TORONTO — Fans lined up earlier than the recreation, ready patiently for the probability to take a selfie with trophies that commemorated the back-to-back World Series championships.
Dodger Stadium just isn’t the solely place you are able to do this. The trophies have been from 1992 and 1993, they usually honored the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Dodgers matched that back-to-back feat over the previous two years, together with a basic Game 7 victory in Toronto in final yr’s World Series, and returned right here Monday to a noise pit full of followers primed to boo, and to urge their group to precise vengeance on the evil mercenaries from America.
On this evening, the mercenaries prevailed, in a pummeling so relentless and a silencing so fast {that a} three-peat appeared all however inevitable: Dodgers 14, Blue Jays 2.
Dalton Rushing celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting his second house run of the recreation in the eighth inning of a 14-2 win over Toronto on Monday.
(Mark Blinch / Getty Images)
“These fans, sadly, didn’t want to see us come to town,” Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing stated, “and rightfully so, after what we did tonight.”
Those followers did need to see the Dodgers, however they didn’t need to see this. On an evening the Dodgers fielded a lineup with out Mookie Betts and Will Smith, the group hit 5 house runs — two by Rushing — and scored in each inning however the second and ninth. Of the six Toronto pitchers, the just one to maintain the Dodgers scoreless was catcher Tyler Heineman.
To the Dodgers, nicely, it was one other day on the job, if a bit louder than regular at the begin. They had a recreation to win on the lengthy highway towards October and, as they usually do, they received.
In Toronto, nonetheless, pitcher Kevin Gausman stated, “It feels like we’re getting ready for Game 8.” The followers mercilessly booed Shohei Ohtani, who turned down $700 million from the Blue Jays to take $700 million from the Dodgers, and outfielder Kyle Tucker, who turned down $350 million (over 10 years) from the Blue Jays to take $240 million (over 4 years) from the Dodgers.
They even booed Justin Wrobleski, the Dodgers’ beginning pitcher, and Miguel Rojas, normally an infielder however on Monday the Dodgers’ closing pitcher. Wrobleski, who received his seventh main league recreation Monday, stated he anticipated the boos.
“It was fun,” he stated. “They care about baseball here. It’s a fun environment. If people weren’t a little upset and a little, I’d say, passionate about what happened last year in the World Series, maybe they’re not real fans.”
The boos may have been an indication of respect, or of a protracted reminiscence: about the ninth most-memorable a part of Game 7 was Wrobleski hitting Toronto infielder Andrés Giménez, then shouting language so profane Wrobleski later stated he apologized to his mom for utilizing it. You can’t be a no person if you may get the benches to clear in Game 7.
“They wouldn’t boo me,” Wrobleski stated, “if they didn’t know who I was.”
Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski delivers throughout the first inning towards the Blue Jays on Monday.
(Mark Blinch / Getty Images)
The Dodgers led 4-1, then 5-1, then 6-1, then 9-1, and that was earlier than the sixth inning was finished.
“When you score a lot of runs, you’re going to take the crowd out of it,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman stated.
“I think the media and everyone else was more hyped up. It’s a new team, new year. We’ve got different guys on our team too. But we obviously understand it’s a World Series matchup.”
The Blue Jays have been totally different: infielder Bo Bichette is in New York, catcher Alejandro Kirk is on the injured listing, infielder-outfielder Addison Barger is harm, and Toronto is borrowing a web page from the Dodgers’ playbook with a rotation full of wounding pitchers: Shane Bieber, José Berrios, Cody Ponce and phenom Trey Yesavage all are on the injured listing, and Max Scherzer left after two innings Monday due to tendinitis in his throwing arm.
The Dodgers are 8-2. The solely defending World Series champion to get off to a greater 10-game begin in the final 100 years: final yr’s Dodgers, at 9-1.
Last yr labored out simply advantageous. This is April, and nobody is going through elimination any time quickly. That explains how Roberts rated his nervousness degree on Monday.
“It was probably a 10 in October and probably a one tonight,” he stated.
Monday’s recreation provided one more instance of how the group that supposedly is ruining baseball is fattening the wallets of the league’s different 29 groups. The Dodgers have led the league in highway attendance in every of Ohtani’s two earlier seasons and virtually definitely will achieve this once more this season — and a good variety of these ticket patrons are Dodgers followers following their group right here, there and in all places.
In a 10-minute pregame stroll round the predominant concourse, I noticed loads of followers in Dodgers jerseys: not solely with the names of Ohtani, Betts and Freeman however with the names of Rojas, Kiké Hernández and Roki Sasaki.
As quickly as the third inning, a “Let’s Go Dodgers” chant echoed by way of the stadium.
The Blue Jays are off to a 4-6 begin, together with sequence losses to the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox. The Jays must be good once more, and shortly. In the meantime, they’re providing 77-cent scorching canines Tuesday.
For all the Dodgers followers right here, that’s fairly the journey: a rout that silenced a hostile crowd at some point, scorching canines valued at 55 cents in U.S. forex the subsequent. The fruits of victory, as Tommy Lasorda may need stated, hardly ever are so low-cost and filling.
