World Series history to hit a left-on-left pinch-hit home run, seven months after beginning the season in Triple-A.
“Everyone should know who we are and what we’re about as a team,” Kirk said. “That’s why we’re here.”
Snell held opponents to two runs in 21 innings in his first three postseason starts. He compiled 28 strikeouts and five walks in the outings — one in each round against the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, and Milwaukee Brewers. He was the ace of the best rotation in recent postseason history that limited the Brewers to four runs in a four-game sweep in the National League Championship Series.
But Snell quickly discovered that the Blue Jays’ offense — a pesky operation one through nine that made the most contact and struck out the least in baseball this season — resides on another plane. Snell finished with just four strikeouts while allowing eight hits and issuing three walks.
“We’re a different animal right now,” Blue Jays third baseman Ernie Clement said.
Year, TeamRunsInning (Game)1968, Tigers103rd (Game 6)1929, Athletics107th (Game 4)2025, Blue Jays96th (Game 1)2001, Diamondbacks83rd (Game 6)1921, Giants87th (Game 3)– ESPN Research
Snell escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning but needed 29 pitches to secure the three outs. Kirk, symbolizing the Blue Jays’ dogged approach, saw nine of those pitches in a two-out walk. It was a game-altering scoreless inning.
“That’s about as good of an inning you can have without scoring a run,” Clement said.
Snell’s odometer read 56 pitches when he took the mound for the fourth inning and confronted Kirk again. This time, he lined the eighth pitch he saw — a 2-2 changeup on the outer half of the plate — the other way for a long single that banged off the wall just fair. Snell’s next pitch was a 96 mph fastball that Varsho hit for a two-run homer to straightaway center field. Rogers Centre erupted. Snell, for the first time in October, was bleeding.
It was the first home run Snell allowed since Aug. 29, a span of seven starts, and the first home run he gave up to a left-handed hitter this season.
“It’s just I wasn’t locating the ball,” Snell said. “It’s pretty simple. The command with the fastball wasn’t great.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent Snell out for the sixth inning, but the two-time Cy Young Award winner was out of gas. He walked Bichette to begin the frame before Kirk singled again. Snell hit Varsho with a pitch to load the bases. The sequence prompted Roberts to summon Emmet Sheehan from the bullpen to relieve Snell after 100 pitches, marking just the second time the right-hander had entered a game in the middle of an inning in his major league career.
Clement welcomed Sheehan with a go-ahead RBI single, Lukes followed with a bases-loaded walk, and Andres Gimenez delivered another run-scoring single before Sheehan finally secured the inning’s first out by getting George Springer to ground into a fielder’s choice. After Barger was announced as the pinch hitter for the right-handed-hitting Davis Schneider, Roberts countered with Banda.
Barger hit the fourth pitch from Banda — an 84.5 mph slider — over the wall in center field for his second home run of the postseason. It was Barger’s second home run in 95 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers this season.
“Barg, man, he didn’t budge,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “He was ready to go and hit a mistake pitch.”
Three batters later, Kirk completed the demolition with a two-run homer off Banda. The Blue Jays’ nine runs were the most scored in an inning in the World Series since the Detroit Tigers scored 10 against the St. Louis Cardinals in the third inning of Game 6 of the 1968 World Series.
The Blue Jays didn’t exist then. They came along nine years later, in 1977, as one of two expansion teams in the American League. Nearly 50 years later, they are just three wins from upsetting the defending World Series champions for the third championship in franchise history.
“We showed [we’re a powerhouse] tonight,” Lukes said. “We showed it all year. Everyone’s comparing us to David and Goliath. But I think it’s more like Goliath vs. Goliath. We’re the two last teams standing.”
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