Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, postseason edition! We'll keep you up to speed on everything you need to know every weekday throughout the 2025 World Series. Thanks for being here.

Where oh where has that vaunted Dodgers offense gone?

Los Angeles has scored just four runs in its past 29 innings against the Blue Jays going back to Game 3 of the World Series -- an ill-timed slump that has put the club’s season on the brink. The Dodgers no longer have any margin for error. Two games remain, and they need to win them both. It won’t be easy, especially on the road in front of a raucous crowd at Rogers Centre.

The Dodgers’ pitching certainly deserves some of the blame for their predicament. After dominating the first three rounds, Los Angeles has a 4.58 ERA in the World Series. Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete game in Game 2, but the club’s other starters have combined to post a 6.45 ERA over 22 1/3 innings. So, yeah, it hasn’t been great on that front.

Still, the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup was supposed to be equipped for this. Only the Yankees scored more runs than L.A. in the regular season. The Dodgers have Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández and … well, you get the 

idea. Yet, the Blue Jays have held the Dodgers in check.

Let’s dig into some of the factors that have contributed to the Dodgers’ poor offensive showing.

Good pitching
We’d be remiss if we didn’t start off by acknowledging rookie Trey Yesavage, whose record-setting Game 5 performance gave the Blue Jays a 3-2 series lead. Yesavage was dominant, striking out 12 batters over seven innings of one-run ball while generating 23 whiffs -- the most by a pitcher in a World Series game under pitch tracking (since 2008). With the way he was dealing, it really didn’t matter who was standing in the box against him.

Beyond Yesavage, Toronto’s entire staff deserves credit for its execution against the Dodgers’ offense. Blue Jays pitchers have posted a 3.06 ERA over 56 innings, down from 4.18 in the regular season and 4.36 in the playoffs entering the Fall Classic.

Not enough support for Ohtani
The Dodgers’ struggles around leadoff hitter Ohtani have not only limited the superstar’s impact but have also made it easier for the Blue Jays to pick and choose when to pitch to him. The Dodgers’ nine-hole hitters have a .130 OBP in this series, which is a big reason why most of Ohtani’s PAs have come with the bases empty. 

Meanwhile, Mookie Betts, who batted directly behind Ohtani in each of the first four games before the Dodgers dropped him to third on Wednesday, has a .361 OPS over 26 PAs. As a result, Ohtani has scored only two runs that were driven in by someone other than himself, despite reaching base at a .500 clip in the series. None of his seven walks (four intentional) has led to him scoring.

Poor air contact

Getting the ball in the air is typically a recipe for offensive success, increasing a team’s chances to hit for power. In this regard, the Dodgers have done well -- the club’s air-ball rate is over 67% in this series. The problem is that many of those have been popups or lazy flyouts, leading to a .560 SLG on air balls. In comparison, the Dodgers slugged nearly .800 on balls in the air during the regular season.

-- Thomas Harrigan

There is nothing like a World Series Game 7, but don’t sell Game 6s short. They too feature incredible tension, which we’ll see Friday in Toronto: One team is trying to hoist a trophy at the end of the night; the other is trying to survive another day.

In fact, one could argue that when it comes to the most memorable games in Fall Classic history -- the sort that can be summed up with a single name or phrase -- Game 6 can’t be beat. David Freese and Kirby Puckett connected by the call of, “We will see you … tomorrow night!” Carlton Fisk willing the ball fair. Joe Carter jumping for joy around the bases. And on the other side of the coin … “A little roller up along first,” eluding Bill Buckner. Don Denkinger signaling safe. There are heroes, and sometimes there are goats, but either way, the results are often unforgettable. 

Both franchises playing Friday know this well. The Jays clinched their 1992 and ‘93 World Series titles in dramatic fashion in Game 6. In ‘92, they stranded Braves pinch-runner John Smoltz, the potential tying run, on third base in the bottom of the 11th inning when Mike Timlin threw out Otis Nixon on a bunt attempt. And the next year, against the Phillies in the ballpark now known as Rogers Centre … well, we already mentioned Carter touching them all.

The Dodgers have an extensive Game 6 history going back to their days in Brooklyn. Most recently, they blew out the Yankees to clinch their 1981 title, rallied past the Astros in 2017 to make it to an ill-fated Game 7 and rallied again to close out the Rays in 2020. The latter two games both featured sixth-inning comebacks against aces: Justin Verlander in ‘17 and, infamously, Blake Snell in ‘20.

It remains to be seen if Friday's clash will join the pantheon of legendary World Series Game 6s, but while we wait to find out, you can read our ranking of the most exciting ones in history.

-- Andrew Simon

Steve Schneider, like a lot of baseball parents, enjoys recording his kid’s at-bats for posterity’s sake – even though his kid asks him not to.

Fortunately for all of us, Steve doesn’t listen (like most dads!), and instead, he captured all of the excitement of family and friends in the crowd enjoying son Davis Schneider’s first-pitch homer at Dodger Stadium last night to lead off the Blue Jays’ 6-1 win in Game 5.

After capturing the moment on his Meta glasses, Steve posted the joyous occasion, and it soon went viral.

Little did dad know that he’d be capturing a piece of history, as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a homer of his own two pitches later, making the Blue Jays the first World Series team to begin a game with back-to-back homers.

“I don't know why he wears those [glasses] all the time,” Davis said with a laugh. “But those are the glasses that he was wearing. It's great to have my family out here and get to experience the World Series. It's the first time being here. We're from a small town in New Jersey, and they deserve it just as much as me and couldn't be more grateful for them to be here.”

-- Ed Eagle

Next year’s Battle of the Beltways will feature two first-time managers going head to head. 

Earlier in the week, the O’s tabbed Craig Albernaz, the former Cleveland associate manager, as their next skipper. Today, the Nats made a surprise choice: They're planning to go with Blake Butera -- no relation to former big league catcher Drew Butera -- as their new field general, according to a source.

Butera, who played in the Minors for two seasons and was most recently the Rays’ senior director of player development, would be taking over a young roster featuring James Wood, 23, and CJ Abrams, 25. Butera, 33, is set to become the youngest manager in the Majors since Frank Quilici managed the Twins at 33 years, 27 days old in 1972. 

Speaking of the Twins, Derek Shelton was named the 15th skipper in Twins history today. With two more jobs off the board, there are now just three managerial vacancies left: the Braves, Padres and Rockies.

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