'It was madness' Blue Jays Barger after Toronto crushes Dodgers 11-4 in World Series opener

VIDEO SHOWS: SOUNDBITES FROM BLUE JAYS MANAGER JOHN SCHNEIDER, PLAYERS DAULTON VARSHO, ADDISON BARGER AND DODGERS MANAGER DAVE ROBERTS AFTER GAME ONE OF WORLD SERIES SHOWS: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA (OCTOBER 24, 2025) (MLB – Editorial use only. No monetisation) 1. BLUE JAYS MANAGER JOHN SCHNEIDER SPEAKING AT POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER 11-4 WIN IN GAME ONE OF WORLD SERIES 2. (SOUNDBITE)(English) BLUE JAYS MANAGER JOHN SCHNEIDER AFTER BEING ASKED HOW IMPORTANT THE CROWD WAS TO THEIR WIN, SAYING: "The crowd was electric tonight. They have been waiting a long time for a World Series to come back here. I hope that they're just as loud, if not louder, tomorrow. It's not very often you get a feeling like we had in Game 7 or tonight in the 6th inning. You can't take it for granted. This is a special place to play. Everyone here in this city here, in this building, and across the country, we feel it for sure. Again, it's nice, but you got to get ready for tomorrow." 3. WHITE FLASH 4. (SOUNDBITE)(English) BLUE JAYS MANAGER JOHN SCHNEIDER AFTER BEING ASKED HOW IT FEELS TO BE 1-0 AS A WORLD SERIES MANAGER, SAYING: "It feels great right now. In about 10 minutes, tomorrow's tomorrow. So I'm happy for the guys, I'm happy for the way they all kind of did their part today. For me personally for the next 10 minutes, coolest part of my day was catching Cito's (Gaston – former player and Blue Jays manager) first pitch. The guy's a legend and to hear him say the things he did about my team and me, pretty damn cool tonight." 5. BLUE JAYS OUTFIELDERS DAULTON VARSHO (ON LEFT) AND ADDISON BARGER SPEAKING AT POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE 6. (SOUNDBITE)(English) BLUE JAYS DAULTON VARSHO AFTER BEING ASKED ABOUT THEIR STRATEGY AGAINST DODGERS STARTING PITCHER BLAKE SNELL, SAYING: "I think overall, we had a good approach off him. We made him work. That was the biggest thing. They have a good pitching and starting staff, so I think for us just to be able to grind out at-bats knowing we needed to pass the baton to the next guy, that's been our M.O. all year, and we trusted it." 7. WHITE FLASH 8. (SOUNDBITE)(English) BLUE JAYS ADDISON BARGER AND DAULTON VARSHO AFTER BEING ASKED HOW IT FELT TO THEM IN THE 6TH INNING WHEN THEY SCORED 9 RUNS, SAYING: "Yeah, I think it was just, I mean, just madness. The fans are so energetic, and we really feel it. Yeah, I thought we put together a lot of really good at-bats and we made things happen and it worked out." VARSHO SAYING: "Ditto. Same thing." 9. DODGERS MANAGER DAVE ROBERTS SPEAKING AT POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER LOSS 10. (SOUNDBITE)(English) DODGERS MANAGER DAVE ROBERTS AFTER BEING ASKED IF HE WOULDVE PREFERRED NOT HAVING A WEEK OFF BEFORE WORLD SERIES, SAYING: "You know, honestly, I really don't think the week layoff had anything to do with tonight. I really don't. We were rested. I thought we were in a good spot. We had a 2-0 lead and then Varsho hits a homer and we didn't pitch well after that. So I really honestly don't think that had anything to do with it." 11. WHITE FLASH 12. (SOUNDBITE)(English) DODGERS MANAGER DAVE ROBERTS AFTER BEING ASKED ABOUT BATTERS NOT BEING ABLE TO SCORE WHEN THEY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY, SAYING: "Yeah, I think even you look back at last couple of weeks, there's some pivotal at-bats that can flip games I think that we can be better at that. At times, I think that the offense looks great as far as building innings, but there's some key at-bats that you got to win pitches and use the other side of the field, get a hit, take a walk, whatever it might be. But I think that we can be better, we need to be better. (Kevin) Gausman, these guys are fired up. They're playing good baseball, so just 1 through 9 we just got to continue to take good at-bats and play good baseball and then we'll be fine." STORY: The Toronto Blue Jays were made to wait longer than most teams to return to the World Series but made sure to make up for lost time with an 11-4 rout of the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday in Game One of the best-of-seven championship. Much of the talk in the build-up to the opening pitch was about how the Dodgers, a superteam that includes Japanese two-way standout Shohei Ohtani, were clear favorites to be MLB's first repeat champion in 25 years. But the Blue Jays, who snapped the eighth-longest active streak in MLB between World Series games played, cared little for that narrative and showed they are up for the task as they left the Dodgers wondering what went wrong. For the Blue Jays, who broke open the game with a nine-run sixth inning that included the first pinch-hit Grand Slam in World Series history, it was about as perfect a start as any team could hope for. The Dodgers struck first as Max Muncy and Enrique Hernandez hit singles to cash in a leadoff walk that put Los Angeles up 1-0 in the second inning. They doubled their lead in the third when an opposite-field single by Will Smith scored Mookie Betts. But the Blue Jays responded in the fourth where Alejandro Kirk hit a leadoff single before Daulton Varsho sent the very next pitch over the center-field wall for a two-run homer that tied the game. Toronto opened the floodgates in the sixth with three runs before Barger sent the sellout crowd of 44,353 into delirium with a four-run blast to center-field. Alejandro Kirk then added a two-run blast to put Toronto ahead 11-2. Ohtani, who is expected to make his World Series pitching debut in Game Four on Tuesday in Los Angeles, swatted his sixth homerun of the post season in the seventh to cut into Toronto's lead but it was too little, too late. (Production: David Grip)

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