The Athletic has live updates of Blue Jays vs. Dodgers from Game 5 of the 2025 World Series.
LOS ANGELES — Because he can bend the sport of baseball to his will, because he does things that leave his peers slack-jawed, because he reveals so little of how he accomplishes any of it, the moments when Shohei Ohtani elicits the most shock are the ones in which he appears human.
In the seventh inning of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series, Ohtani experienced one of those moments Tuesday. He cast his eyes toward the dugout and then toward the ground as he saw Dodgers manager Dave Roberts approach. Ohtani relinquished control of the baseball, and control of the game, to his manager. He yanked off his glove and muttered to himself. For those brief moments, he looked exactly like what he was at Dodger Stadium: a great player bested by a team capable of matching his individual greatness.
“I feel really good about this team every night,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “It’s hard to play 18 innings and come back and kind of flip the narrative against a very talented team and a very talented individual in Shohei Ohtani on the mound.”
For the Blue Jays — who tied this series at 2-2 and guaranteed it will return to Rogers Centre this weekend — possess the sort of spine and stomach necessary to deny the Dodgers a free pass to becoming a dynasty. Playing without star leadoff hitter George Springer, the lineup charged Ohtani for four runs. Ohtani struck out six but ran out of steam in the seventh. Earlier in the night, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had jolted Ohtani with a two-run blast to provide cushion for starter Shane Bieber, who pitched into the sixth inning and permitted one run. The Jays’ pitchers kept Ohtani hitless in three at-bats. After Ohtani exited in the seventh, Toronto blitzed Dodgers relievers Anthony Banda and Blake Treinen to pad the score.
“I wanted to go seven,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, “and it was regrettable that I wasn’t able to finish that inning.”
Game 3 was an 18-inning classic that tested the limits of the imagination and the depth of each roster. This series may require more of both. Game 5 on Wednesday will feature a rematch of the opening night starters: two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell for the Dodgers, rookie Trey Yesavage for the Blue Jays. A rabid crowd surely awaits this weekend in Toronto. Either the city will witness the Jays capturing a title for the first time since 1993, or will host a coronation for the Dodgers as baseball’s first repeat champs since the New York Yankees in 1998 to 2000. And Ohtani figures to play a major role: he told reporters in Japanese that he will prepare to pitch in relief during the games in Toronto.
On Tuesday, the Blue Jays took the field at a disadvantage, with Springer unable to start after injuring his side on a swing the night before. Springer catalyzed the Toronto offense in 2025 with 32 home runs and a .959 OPS. He added to his postseason legend this October despite persistent knee issues. Yet the Blue Jays would have to navigate Game 4 without him.
Both teams limped into the ballpark after playing for six hours and 39 minutes across 18 innings in Game 3. It felt dizzying to return to the stadium so soon after that measure of endurance. Ohtani had dealt with cramping in Monday’s extra-inning affair. The condition did not dampen his excitement for Game 4. Just past midnight on Tuesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had addressed his victorious bunch.
“We’ve got a game later today,” he said. “Hey! We got a game later today.”
Behind him, Ohtani raised both arms skyward, pantomimed his pitching delivery and broke into a sheepish grin. From the other side of the room, a voice called out: “Our starting pitcher was on base nine times,” outfielder Kiké Hernández said.
“Leave it all out there. Be ready to go tomorrow. There’s no letup.” #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/sRZNPPKRLf
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 28, 2025
Ohtani terrorized the Blue Jays pitchers in Game 3. After he launched two homers and smashed two doubles in his first four at-bats, Blue Jays manager John Schneider declined to throw him another strike. Toronto intentionally walked Ohtani in his next four at-bats and doled out a four-pitch walk in the 17th inning. The Blue Jays appeared committed to letting anyone else in the Los Angeles lineup beat them. So it begged the question: Would Schneider intentionally walk Ohtani when he led off the bottom of the first inning in Game 4?
“Haven’t decided yet,” Schneider said.
That the manager could not dismiss the premise outright spoke to Ohtani’s outsized ability and propensity for damage. On Tuesday, he was only 10 days removed from his historic, pennant-clinching performance against the Milwaukee Brewers, an evening of six scoreless innings on the mound and three home runs at the plate.
After a 19-pitch first inning, in which his fastball hummed at 97 mph, Ohtani handed his hat and glove to the bench, strapped pads onto his right shin and right elbow, took a slug of some sort of aqua-hued drink, and then came to the plate. Schneider elected to pitch to him — cautiously. Bieber walked Ohtani after falling behind in the count, 3-0. Bieber retired the next three batters to send Ohtani back to the mound.
For the fourth game in a row, the Dodgers scored first. The second-inning rally represented the sort of short-sequence offense neither club could create during Game 3’s extra innings: a walk by third baseman Max Muncy, a single by second baseman Tommy Edman and a sacrifice fly by Hernández.
And for the fourth game in a row, the Blue Jays answered. After a one-out single by Toronto outfielder Nathan Lukes, Guerrero watched as a 2-1 sweeper hovered over the plate. He lashed the baseball beyond the left-center fence to put his club ahead and silence the crowd in the third inning. Ohtani’s mouth twisted into a grimace. Guerrero exhorted his bench as he rounded the bases.
Bieber made a small piece of history in the third. When he fooled Ohtani with a 2-2 changeup, Bieber became the pitcher who ended Ohtani’s World Series record of 11 consecutive times reaching base. He kept the rest of the Dodgers’ lineup at bay, too. He was cruising so easily that Schneider afforded him what, in this series, qualifies as the ultimate sign of respect: the chance to face Ohtani a third time.
As he did in the third, Bieber struck out Ohtani in the fifth. Ohtani chased a curveball at the shins and a fastball on his hands. He fouled off both. He declined to swing at an 0-2 curveball. The pitch clipped enough of the plate to elicit a strike call from umpire John Tumpane.
When the seventh began, Ohtani had thrown 90 pitches. Heading into the frame, Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior asked Ohtani how much longer he could go. “He said he had three more innings,” Roberts said.
Roberts lacked trust in most of his relief options even before sending the whole lot of them into the fray for Game 3. He opted to try to sneak Ohtani through another inning. The Blue Jays would not let him pass. Toronto outfielder Daulton Varsho laced a 97 mph fastball for a first-pitch single, and third baseman Ernie Clement doubled on another fastball.
The writing was on the wall for Roberts. Toronto waffled the incoming relievers, putting together the sort of inning that made them so devastating this October: Shortstop Andrés Giménez hit an RBI single and pinch-hitter Ty France plated a run with a groundout. After Guerrero was intentionally walked, Bo Bichette and Addison Barger each delivered run-scoring hits.
The rout was on. Ohtani was gone. And the Blue Jays found themselves on even footing with the defending champions, two victories away from getting to call themselves the same.
First Appeared on
Source link
