MLB Baseball

2025-11-01 - Los Angeles Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays

A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown

Los Angeles Dodgers @ Toronto Blue Jays
United States : MLB World Series Game 7
Saturday 1st November 2025 - Scheduled 8pm
12am (British Time)

Preview

It feels fitting that the 2025 World Series is going down to the wire in a post-season where there have been the most deciders since 2012.

This is the first World Series that has needed all seven games since 2019 and both the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers are preparing to leave it all on the line.

Game 7... The two best words in North American sports.

There have been a number of dramatic moments throughout this post-season and the World Series has come up with a few of its own. Game 3 was decided in the 18th Inning, while it literally felt like Game 6 could have gone in a different direction if the ball had landed millimetres, not inches, away from where it did at the bottom of the Ninth Inning.

Holding onto a two run lead to keep the season alive, the Dodgers bullpen were struggling to earn the remaining Outs after another strong outing from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Alejandro Kirk was Hit by Pitch to move onto First Base and then Addison Barger crushed a ball that reached the wall with both runners able to cross Home Plate to tie the game.

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, that ball wedged underneath the wall in the outfield, which meant a ground-rule Double, and it meant runners on Base at Second and Third with no Outs recorded.

Three pitches later, the rally came to a conclusion with a crazy Double Play seeing Addison Barger tagged out at Second.

Everyone can take a breath now, but it was a stunning ending to Game 6 and one that came very quickly just as Canada was prepared to erupt to celebrate the Blue Jays.

Toronto have shown they can bounce back all season and they will hand the ball to Max Scherzer in the hope that he can use all of his experience to give the Blue Jays a positive start. Despite a poor September, Max Scherzer has impressed in the two Playoff starts, although he will be pitching on his shortest rest in the post-season.

He did allow three runs and was pulled out in the 5th Inning in the first start in the World Series and Max Scherzer is going to be on a short least in this one after it was made clear that every pitcher is available to go in Game 7.

The Dodgers are keeping the cards close to the chest when it comes to announcing a starter, but everything is pointing to Shohei Ohtani being that player. He will be going in on short rest, but the two-way performance means Ohtani is unlikely to be used out of the bullpen as a reliever as it would mean having to play in the field on the Defensive side of the game, rather than remaining as the Designated Hitter.

There is an outside chance he could be used as a closer, but that may be tempting fate and the likelihood is that Ohtani is asked to get through three Innings to start before handing things over to Tyler Glasnow and perhaps even Blake Snell.

Tyler Glasnow recorded the last three Outs in Game 6, but did that on three pitches and so should be ready to go without rest.

Shohei Ohtani allowed four runs in 6 Innings thrown against the Blue Jays in the World Series, but Manager Dave Roberts will likely turn to the bullpen and the rest of the Dodgers starters very quickly in this one.

Prediction

Picking a winner in Game 7 is incredibly difficult.

The Toronto Blue Jays have had much more consistency at the plate and they were very unfortunate to lose Game 6 considering some of the Hits that came so close to producing runs.

However, they are likely going to be facing all of the Los Angeles much respected starting pitching rotation.

Max Scherzer is not expected to go too long for the Blue Jays, but he is pitching on his shortest rest in the Playoff and has been struggling to contain threats. The Dodgers have not been lighting up the scoreboard, but they did tag Scherzer for three runs earlier in the World Series and might be able to get to him again.

Neither starter is going to be allowed to pitch out of trouble so they are likely to be on very short leashes with the entire pitching crew ready to step in where they are needed.

So it is tough to find an angle from the main markets with so much uncertainty as to how the two Managers will approach the game and the likelihood of plenty of bullpen action.

Instead, it may pay to put the two starters together in a Bet Builder and back the batting lineups to force them out of the game behind some early runs. Both Shohei Ohtani and Max Scherzer are pitching on short rests and they have both been hit hard by the opposition batting lineup once already in this World Series.

Combining both to see the 'over' hit on their Earned Run numbers pays out at close to 2-1 and that could be worthy of an interest before setting down to enjoy what should be a really emotional, dramatic decider.