The Dodgers turned a tense World Series rematch into a blowout Monday night in Toronto, hammering the Blue Jays 14-2 behind five home runs and a lineup that scored in every inning except the second and ninth. Dalton Rushing hit two of them, while Teoscar Hernández, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani added one apiece.
The win came in front of fans who were already braced to boo the Dodgers, and they did. Toronto supporters jeered Ohtani and Kyle Tucker, two stars who turned down huge offers from the Blue Jays to sign with Los Angeles, as the visitors rolled past a team still trying to steady itself. The game mattered because it was the first meeting in Toronto since the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays in Game 7 of last year’s World Series, and because the current club was missing Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger.
Rushing, who supplied the biggest swing of the night with two homers, said afterward that the home crowd clearly did not want to see Los Angeles come to town. Freeman said the Dodgers took the crowd out of the game by scoring early and often, and added that both clubs know what this matchup means after the teams split the title stage across the past two seasons. The Dodgers, after all, have won back-to-back World Series championships, and Monday only sharpened the memory of how the last one ended in Toronto.
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Justin Wrobleski started for Los Angeles and picked up his seventh major league win, then handed the ball to Miguel Rojas as the final pitcher of the night. Wrobleski called it fun, and said the atmosphere fit a city that cares about baseball and still feels the sting of what happened last fall. That is what made the pregame scene so sharp: fans lined up before first pitch to take selfies with trophies honoring Toronto’s 1992 and 1993 championships, then watched the Dodgers leave little doubt about the balance of power in this latest meeting.
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Gausman captured the mood best when he said it felt like the Blue Jays were getting ready for Game 8. On a night built around a rivalry, Los Angeles supplied the answer with power, noise and another reminder that the road back through Toronto is going to be loud.
