Blue Jays expose Dodgers biggest weakness immediately in Game 1 World Series win

As the Toronto Blue Jays were set to face the reigning champions in the Los Angeles Dodgers in this year’s World Series, everyone knew they were up against a potential juggernaut. After all, the Dodgers are as complete a team as one would find, with elite offense, defense and pitching all around for the most part. Especially after seeing what Los Angeles did to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, they appear unstoppable.

However, if there was one facet of the game that could be their kryptonite, that would be their inconsistent bullpen. That weakness ultimately was fully exposed by the Blue Jays during Game 1 of the World Series and in a huge way.

Blue Jays expose Dodgers biggest weakness immediately in Game 1

It had been a tight game all night, with the Dodgers getting out to a 2-0 lead before Daulton Varsho tied things up with a two-run blast for Toronto in the fourth inning. But the turning point came in the sixth inning after Dodgers starter Blake Snell loaded the bases with nobody out. That was when Los Angeles went to their bullpen and that was all she wrote.

The Blue Jays would jump all over their relief corps and ended up pushing across NINE runs to put the game away. In total, the Dodgers bullpen ended up giving up six runs on six hits, including two home runs, along with allowing all three inherited runners from Snell to score.

With that performance, the Los Angeles relievers now rank second last among 2025 playoff contenders in ERA (6.16), WHIP (1.73), and third last in opponents batting average (.277).

The Blue Jays bullpen haven’t been at their best either, sporting a 5.33 ERA and 1.44 WHIP, but at least that pales in comparison to what the Dodgers group has put up.

In addition, despite giving up a whopping 30 earned runs in just 50 2/3 innings pitched, Toronto relievers have been able to get the key strikeouts when needed the most, recording 60 punchouts in the process. 

More importantly, the Jays have instilled fear in the Dodgers infallible pitching staff with the huge 11-4 win in Game 1. It also doesn’t help that Los Angeles is down two of their best relievers in Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott after both pitchers weren’t included on their World Series roster. Vesia is away to attend to a personal family matter, while Scott remains on the sidelines after undergoing a procedure to treat an abscess in his lower body.

As a result, the Dodgers might need to rely on their starting pitching more than expected to have any success against the Blue Jays. But with the way the Toronto hitters like to work the counts and force starters to earlier exits than normal as we had seen in the ALDS and ALCS, look for the Jays to masterfully push for the Dodgers bullpen again and fully exploit that weakness going forward.