Why the 2025 World Series Proves Baseball Is Back at Its Best

The finish line for the 2025 World Series is in sight after the Toronto Blue Jays rode seven dominant innings from rookie Trey Yesavage to a 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Wednesday night’s Game 5 of the Fall Classic.

But we don’t need to run through the tape to declare this postseason is the best thing to happen to Major League Baseball in a long time.

A tournament that began with three wild card series going the three-game distance (one more three-game wild card series than the previous three years combined) will either end with the Blue Jays winning their first title in 32 years or the Dodgers cementing their dynasty bonafides by overcoming a three games to two deficit on the road.

Things are going so well that even Rob Manfred has managed to avoid stepping on a rake when asked about the possibility of a lockout once the CBA expires following the 2026 season.

“I’m kind of focused on who’s going to win tonight,” Manfred told reporters prior to Game 2 last Saturday. “I want to get seven exciting games.”

We wouldn’t recommend feeling optimistic about the 2027 season and beyond quite yet. But even Manfred has to understand the value of the momentum Major League Baseball has generated this month with a postseason that’s offered plenty of reasons to watch for casual and loyal fans alike.

Yesavage’s brilliance was just the latest example of a starting pitcher mowing down a lineup into the late innings — a skill as riveting as it is endangered by the minds running the game.

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal became the first pitcher ever to strike out at least 13 batters twice in the same postseason. Yesavage was the second rookie to strikeout 12 and walk none in a playoff game, following in the footsteps of Cam Schlittler, whose eight scoreless innings in Game 3 of an AL wild card series Oct. 2 lifted the New York Yankees past the Boston Red Sox in the decisive Game 3 of an AL wild card series.

The Yankees had to win the final two games because Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet struck out 11 with no walks over 7 2/3 innings in the opener. The Dodgers’ rotation produced a 1.64 ERA while leading the club to an 8-1 record in the first three rounds of the playoffs. Los Angeles ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto has thrown complete games in his last two starts, the first time a pitcher’s done that in 24 years.

Overall this postseason, a starting pitcher has gone at least six innings 27 times, tied for the most in a single postseason since the expansion to 12 teams in 2022.

Three of those outings were authored by Shohei Ohtani, who has spent the postseason confirming he is the greatest player any of us are ever going to see. Ohtani’s second six-inning outing was a scoreless gem in the NLCS clincher Oct. 19 in which he struck out 10, allowed two hits and, oh yeah, also hit three homers to lead the Dodgers to a 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Ohtani gave up four runs over six innings in Game 4 Tuesday night, when he took the defeat in the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss. But that’s fine, considering he was fewer than 18 hours removed from going 4-for-4 with two homers, two doubles and a World Series-record five walks in Los Angeles’ 2-1, 18-inning Game 3 win. He was the first player since Frank Isbell of the 1906 Chicago White Sox to collect four extra-base hits in a World Series game.

Ohtani’s unicorn-like feats were just a few of the things worth marveling about during the Game 3 marathon, when the Dodgers and Blue Jays tied a record for the longest World Series game in history while offering the rare positive collective experience to everyone still watching and Tweeting about it.

Before Freddie Freeman’s game-winning homer (which made him the first player with two World Series walk-offs), the Blue Jays’ Eric Lauer and the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, Emmet Sheehan, Edgardo Henriquez and Will Klein combined for 13 2/3 scoreless innings, all in extras. The quintet entered Monday with a 10.66 ERA in 12 2/3 innings this month.

It wasn’t even the first compelling all-hands-on-deck playoff game of the month, and it might not be the last. The winning pitcher for the Seattle Mariners when they won Game 5 of the ALDS against the Tigers in 15 innings was Luis Castillo, who hadn’t appeared in relief since he was in Single-A ball in 2016.

Ohtani has expressed an interest in pitching in relief once the series shifts back to Toronto, and if you know anything about how Ohtani and his camp operate, you know that means he’s going to pitch if the situation presents itself.

We should be so fortunate to see that. We’ve already been so fortunate.