Toronto – Canada’s only major league team will have an entire country behind it during the World Series and has a chance of claiming the championship of America’s pastime at a time when U.S.-Canada relations remain near historic lows.
The Toronto Blue Jays host the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 on Friday night in Toronto after defeating the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series.
The once-in-a-generation MLB playoff run comes as Canadians are feeling an undeniable sense of betrayal after U.S. President Donald Trump has talked about making the country the 51st state.
“Nobody wants to be the 51st state. We’re going to show America that we’re going to beat them at their favorite pastime,” said Geoffrey Fulton, a 54-year fan who has been sporting a Maple Leaf bandana at games.
“It’s especially the year where we want to go all the way and win the championship. It would just be great for our country.”
Tensions between the neighbors and longtime allies have eased slightly in recent months as Prime Minister Mark Carney tries to get a trade deal, but American tariffs are taking a toll. One of the world’s most durable and amicable alliances – born of geography, heritage and centuries of common interests – remains broken.
Many Canadians have been boycotting the U.S. since the Trump administration started threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty with tariffs and heated political rhetoric, most offensively of all by claiming Canada could be “the 51st state.”
But Fulton went to New York to cheer on his Blue Jays as they eliminated the Yankees in the prior playoff round. Yankees fans booed the Canadian national anthem, and Fulton had his Blue Jays wig lifted off his head and stolen at Yankee Stadium.
“Canada needs to be together, so to have the Blue Jays go all the way and win the World Series would just be fantastic,” Fulton said.
Unlike Canada’s pastime of hockey, where there are several Canadian teams, there is only one in baseball’s major leagues for Canada’s 41 million people to cheer.
At an NHL game in Calgary, Alberta – more than 2,000 miles west of Toronto – the Calgary Flames public address announcer updated the crowd with George Springer’s go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh inning over Seattle to raucous cheers.
Game 7 was the most-watched Blue Jays game on Canada’s Sportsnet network with an average of six million viewers.
In Toronto, 28-year-old Braeden McNeil was fighting back tears after attending the Blue Jays game with his brother.
“It’s extra special. They can say what they want, 51st state. We are our own country,” McNeil said. “We’re going to the World Series. It doesn’t matter if we’re the underdogs. It doesn’t matter what Americans say.”
Toronto manager John Schneider, born in New Jersey, said he feels more Canadian than American now.
“It’s such a fulfilling job because you have an entire country hanging on every pitch. I feel it, too. I feel like I’m more Canadian. I love drinking beer, I like drinking Tim Horton’s. I’m one of them,” Schneider said. “To have every one from coast to coast be part of this is something that is truly, truly special.”
“So happy for our team, our fans, our city, our country,” added Springer, who is from Connecticut but is in his fifth season with the Jays.
The Blue Jays last appeared in the World Series in 1993 and in 1992 when they won back-to-back championships. In 1992, the U.S. Marine Corps displayed the Canadian flag upside-down at Game 2 in Atlanta, but political tensions were not an issue then.
Canadians have not been booing the American national anthem at sporting events in recent months as they did earlier in year at hockey and basketball games when Trump first threatened Canada.
When Canada defeated the U.S. in the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament in February, it turned into a geopolitical brawl over anthems and annexation as much as international hockey supremacy. The mood is as not as intense now.
When Carney was in the Oval Office this month Trump was asked about a 23% decline in cross border visits to the U.S.
“The people of Canada, they will love us again,” Trump predicted.
“It’s not bad. They’ll come back,” Carney told Trump.
Carney then took the opportunity to brag about the Blue Jays.
“We’re coming down for the World Series Mr. President,” Carney said.
“By the way they are looking pretty good,” Trump said of the Blue Jays.
Dodgers to start Snell in Game 1
Los Angeles – Blake Snell will start Game 1 of the World Series on Friday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will follow in Game 2 for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday.
It’s a repeat of the pitching order the Dodgers used for the first two games of their four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Championship Series.
Snell had 10 strikeouts over eight scoreless innings in Game 1 on Oct. 13. He became the first Dodgers pitcher to complete eight innings while allowing one hit or fewer in a postseason game.
Yamamoto pitched a three-hitter in Game 2 with the first Dodgers postseason complete game since 2004.
Roberts said the team hasn’t decided on starters for Games 3 and 4, which will be back at Dodger Stadium, but indicated Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani could follow in that order.
“I think we’re going to run the same rotation back, I think for sure for the first two,” he said.
Ohtani had 10 strikeouts and hit three home runs in Game 4 to clinch a second straight trip to the World Series. Ohtani was selected MVP of the series.
Dodgers starters combined for 35 strikeouts in the NLCS. Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani posted a 0.63 ERA against the Brewers, with two earned runs in 28 2/3 innings.
Roberts said the bullpen lineup is still being discussed, with the Blue Jays’ lineup featuring some right-handed power hitters that the Dodgers didn’t have to contend with previously.
“There’s one spot that we could potentially kind of debate, and will continue to debate,” Roberts said. “Outside of that one spot, it’s probably going to look exactly the same.”
Reliever Tanner Scott is eligible for the World Series roster after being removed from the NL Division Series roster. He had an emergency surgical procedure and said he is feeling good now.
“It’s just kind of trying to get a grasp on the doctors giving him the full kind of green light, the go-ahead,” Roberts said. “I know that he’s anxious, which is a good thing, but fortunately, we get to see for a couple more days how he responds to throwing and bullpens and things like that.”
Angels hire former catcher Suzuki
Anaheim, Calif. – The Los Angeles Angels hired former major league catcher Kurt Suzuki as their next manager on Tuesday.
Suzuki has spent the past three seasons as a special assistant to Angels general manager Perry Minasian, who didn’t have to look far to find the fifth person to serve as the Halos’ manager during Minasian’s five years in charge.
Suzuki played 16 seasons in the major leagues for five teams, earning an All-Star selection with Minnesota in 2014 and winning a World Series with Washington in 2019.
Suzuki finished his career with two years in Anaheim, retiring after the 2022 season. Suzuki also won the College World Series while playing for Cal State Fullerton, located a few miles from Angel Stadium.
The 42-year-old Suzuki replaces Ron Washington, who wasn’t brought back to the Angels’ dugout after two losing seasons. Washington missed the second half of the current season after undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery, with Ray Montgomery filling in while Los Angeles finished in last place in the AL West.
The Angels pivoted to Suzuki and fellow special assistant to the GM Torii Hunter as their top candidates after talks with former slugger Albert Pujols broke down in recent days. Pujols, who has a personal services contract with the Angels, was the early front-runner for the job as a longtime favorite of owner Arte Moreno.
Pujols and Suzuki both have no major league coaching experience.
Suzuki is the Angels’ fifth full-time manager in the past eight seasons since Mike Scioscia was let go. The team has the majors’ longest active streaks of futility, with 10 straight losing seasons and 11 consecutive non-playoff seasons.
Although Minasian has assembled a modestly exciting young core led by shortstop Zach Neto and outfielder Jo Adell to join three-time MVP Mike Trout, the team has shown few signs of emerging from its decade-plus of profound struggle under Moreno’s stewardship. The Angels went 72-90 last season, finishing 13th in the American League.
A fourth-generation Japanese-American from Hawaii, Suzuki joins Don Wakamatsu and Dave Roberts on the short list of former and current MLB managers with Asian heritage. Suzuki is also the first Hawaiian-born full-time manager in major league history, the Angels said.
Suzuki would take over the Angels’ dugout during another chapter of negative publicity for the beleaguered franchise, which is currently involved in a highly public trial over a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who died of a drug overdose in 2019. Trout testified in the trial Tuesday.
Pearson, Astros finalize $1.35M deal
Houston – Right-hander Nate Pearson and the Houston Astros finalized a $1.35 million, one-year contract on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old can earn an additional $150,000 in performance bonuses: $50,000 each for 20 and 25 starts and $50,000 for 50 innings.
Pearson had a 9.20 ERA in 11 relief appearances this year for the Chicago Cubs, who released him Sept. 21. He was 3-2 with a 2.22 ERA and seven saves in one start and 37 relief appearances for Triple-A Iowa. He had a 1.14 WHIP and .175 opponents’ batting average.
Selected by Toronto with the 28th pick in the 2017 amateur draft, Pearson pitched for the Blue Jays from 2020-24 and was traded to the Cubs in July 2024. He is 9-6 with a 5.17 ERA in six starts and 117 relief appearances.
His development was slowed when he broke the ulna bone in his right arm during his Florida State League debut on May 7, 2018, when struck by a line drive off the bat of Bradenton’s Tyler Gaffney, ending Pearson’s season.
World SeriesBlue Jays vs. Dodgers
(Best-of-7, FOX)
Friday, Oct. 24: at Toronto, 8
Saturday, Oct. 25: at Toronto, 8
Monday, Oct. 27: at Los Angeles, 8
Tuesday, Oct. 28: at Los Angeles, 8
x-Wednesday, Oct. 29: at Los Angeles, 8
x-Friday, Oct. 31: at Toronto, 8
x-Saturday, Nov. 1: at Toronto, 8
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