If Noel Kaludjak, of Rankin Inlet, was a betting man, his money would be on the Toronto Blue Jays to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

He has a number of reasons why he thinks the Jays will take the series.

First, he said, the Jays pitching staff seems to be improving as the playoffs go on. Add to that, he said, Blue Jays manager John Schneider seems to be figuring things out with his pitching staff, as well, making Kaludjak quite optimistic about the Jays’ chances against the Dodgers.

“Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has to perform well if the Jays are going to win and that means we have to see him hit home runs and for average in the series.

“Their hitters have all been performing fairly well and, as long as they can keep that up, especially guys like George Springer, Ernie Clement, Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger, then I feel we can take it all.”

Kaludjak said the Jays also have to play solid ball and not be committing errors, especially at key times.

All the tools are there for the Jays to win, he said, they just have to keep playing at the same level they were at against the Seattle Mariners during the last two games of the American League Championship Series and they can take it all.

“Another reason I’m optimistic is that Alejandro Kirk has been playing all right. To me, he’s kind of the backbone of the team.

“The Dodgers certainly won’t be pushovers with the team they have, but if the Jays can keep up the pace, they’ll certainly give them a hard time. 

“It might go seven games and any team can win it all if that’s the case. It’s going to be a fun series and I’m really going to stay on top of it like everyone else, I guess.” 

Rankin Inlet’s Darrin Nichol said there’s no doubt the Dodgers are stacked.

He said the Dodgers have one of the best baseball teams money can buy. Depending on the source, the L.A. squad has either the highest or second highest payroll in baseball this year at about $350 million, while the Jays came in at close to $255 million.

“Toronto, this year, is kind of an atypical major league baseball team where all the guys have had great years,” said Nichol. “Next year, it’s not inconceivable that this same Jays team might really fall.

“It’s not like the Jays 1992 or 1993 teams. This is a far different team than that. They’re a bit of a surprise, and it’s really pretty amazing what they’ve done with this group of guys. 

“People will say that 1993 Jays team might have been one of the top five or six baseball team lineups ever in the history of baseball. It was amazing. It was really a loaded team, but, I think these guys this year have something going and have as good a chance as anybody to take a run at this and make it a real series.

“The only thing I would say, however, is if they get down two games to nothing in Toronto, they’re not coming back. They did it against Seattle, but they have to get at least a split in Toronto during the first two games against Los Angeles or they’re done,” Nichol predicted. “It’s been an exciting run for them, so fingers crossed.”  

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