Blue Jays’ supporting cast comes through in World Series Game 1 in blowout victory over Dodgers

Something shook loose for the Toronto Blue Jays‘ lineup in late May. They turned into an offensive force. And while the star power was there with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a Bo Bichette bounce-back and in a renaissance season from George Springer, what really made this group hum was the supporting cast. 

The main characters were great, of course, but the contributions from the rest of the roster is what truly made the Blue Jays a scary offense, top to bottom. 

That was on full display in Game 1 of the World Series, an 11-4 blowout victory over the defending champion Dodgers.

The big blast of the game was a pinch-hit grand slam from Addison Barger, the first in World Series history. What illustrates depth better than something like this happening? 

Barger entered the season with only 225 career MLB plate appearances and he was a .197/.250/.351 (68 OPS+) hitter. He took 502 plate appearances in the 2025 regular season, hitting .243/.301/.454 with 32 doubles and 21 home runs. He hit 20 home runs in 377 at-bats against right-handed pitchers, but usually struggled against lefties and regularly avoided seeing them. Here, he came through with one of the biggest blows in World Series history against a left-hander in Anthony Banda.

“To be honest with you, I don’t even remember,” Barger said after the game when asked what he was thinking about while rounding the bases. He said it was a “blackout moment.” 

Nathan Lukes had pinch hit earlier in the inning and drew a bases-loaded walk after falling behind on an 0-2 count. He fouled off four pitches during that plate appearance. His walk made it 4-2 Blue Jays. It really sums up the Blue Jays depth that they used two pinch hitters in one of the biggest innings in World Series history.

Lukes was not a top prospect. He wasn’t ever really even a prospect. A seventh-round pick in 2015, Lukes spent 10 years in the minors. He was just about to hang up the cleats for good before finally getting a shot. He’s now 31 years old. In 135 games this season, he hit .255/.323/.407. In the playoffs, he’s found a home in the second spot in the batting order, hitting between Springer and Guerrero. In the ALDS and ALCS, Lukes hit .333/.381/.410 with seven RBI in 11 games.

The Blue Jays actually trailed Game 1 of the World Series Friday night, 2-0, heading to the bottom of the fourth inning. Daulton Varsho — named after his dad’s former teammate Darren Daulton, who was the catcher during Joe Carter’s 1993 World Series walk-off home run in this ballpark — clubbed a two-run shot. 

That was the first home run Blake Snell allowed to a lefty since June 2 of last season and that was to the great Juan Soto. Snell hadn’t even given up a single hit to a left-handed hitter so far in the 2025 playoffs.

Varsho, whose father Gary spent time as a fourth outfielder with the Cubs, Pirates, Phillies and Reds and transitioned to an MLB scouting role, was a second-round pick out of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2017. He came up through the minors mostly as a catcher and was traded to the Jays by the Diamondbacks in exchange for Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Today, Varsho is one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball, an amazing feat for a minor-league catcher. Varsho was hurt for a good amount of the 2025 season, but he hit 20 home runs in just 71 games, slugging .548. He was a monster against the Yankees in the ALDS, going 7 for 16 with three doubles, two homers, four RBI and seven runs in four games.

Two innings after Varsho tied the game, Ernie Clement‘s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the sixth gave the Blue Jays the lead for the first time in a World Series game since Carter’s home run in 1993. That single kickstarted the all-time great, nine-run inning; only two innings in World Series history (the 1968 Tigers and 1929 Athletics) have ever seen a team score more runs.

Clement was a fourth-round pick in 2017. He was claimed off waivers by the A’s from Cleveland and then released in the spring of 2023 before signing a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays. This year, he put together a quiet 4.3-WAR season, serving as a utility infielder. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, he hit .429/.444/.619 with seven RBI and 10 runs in 11 games. 

Between Barger, Varsho, Clement, Lukes, catcher Alejandro Kirk — he’s a two-time All-Star, but I think he still qualifies as “supporting cast” on this team — and shortstop Andrés Giménez, the Blue Jays got eight hits, all 11 RBI and nine runs scored from their non-stars. 

Remember, Giménez hit a pair of game-changing, two-run home runs in the ALCS in Seattle. Though he was quiet in Game 1, Davis Schneider is another supporting cast guy who has come through often for the Blue Jays this season.

Here in World Series Game 1, Kirk hit a two-run home run after the game was probably already in hand, but he needs to be spotlighted as well. A squatty 5-foot-8, 245 pounds, Kirk certainly doesn’t look like a modern professional athlete, but he’s a very good player. He went 3 for 3 with a walk and home run Friday night, following a .282/.348/.421 (111 OPS+) season. Much like the rest of the supporting cast, he wasn’t setting the world on fire or anything, but having steady producers throughout the lineup is what made the Blue Jays a great offense in the regular season.

In fact, they were one of the best offenses in all of 2025, leading the majors in batting average. It was May 29 when they really started to pour it on, though. From that game through the end of the season, the Blue Jays hit .279/.342/.455, compared to the league average this season of .245/.315/.404. The league average runs per game was 4.45. From May 29 until the end of the regular season, the Blue Jays scored 5.5 runs a game. In that time span, the Jays were first in batting average, second in on-base percentage and first in slugging percentage. 

Bichette, Guerrero and Springer had great years. The aforementioned bounce-back from Bichette and renaissance from Springer were integral, as was the All-Star season from Guerrero. This was not, however, a top-heavy team. It’s a deep team. And it was on display in Game 1 of the World Series.