Blue Jays vs. Dodgers: Everything to know about this week's World Series rematch

The Toronto Blue Jays are hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game series starting on Monday at Rogers Centre. This is, obviously, the first time these two teams have met since the Dodgers took Game 7 in extra innings to clinch one of the most dramatic World Series in MLB history.

Here are some things to know heading into Monday's opener:

The Dodgers look awesome...again

They aren't perfect and the rest of the league is going to continue to give them its best shot, but the Dodgers have a case as the best team in baseball again. They are 7-2 with a +20 run differential through their first three series. 

The offense is hitting .285/.352/.485, collectively, far above the league average in all three categories. The rotation has at least three pitchers right now capable of throwing like aces (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow) and the bullpen is much more settled with Edwin Díaz now serving as the anchor. 

There isn't a glaring weakness. 

The Blue Jays are struggling, quite badly

Though the Jays started the season with a three-game sweep of the Athletics, they required a walk-off victory in the first two games and needed 11 innings in the second game. The results are ultimately all that matter, but it wasn't really an overwhelming performance. The results since then have been terrible: the Blue Jays have lost five of their last six. 

What's worse? Look at the competition. The Jays lost two of three at home to the Rockies. The Rockies are now 1-5 when they don't play the Blue Jays and were one of the worst teams in MLB history last season at 43-119. Then the Blue Jays went to Chicago and got swept by the White Sox. The White Sox were 60-102 last season and had a 1-5 record entering the series. 

Going 1-5 against those two teams should be the worst six-game stretch of the season for a contender, right? Toronto had better hope so.

Betts headlines notable injuries

The Dodgers are well known for having three MVPs hitting toward the top of their lineup (Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts), but one of them is hurt at present. Mookie Betts was placed on the injured list Sunday due to a strained oblique muscle. He joins Tommy Edman and Enrique Hernández among Dodgers position players on the shelf. Remember those three pitchers capable of looking like aces? That's usually four, but Blake Snell is also on the IL. 

On the Blue Jays' end, they have a pair of starters from the World Series rotation on the IL in Shane Bieber and Trey Yesavage. They are joined by fellow starting pitchers Cody Ponce and José Berríos. All-Star catcher Alejandro Kirk has a fractured thumb and is out and, though he had very little impact last season, we should also note the absence of Anthony Santander. 

Lots of firepower on both sides

The Blue Jays have George Springer atop the lineup. He had 32 homers last season and finished seventh in American League MVP voting before hitting .284/.347/.552 in the playoffs. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is one of the biggest middle-of-the-order bats in baseball. Daulton Varsho hit 20 homers in 71 games last year in the regular season. Addison Barger, Ernie Clement and Kazuma Okamoto have plenty of talent too. 

The Dodgers, of course, have Ohtani, Freeman and Kyle Tucker to start things off. Will Smith is one of the best-hitting catchers in baseball. Teoscar Hernández has six 25-plus homer seasons. Max Muncy is an OPS beast. Andy Pages is hitting .471/.500/.794 this year after a 27-homer season in 2025. 

We'll likely see plenty of offense. Of course, there's great pitching, too. 

The pitching matchups

This is always subject to change, but here's how things look right now. Spoiler: Two bouts have the potential to look like Ace vs. Ace. 

Game 1 (7:07 p.m. ET Monday)

Max Scherzer (1-0, 1.50) vs. Justin Wrobleski (0-0, 6.75): Scherzer is 41 with a ton of tread on those tires, but he looked very good his first time and he'll always have know-how and guile out there. The Dodgers might lean heavily on the bullpen after Wrobleski, depending on how the game is going. 

Game 2 (7:07 p.m. ET Tuesday)

Kevin Gausman (0-0, 0.75) vs. Yamamoto (1-1, 3.00): Gausman has looked like arguably the best pitcher in baseball through the incredibly small sample of two starts. He's struck out 21 without walking anyone in 12 innings and has seen the bullpen blow wins for him twice. Yamamoto returns to the venue where he won World Series MVP. At Rogers Centre in the Fall Classic, he appeared twice as a starter and once as a reliever, going 3-0 with a 1.02 ERA in 17 ⅔ innings. 

Game 3 (3:07 p.m. ET Wednesday)

Dylan Cease (0-0, 2.79) vs. Ohtani (1-0, 0.00): Armed with a more effective changeup, Cease has 18 strikeouts in only 9 ⅔ innings so far this season. He's finished second and fourth in Cy Young voting before, so we're well aware of the upside. Ohtani worked his way back from elbow surgery in time to be full-go for the playoffs last year and did not disappoint. He was ace-like in his one outing so far this season.