The World Series begins Friday in Toronto with the Dodgers having a tremendous experience edge in starting pitching over the Blue Jays for Game 1 but are expected to be without a key reliever.
Dodger left-hander Blake Snell will be making his 236th major league start -- combining the regular season and postseason. Blue Jays right-hander Trey Yesavage will be making his seventh.
Snell will be making his third World Series start. He started twice in the 2020 Series for the Tampa Bay Rays against the Dodgers, not figuring in the decision either time.
Snell allowed two runs and two hits in 4 2/3 innings in Tampa Bay's 6- 4 victory in Game 2 and one run on two hits in 5 1/3 innings the Dodgers' 3-1 series-clinching Game 6 victory when he was removed from the game by manager Kevin Cash after allowing a single to Austin Barnes, the Dodgers' No. 9 hitter, and the Rays leading 1-0 with one out in the sixth inning.
"I don't think about it really at all anymore," Snell said in a news conference Thursday. "When it happened, I would say probably for, like, a week I was thinking about it, what could have been different, what I could have done. The ups and downs of just feelings.
"But then ultimately it led to, if I would have done more early on in my career to gain his trust, it would have been a different outcome, I think. So learn from it and ultimately it made me a better pitcher, just because I understand the game more than just myself, just the pieces, the parts and how it all works."
The 32-year-old Snell said he has "matured" and "grown up" since 2020.
"I was kind of a kid still in 2020, to now a man, family, wife," the two-time Cy Young Award winner said. "A lot has changed, yeah.
"And then with the game of baseball, just how I view it is a lot different. It's more personal than it's ever been, just because I know I only have so much time left. I'm not young, and I don't really think about the ending, to where now I'm just more appreciative of the moments, the time, and what these mean for my career."
Snell had one of the best postseason pitching performances in his most recent appearance, becoming the fourth pitcher in postseason history to face the minimum number of batters through eight innings in the 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series Oct. 13.
Snell struck out 10 and didn't walk a batter, becoming the first pitcher in postseason history with at least 10 strikeouts, one or zero hits and zero walks in a start of at least eight innings.
Dodger starters had a 0.63 ERA in the NLCS, the lowest in LCS history.
Yesavage will be the first pitcher to start a World Series Game 1 within his first seven career appearances, combining regular season and postseason, according to MLB.com.
He will be making his fourth postseason start Friday. No other pitcher has made multiple postseason starts within his first seven overall appearances, MLB.com reported.
At 22 years and 88 days, Yesavage will be the second-youngest Game 1 starting pitcher in World Series history, older than only Ralph Branca, who was 21 years and 267 days old when he was the losing pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers in a 5-3 loss to the New York Yankees in 1947.
Yesavage is not only a rookie in the major leagues -- this is his first season in professional baseball.
Toronto selected Yesavage with the 20th choice in the 2024 draft after he posted a 19-2 record with a 2.58 ERA over three seasons at East Carolina.
Yesavage made his professional debut April 8, allowing two unearned runs and one hit over 3 2/3 innings in the Dunedin Blue Jays' 19-5 victory over the Jupiter Hammerheads in a Class-A Florida State League game in front of a crowd announced at 327 in Jupiter, Florida.
He went 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA in seven starts with Dunedin, then received a promotion to Toronto's Class High-A Northwest League affiliate, the Vancouver Canadians, May 20.
Yesavage went 1-0 with a 1.56 ERA in four starts with Vancouver, then was promoted to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on June 12.
He went 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in seven starts and one relief appearance with the Class-AA Eastern League team, then was promoted to the Buffalo Bisons Aug. 12.
Yesavage had no record with a 3.63 ERA in four starts and two relief appearance with the Class-AAA International League team.
The Blue Jays selected Yesavage's contract from the Bisons on Sept. 15 and he made his major league debut that day, allowing one run on three hits and not figuring in the decision in Toronto's 2-1 11-inning victory over Tampa Bay in Tampa.
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Yesavage went 1-0 with 3.21 ERA in three regular season starts, all won by the Blue Jays. He was 2-1 with a 4.20 ERA in three postseason starts, including a victory in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series Sunday, where he allowed two runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings.
"I've got guys from Dunedin to Vancouver, New Hampshire, Buffalo that are in my text texting me, congratulating me," Yesavage said. "It's just a testament of how together this whole entire organization is, even in different parts of the country."
The Dodgers announced Thursday that reliever Alex Vesia is "away from the team as he and his wife navigate a deeply personal family matter."
The Dodgers are "just going day-to-day with really no expectations" about Vesia's availability for the World Series, manager Dave Roberts said.
Vesia is 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA and four holds in seven appearances in the 2025 postseason. He was credited with wins in the National League Division Series-clinching victory Oct. 9 against the Philadelphia Phillies and Game 3 of the NLCS.
The Game 1 winner has gone to win the Series 77 of 120 times, 64.2%.
The 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time game will be televised on Fox, broadcast in English by KLAC-AM (570) and in Spanish by KTNQ-AM (1020).
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