World Series 2025: 6 big questions ahead of Game 6 between L.A. Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays Jordan Shusterman October 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM 0 LOS ANGELES — The Toronto Blue Jays are one win away from their first World Series championship since 1993 and a chance to celebrate in front of their home fans, with Game 6 scheduled for 8 p.m. ET Friday at Rogers Centre.
- - World Series 2025: 6 big questions ahead of Game 6 between L.A. Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays
Jordan Shusterman October 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM
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LOS ANGELES — The Toronto Blue Jays are one win away from their first World Series championship since 1993 and a chance to celebrate in front of their home fans, with Game 6 scheduled for 8 p.m. ET Friday at Rogers Centre.
After falling short to the Los Angeles Dodgers in an 18-inning classic in Game 3, the Blue Jays demonstrated remarkable resilience the next two nights, securing two comfortable victories and retaking the series lead behind stellar starting pitching and the formidable offense that has headlined Toronto's success all season.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, have fallen into a collective funk that finds them facing elimination as the action returns to Toronto.
Here are the six biggest questions looming ahead of World Series Game 6:
1. Can Yoshinobu Yamamoto play the hero again?
It was Yamamoto who almost single-handedly secured Los Angeles' first win of the World Series with his spectacular complete game in Game 2, his second consecutive nine-inning effort this postseason. Yamamoto retired the final 20 Blue Jays he faced and needed just 72 pitches to get through his final seven innings of work, leaning heavily on his splendid splitter and dynamite curveball to keep Toronto's bats off-balance. It was a masterful performance, one he'll now have the challenge of replicating against a deep and dangerous Blue Jays lineup that will have had days to conjure an improved game plan against him.
Expecting Yamamoto to go the distance again feels overly optimistic, but it's not like the Dodgers have a multitude of trustworthy relievers to handle the later innings. If Yamamoto cruises again and the L.A. offense provides a comfortable lead, it would be entirely reasonable for manager Dave Roberts to let Yamamoto try to keep the bullpen door closed for the duration of Game 6 as well.
There's also an intriguing historic parallel: The last pitcher to deliver multiple complete-game victories in a World Series was Dodgers legend Orel Hershiser in 1988. However, both times Hershiser took the mound in that Fall Classic, his Dodgers already had a lead in the series, with his Game 2 win putting them up 2-0 and his Game 5 gem clinching the championship. Yamamoto's second trip to the mound will come under far more daunting circumstances, as the Dodgers' season is on the line as they head north of the border.
A 1-0 series deficit hardly fazed Yamamoto in Game 2 — and he has pitched in plenty of big games throughout his career, from the Japan Series to the World Baseball Classic to last year's World Series — but how he fares with the Dodgers facing elimination will have an enormous impact on whether this series extends to Game 7.
The big question for Toronto: Will George Springer be available in Game 6? (AP Foto/Brynn Anderson) ()2. Will we see George Springer again in this World Series?
As Yamamoto prepares to take on Toronto for a second time, one crucial unknown looms in the lineup he'll be facing. George Springer accounted for two of the five baserunners against Yamamoto in Game 2, with a leadoff double in the first inning and a hit-by-pitch in the third. But after he departed Game 3 early when he experienced pain in his right side on a swing, Springer was not in the lineup for the next two games and did not come off the bench in either. That Toronto managed to win both contests without its impact leadoff man and venerable October performer is an enormous credit to the rest of the roster, but Springer's availability remains a crucial storyline as this series shifts back to Toronto.
Manager John Schneider said ahead of Game 5 that Springer was progressing well and could be available off the bench, but the game was never close enough to warrant a potential Springer appearance, so it's unclear how prepared he really was to enter the game. It would not seem wise to keep Springer on the roster if he's completely unable to contribute — just last round, the Blue Jays replaced Anthony Santander mid-series due to injury — but it's also hard to imagine the ultra-tough Springer won't at least talk his way into bench availability for the remainder of this series, even if he isn't well enough to slot into the starting lineup. As was the case ahead of Game 5, and based on Schneider's description of Springer's condition as "hour-to-hour," it's likely we won't know how Springer is doing until Toronto announces its lineup on Friday.
3. Can Kevin Gausman improve upon his Game 2 performance?
Although Gausman's Game 2 outing ended on a sour note, with two game-changing home runs surrendered to Will Smith and Max Muncy, it's also fair to say Gausman pitched well based on how smoothly and efficiently he navigated the middle innings en route to his longest start yet this postseason, an admirable 6 ⅔ innings of work. Gausman leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball in Game 2 — 49 of his 82 pitches were heaters, a 59.8% usage rate that ranked seventh-highest among his 37 starts this year (regular season + postseason) — perhaps we see a more substantial dose of splitters and sliders on Friday. While he ended up being on the losing side of things in their first showdown thanks to Yamamoto's epic effort, Gausman's largely successful first World Series start should give him considerable confidence entering the potential clincher in Game 6, especially with how feeble the non-Ohtani Dodgers hitters have looked for much of this series. And speaking of the L.A. lineup….
The Dodgers are in desperate need of offense from someone other than Shohei Ohtani. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) (MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images via Getty Images)4. Will the Dodgers' offense wake up in time to save their season?
Roberts had seen enough. After far too many innings of unpleasant and unproductive offensive output outside of Shohei Ohtani's superhuman swings and a handful of other homers, Roberts decided to shake up the starting lineup for Game 5 after using an exceptionally consistent alignment throughout October thus far. The alterations included sliding Mookie Betts down from second to third, where he hadn't started a game since 2021, moving catcher Will Smith up to the 2-hole, and replacing No. 9 hitter Andy Pages — stuck in a historically horrid skid — with Alex Call in left field, which moved Kiké Hernández to center field.
The result of Roberts' remixed lineup? One of the worst offensive games the team has had all year, matching a season high with 15 strikeouts — two more than they had across 18 innings two nights earlier — and only mustering six baserunners in total, with Kiké Hernández's solo homer representing the team's only run scored. Much of this miserable showing can be attributed to the dynamite form of Toronto rookie righty Trey Yesavage who turned in a truly historic performance, but there are too many accomplished hitters in this L.A. lineup to simply shrug and defer to what was happening on the mound, and Roberts said as much postgame:
"It doesn't feel great. You clearly see those guys finding ways to get hits, move the baseball forward, and we're not doing a good job of it. I thought Yesavage was good tonight mixing his fastball, slider, and the split. But, yeah, you still have to use the whole field and take what they give you, and if they're not going to allow for slug, then you've got to be able to kind of redirect … to take competitive at-bats. We have that ability. We've got to make some adjustments."
However Roberts chooses to deploy his lineup in Game 6, the offense will have to figure things out fast or risk heading home dethroned.
5. Which bullpen arms can be trusted — on both sides?
Maybe Yamamoto and Gausman come out firing again in Game 6 and pitch deep enough to lessen the burden on both managers to task their bullpens with a heavy workload. But what if they don't? What if things go off the rails for one or both of the starters in the early going and Roberts and Schneider must recreate their roadmap to 27 outs on the fly in the highest-stakes game of the season? Regardless of how the starters perform, it's safe to say we'll be hearing the "all-hands-on-deck" sentiments from Los Angeles facing elimination — and perhaps a similar mindset from Toronto with the World Series within reach — but what that actually means is tough to decipher at this stage.
At this point, the Dodgers seem to be down to roughly one reliever they feel genuinely good about in Roki Sasaki, who has appeared in only Dodgers wins this postseason but has yet to come in to try to keep a game close while L.A. is down — only while ahead or with the game tied. Would that change if L.A. is facing a small deficit late in Game 6? Sasaki could be the key to nailing down a season-saving win for the Dodgers, but they'll need to get the ball to him first, and if that requires anyone not named Yamamoto, buckle up. Because outside Game 3 and unlikely hero Will Klein, this unit has been untrustworthy for a while now. Alex Vesia's unexpected absence has certainly contributed, but Vesia alone could not fix the issues Los Angeles has had in the later innings recently.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays have actually found a few more reliable relief arms as the postseason has progressed — Chris Bassitt chief among them — but have also lost some confidence in two key regular-season contributors in Brendon Little and Seranthony Dominguez along the way. That leaves Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland as the most likely high-leverage arms to be called upon to nail down a title-clinching victory, with perhaps a cameo from Mason Fluharty to handle one of Los Angeles' lefty sluggers in a big spot.
Of course, hovering all bullpen-related ponderings at this point in the series is the possibility of starting pitchers making themselves available in relief. We saw Gausman pitch in relief in ALCS Game 7; could Shane Bieber make a similar appearance in Game 6 or 7 this weekend? What about Yesavage? Tyler Glasnow would be lined up to start Game 7 as things stand, but could we see Ohtani appear on the mound again by the end of the series? Or Snell, as he openly hinted at after Game 5? Everything is on the table as this tremendous series nears its conclusion.
6. How will the Dodgers handle facing elimination?
"We've been in elimination games, a core group of these guys, and we've got to find a way to win a game," Roberts said following Game 5. He's right that several key members of the L.A. roster have been in this pressure-packed scenario before; that's to be expected when you make the playoffs 13 seasons in a row.
But it's also true that this year's championship pursuit and the majority of last year's World Series run featured Los Angeles playing with the upper hand. The Dodgers steamrollered all three of their opponents on the National League side of the bracket this October, dropping just one game against the Phillies in the NLDS. The 2024 Dodgers handled the Yankees in the World Series in five games and never faced a series deficit in the NLCS against the Mets, which means that L.A.'s most recent elimination game came in last year's NLDS showdown with the Padres, when the Dodgers surged back from a 2-1 series deficit to shut out San Diego in Games 4 and 5 to advance to the NLCS. That encouraging precedent is something the Dodgers were quick to refer to after Wednesday's uninspiring defeat, but winning two in a row in Southern California against a familiar rival is a lot different than doing it on the road against an opposite-coast powerhouse that has thoroughly outplayed them for the bulk of this series.
Whatever happens on Friday, we're certain to be treated to something significant — the first Blue Jays title in 32 years, or the gift of a Game 7, which would be a fitting finale to what has been a tremendous World Series.
Original Article on Source
Source: "AOL Sports"
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Source: Sports
Published: October 30, 2025 at 09:27AM on Source: COSMOPOLITE
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World Series 2025: 6 big questions ahead of Game 6 between L.A. Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays Jordan Shusterman Octo...
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