The World Series will begin Friday, but the Dodgers won’t know who or where they will be playing in Game 1 until Sunday at the earliest.
Game 1 will be at Dodger Stadium if the Seattle Mariners win the American League Championship Series while it would be in Toronto if the Blue Jays win.
The Mariners lead the series, three games to two. Game 6 will be played Sunday in Toronto.
Toronto had the best regular-season record among the three teams still in contention for the World Series, 94-68, matching the New York Yankees for the third-best record in MLB. The Dodgers had the fifth-best record, 93-69, and Seattle tied the San Diego Padres for the seventh-best, 90-72.
The team with the better record plays Games 1 and 2 at home and if necessary, Games 6 and 7.
The Dodgers advanced to the World Series for the second consecutive season Friday night, completing a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series with a 5-1 victory at Dodger Stadium, thanks in part to another unprecedented performance by Shohei Ohtani, who was selected as series’ MVP, despite going 2-for-11 with five strikeouts over the first three games.
Ohtani hit three solo home runs, struck out 10 batters and pitched six shutout innings, becoming the first player in Major League Baseball history with three home runs in a game where he struck out at least five batters, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
“That was probably the greatest postseason performance of all time,” Dodger manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s been a lot of postseason games. And there’s a reason why he’s the greatest player on the planet.
“What he did on the mound, what he did at the bat, he created a lot of memories for a lot of people. …To do it in a game-clinching game at home, wins the NLCS MVP, pretty special. I’m just happy to be able to go along for the ride.”
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy had similar sentiments, calling it, “maybe the best individual performance ever in a postseason game.”
After striking out the side in the top of the first — following a walk to leadoff hitter Brice Turang — Ohtani led off the Dodgers’ half of the first inning by hitting the sixth pitch from Jose Quintana 446 feet into the right field pavilion.
After drawing a full-count walk from Quintana on his next plate appearance in the second, Ohtani hit the eighth home run out of Dodger Stadium on his next at-bat, hitting a 3-1 cutter from Chad Patrick 469 feet over the right field pavilion in the fourth.
Ohtani was the second Dodger to accomplish the feat, joining Hall of Famer Mike Piazza.
Another Hall of Famer, Willie Stargell, accomplished the feat in 1969 and 1973. The others are Mark McGwire (1999), Giancarlo Stanton (2016), Fernando Tatis Jr. (2021) and Kyle Schwarber (Oct. 8).
Ohtani hit a 1-2 four-seam fastball from Trevor Megill 427 feet over the center field fence in the seventh.
“As I stated before, there were at times during the postseason where Teo and Mookie picked me up,” Ohtani said through an interpreter, referring to Teoscar Hernández and Mookie Betts.
“And this time around it was my turn to be able to perform. And I think just looking back over the course of the entire postseason, I haven’t performed to the expectation, but I think today we saw what the left-handed hitters could do.”
Ohtani (2-0) held the Brewers hitless until Jackson Chourio hit a ground-rule double leading off the fourth.
Ohtani then retired each of the next nine batters. The streak ended when Christian Yelich drew a full-count walk leading off the seventh. The next batter, William Contreras, singled, prompting Roberts to bring in Alex Vesia to relieve Ohtani.
Vesia and the three relievers that followed him — Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda and Roki Sasaki — limited Milwaukee to one run and three hits over the final three innings, with one strikeout and one walk.
The Dodgers limited their opponent to one run or less for the fifth consecutive game, tying the postseason record first set by the Dodgers in 1981 and matched by the Atlanta Braves in 1996, Langs wrote on X. The 1981 Dodgers won the World Series, but the Braves lost to the Yankees in 1996.
The Dodgers are the first defending World Series champion to return to the World Series since the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009. The Dodgers are seeking to become the first team to win consecutive World Series since the Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000.
The Dodgers have never won back-to-back World Series.
The NLCS sweep comes after the Dodgers went 0-6 against Milwaukee in the regular season.
The sweep was the second by the Dodgers in a best-of-seven series. The other was in the 1963 World Series against the New York Yankees.
The victory made Roberts the 12th manager to guide a team to at least five World Series. All 10 eligible managers in that group are in the Hall of Fame. The 11th, Bruce Bochy, managed the Texas Rangers this season and is not yet eligible.
Roberts also became the first manager since 1900 to win five pennants in his first 10 seasons as a manager. He had shared the record of four with Hall of Famers Walter Alston and Sparky Anderson.
“I have a hard time wrapping my head around that one,” Roberts said. “I just kind of try to do my job the best I can and do it for the game, for the players, for our fans. And all that stuff sort of accrues.
“I love our game, I love the Dodgers. And I’m going to keep trying to do the best for this organization and this city. But when you mentioned Alston and Sparky, those are names that you never imagine yourself in that same conversation.”