The Lineup
EDITOR
Gene Myers
USA TODAY
BASEBALL EDITOR
Jesse Yomtov
USA TODAY
BASEBALL INSIDERS
Bob Nightengale
Gabe Lacques
DESIGNER
Joey Schaffer
COPY EDITOR
Sherrill Amo
PROOFREADER
Heather Hewitt
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Gene Myers
SPECIAL THANKS
Alicia Del Gallo, Chris Thomas, Casey Moore, Chris Fenison, Jared Sábado-Hernández
DEDICATION
To the late Charles Grumbine, an inspirational high school teacher who bled Dodger blue.
About the book
“Dynasty in Blue” condenses a year’s worth of coverage of the Los Angeles Dodgers from USA TODAY Sports. Baseball insiders Bob Nightengale and Gabe Lacques and baseball editor Jesse Yomtov crafted the bulk of this book. For continuing coverage of the Dodgers and the national pastime, go to usatoday.com/sports/mlb. Order a print subscription or access the eNewspaper for USA TODAY by calling 800-872-0001 or going to subscribe.usatoday.com/offers.
On the cover
After a thrilling seven-game World Series and a Game 7 for the ages, the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated more than the 2025 championship. They became the first team in a quarter-century to capture back-to-back titles.
KEVIN SOUSA / IMAGN IMAGES
PREVIOUS PAGE: Two days after the Dodgers won Game 7 of the World Series, the Commissioner’s Trophy had a place of honor during the team’s rally at Dodger Stadium. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / IMAGN IMAGES
NEXT PAGE: Before the rally, the Dodgers rode double-decker buses in a parade through downtown Los Angeles estimated to have attracted more than 250,000 fans. KIYOSHI MIO / IMAGN IMAGES
Relive the glory from 2024’s championship
Although USA TODAY Sports knows readers will enjoy “Dynasty in Blue,” it’s only half of the Dodgers’ story. “Blue Bloods,” published last year, chronicles the Dodgers’ 2024 season and their triumph over the Yankees in the Fall Classic. Limited copies remain available. It also is a hardcover, premium coffee-table book. Order “Blue Bloods: Superstars Align for LA’s 2024 Championship Run” at LA.ChampsBook.com.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com • Printed in Canada.
This book is an unofficial account of Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2025 season by USA TODAY Sports and is not endorsed by the Los Angeles Dodgers or Major League Baseball.
20 42 84 144
CHAPTER ONE RELOADING
CHAPTER TWO THE SEASON
CHAPTER THREE THE PLAYOFFS
CHAPTER FOUR THE GLORY
FOREWORD
Dodgers couldn’t believe how they won back-to-back championships
BOB NIGHTENGALE
TORONTO — GAME 7 OF THE World Series was so insane, so compelling, so breathtaking, so dramatic, that when the final out was made early on Sunday morning, Clayton Kershaw looked at his teammates in disbelief.
“‘What, we just won?’” Kershaw recalled saying in the bullpen. “‘Really? Are you sure?’
“I was warming up. I really had no idea we won.”
It was that kind of night, and when the Los Angeles Dodgers started boarding their buses from Rogers Centre at nearly 3 in the morning, they still had trouble digesting what had transpired.
Yes, the Dodgers really won the World Series — 5-4 in 11 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays
on Nov. 1, 2025 — becoming the first team in a quarter-century to capture back-toback championships.
Second baseman Miguel Rojas, who saved the game with his home run in the top of the ninth inning and then with his glove on the bottom of the inning, had a rib injury and didn’t know whether he could play until midafternoon.
Will Smith, who caught all 74 innings of the World Series, the most ever, hit the game-winning homer in the 11th inning, which was the Dodgers’ first lead of the game.
Every single Dodgers starting pitcher appeared in the game.
There was a bench-clearing skirmish in the fourth inning.
And there was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who started and won Game 6 on Friday night while throwing 96 pitches and then came out of the bullpen Saturday and won Game 7 by pitching more innings than any Dodger the entire night.
“What he did,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, “is literally the most impressive accomplishment I’ve ever seen on a major-league baseball field.”
This is a guy who pitched a complete game in the Dodgers’ 5-1 Game 2 victory, was warming up and ready to pitch in the Dodgers’ 6-5, 18-inning Game 3 victory, pitched six innings in the Dodgers’ 3-1 Game 6 victory and, there he was, back out on the mound again in Game 7.
“For him to have as good as stuff as
BOB NIGHTENGALE JOINED USA TODAY in 1998. An Arizona State alumnus, Nightengale has covered Major League Baseball for nearly 50 years and has reported on some of the biggest moments, players and stories in the history of the game.
OPPOSITE: The Commissioner’s Trophy partied with the Dodgers in their locker room in large part because of the team’s stellar four-man rotation. From the left (with postseason statistics): Shohei Ohtani (2-1, 20 ⅓ innings, 4.43 ERA), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5-1, 37 ⅓, 1.45), Blake Snell (3-2, 34, 3.18) and Tyler Glasnow (0-0, 21⅓, 1.69, 1 save). JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI / IMAGN IMAGES
RIGHT: All eyes were tracking the flight path of the ball with two outs in the top of the 11th inning in Game 7 of the World Series. It started as an 84-mph slider from Blue Jays right-hander Shane Bieber. It ended up being the game-winning home run for Dodgers catcher Will Smith. The ball traveled 366 feet at an exit velocity of 104.6 mph. Smith’s launch angle was 39 degrees. Up close and personal for the historic home run were Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk and umpire Jordan Baker. KEVIN SOUSA / IMAGN IMAGES
OPPOSITE: The Los Angeles Dodgers posed for posterity on the field at Rogers Centre in Toronto after winning the franchise’s ninth World Series. The Dodgers’ other championships came in 1955 (while located in Brooklyn), 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988, 2020 and 2024. They became the first team to win back-to-back titles since the New York Yankees won three straight in 1998-2000 and the first National League team to do it since Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine in 1975-76. JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI / IMAGN IMAGES
he had in Game 6,” Friedman said, “is mind-blowing.”
Friedman was first aware that Yamamoto would attempt to pitch when he got a text message from interpreter Will Ireton after Game 6 that read: “I’m getting treatment after the game to be prepared to pitch Game 7.”
Friedman’s reaction? “I didn’t really pay much attention,” he said. “I’m like, ‘OK, that’s great. He really cares. He really wants to be part of it.’”
The next text arrived late Saturday morning: “Hey, I actually feel really good after getting treatment again.”
The next came in the early afternoon: “I went out to play catch and, hey, the ball is really coming out well. I feel great. I feel like yesterday.”
“I said, ‘OK, he’s going to be part of this,’” Friedman said, “but you don’t know what that means. And you don’t know how long he’s going to be able to hold his stuff.”
Yamamoto promptly went out and pitched 2 ⅔ scoreless innings, gave up one hit and ended the game by inducing a double-play ball from Alejandro Kirk with runners on the corners.
“When I started in the bullpen before
I went in, to be honest,” Yamamoto said, “I was not really sure if I could pitch up there to my best ability. But as I started getting warmed up, because I started making a little bit of an adjustment … I started thinking I can go in and do my job.”
Oh, did he ever, batter after batter, inning after inning, throwing 34 highpressure pitches, and by the time Game 7 was over, he was on the World Series stage accepting the MVP trophy. He was so tired he could barely lift it.
“I can’t pitch tomorrow, guys,” Yamamoto yelled out in the clubhouse
Dodgers outmaneuver Padres, Jays to land a Japanese pitching phenom for a pittance
GABE LACQUES
USA TODAY SPORTS
JAN. 17, 2025
THE GREATEST TEAM IN baseball is adding an extremely talented, cost-effective and potentially dominant piece to a starstudded pitching rotation.
Roki Sasaki, the 23-yearold phenom from Japan whose services for the next six seasons could have been procured by every Major League Baseball franchise for the equivalent of a rounding error, ended his six-week recruiting period by agreeing to sign with the World Series champion Dodgers, he announced in a social media post. And with that agreement, not only did the rich get richer, they also got more efficient, more viable for the future and that much more unbeatable in the 2025 season. It also leaves more than a dozen spurned suitors in his
wake, most notably the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres, apparently the last teams eliminated in this derby.
Sasaki chose to get posted by his former franchise in Japan, Chiba Lotte, before he had accrued enough service time to become a major-league free agent. And in following the path paved by Shohei Ohtani in 2018, Sasaki’s
Padres and fellow National League West combatant San Francisco Giants — Sasaki and Ohtani are now teammates, soon to share a rotation.
Along with Blake Snell — signed to a five-year, $182 million contract in December. And Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was posted one year ago after seven dominant seasons in Japan,
“Putting on this Dodgers uniform today, I am reminded that my journey is just about to begin, and it makes me feel more focused than ever. “
acquisition cost would be limited to teams’ international signing pool — and then have his salary controlled by the club for the following six seasons. That meant all 30 teams functionally had a shot at Sasaki. And in what’s surely a cruel twist for Sasaki’s suitors — most notably the second runner-up
signed a $325 million contract — and was the starting pitcher for four of the Dodgers’ 11 postseason victories.
Let’s not forget right-handers
Dustin May and former All-Star Tony Gonsolin, returning from injury. Oh, and Clayton Kershaw, who had a presumably standing offer to return to the club.
Throw in youngsters Bobby Miller and Landon Knack and that’s nine — count ’em, nine — starters the Dodgers can throw at teams for 162 games and however many playoff matchups necessary. That array of arms will only serve to ease Sasaki’s transition to the major leagues, as he both won’t be needed to make 30plus starts nor amass 200 innings.
That’s a significant perk for a pitcher who’s never tossed more than 129 ⅓ innings in a season and whose agent, Joel Wolfe, lauded Sasaki’s desire to learn and intimated that a club’s track record and apparatus in developing pitchers would play a significant role in his client’s decision. And his new club will have a pretty good floor to start on.
Sasaki posted a 2.02 ERA over 69 games for Chiba Lotte, peaking in 2023 with a 1.88 ERA over 15 games and 91
OPPOSITE: After Roki Sasaki, the latest Japanese pitcher to tantalize big-league clubs, signed his contract with the Dodgers, Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, and manager Dave Roberts provided helping hands as Sasaki donned his No. 11 jersey at a January news conference. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / IMAGN IMAGES
ROKI SASAKI IN JAPANESE
DAVE ROBERTS
A CHALLENGING SEASON
VALIDATED BY TITLES, BIG MONEY
HAUNTED HOTEL PHENOMENA AT PFISTER PLAYERS, WIVES STAY ELSEWHERE
NL WILD CARD SERIES
DODGERS 2, REDS 0 SNELL EXCELS, A CLOSER EMERGES
NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
DODGERS 4, BREWERS 0 STARTERS RULE, OHTANI REIGNS
NL DIVISION SERIES
DODGERS 3, PHILLIES 1 PHILLY PHLUB, SENSATIONAL SASAKI
03 The Playoffs
ALL GO TUMBLING DOWN: DE LA CRUZ AND REDS, SCHWARBER AND PHILLIES, YELICH AND BREWERS
OPPOSITE: In one of the greatest performances in baseball’s history, Shohei Ohtani blasted three home runs and pitched six shutout innings as the Dodgers captured the National League pennant by completing their sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers.
KIRBY LEE / IMAGN IMAGES
DODGERS 5, BREWERS 1
AMERICAN FAMILY FIELD, MILWAUKEE
Yamamoto’s complete game hearkens back to a different brand of baseball
BOB NIGHTENGALE USA TODAY SPORTS
MILWAUKEE — FORGET
Hollywood.
There’s no need for a movie script.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are doing a real life version of “Back to the Future.”
Remember the golden age of baseball when starters pitched deep into games or even went nine innings?
Well, the Dodgers are bringing oldschool back into vogue, with a starting rotation that hasn’t dominated the postseason like this since the 2005 Chicago White Sox.
The Dodgers, after silencing the Milwaukee Brewers 5-1 in front of a subdued crowd at American Family Field, are putting on one of the most dominant pitching clinics in baseball history.
Their starting rotation, after Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s three-hit
complete game, has given up just four hits and one run over 17 innings in their two victories against the Brewers in this National League Championship Series.
It’s not only impressive, but historic. It’s the first time a starting rotation has permitted four or fewer hits over at least 17 innings in the first two games of a postseason series in baseball history, eclipsing the Chicago Cubs’ previous record of five hits allowed in Games 1 and 2 of the 1906 World Series against the Chicago White Sox, according to STATS Perform. (The Chisox, though, won the Series in six games.)
“It’s just unbelievable,” Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said. “Really, it’s crazy.”
The Dodgers’ rotation sports a 1.54 ERA this postseason, the secondlowest ERA after eight postseason games in history, trailing only the 1983 Baltimore Orioles. The opposition is hitting just .133, with 63 strikeouts in
52⅔ innings.
Their dominance is so ridiculous that right fielder Teoscar Hernández, who hit his fourth postseason homer, had not had a single ball hit to him in two nights.
Really.
“I’m OK if it stays like that,” Hernández said. “I don’t need any fly balls.”
Hey, with the way the Dodgers are dominating, why not pull a Satchel Paige and tell his outfielders to come into the dugout and relax?
“I feel like it’s been an honor to be part of something like this,” Rojas said. “I’ve never seen anything like this where a rotation has just dominated the last 2½ months like this. I’m pretty sure that’s what the organization envisioned when they got those guys. ...
“People who have been watching us know how spoiled we are because we don’t need to do much on offense. All we have to do is catch the ball, make
plays for them and put a couple of runs on the board. I think we’re capable of doing that.”
There’s no stopping them, not pitching like this.
Just 24 hours after Blake Snell became the first pitcher since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956 to face the minimum number of batters through eight innings in a postseason game, Yamamoto gave up a home run on his first pitch of the game and just two hits in his next 110 pitches, striking out seven with one walk. He was so dominant that he permitted just two fly ball outs the entire game, with 15 grounders.
“It’s been incredible,” catcher Will Smith said. “That’s probably the two best back-to-back games pitched ever that I’ve seen.”
Brewers manager Pat Murphy wasn’t about to argue: “We chased way more than we’ve chased all year. We’ve been the best in baseball at not
OPPOSITE: On Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s first pitch, Jackson Chourio sent it over the right-field fence. For his next 110 pitches, the Brewers never came close to scoring. Yamamoto yielded three hits and one walk while striking out seven en route to a complete game, a rarity in modern playoff baseball. MICHAEL MCLOONE / IMAGN IMAGES
was smelling a really good night.”
The Brewers, whose 97-65 record was baseball’s best, only could sit back and watch in awe as Ohtani and the Dodgers beat them in every phase of the game.
The Brewers, who led the National League in batting average, produced just 14 hits the entire series while batting .113. They scored one run in Game 1, one run in Game 2, one run in Game 3 and one run in Game 4.
The Dodgers, who lost all six games in the regular season against the Brewers, completely outmanned them when it counted, leading in 35 of the 36 innings.
“We were part of tonight an iconic, maybe the best individual performance ever, in a postseason game,” Brewers
OPPOSITE: Of Shohei Ohtani’s three home runs in Game 4, his second was the most impressive. It came in the fourth inning and cleared the right-field pavilion and landed in a picnic area. Estimated distance: 469 feet. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / IMAGN IMAGES
ABOVE LEFT: Of Ohtani’s three home runs in Game 4, his first was the most important. It came in the first inning and landed in the right-field pavilion. It came on José Quintana’s sixth pitch of the game, and it certainly set the tone. Three singles followed for an early 3-0 LA lead. Estimated distance: 446 feet.
JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / IMAGN IMAGES
LEFT: Of Ohtani’s three home runs in Game 4, his last was the most fun. It came in the seventh inning and cleared the center-field fence. It left everyone screaming in awe. He couldn’t do it again, right? But you knew he would. Estimated distance: 427 feet.
KIYOSHI MIO / IMAGN IMAGES
OCT. 27, 2025 W WORLD
DODGERS 6, BLUE JAYS 5 (18)
Instant classic! Freeman walks it off in 18th, Ohtani reaches base nine times, Klein a hero
BOB NIGHTENGALE USA TODAY SPORTS
LOS ANGELES — HALL OF Famer Sandy Koufax may be 89 years old —hasn’t thrown a single pitch in 60 years — but was so excited that he rushed into the Dodgers clubhouse, almost ready to put on a uniform himself.
This is the 121st World Series played, and no one has ever seen a game quite like it, featuring 44 players, 19 pitchers, a batter reaching base nine times, five outs recorded on the bases, a player becoming the first to hit two walk-off homers in the World Series, a reliever who wasn’t even on the playoff roster until four days ago becoming the winning pitcher — all in a game that lasted 18 innings, tied for the longest in World Series history.
It was that kind of zany and historic night at Dodger Stadium, where the
Dodgers outlasted the Blue Jays 6-5 in 18 innings — an instant World Series classic lasting six hours, 39 minutes, with Freddie Freeman hitting a walkoff homer to lead off the 18th and give the Dodgers a two-games-to-one lead.
“It’s one of the greatest World Series games of all time,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m spent emotionally. We got a ball game later tonight, which is crazy.”
Oh, yeah, and the guy taking the mound is the same guy who just reached base nine times, Shohei Ohtani, who hit two homers and two doubles and was walked five times — four times intentionally.
“I hope we don’t lose sight,” Freeman said, “our starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight. Just incredible.”
Said Blue Jays third baseman Ernie Clement: “You can’t explain it. He’s the best player to ever play this game.”
And yet, despite the historic
performance, Ohtani was almost an afterthought as the game went on, being intentionally walked in the ninth, 11th, 13th and 15th innings and walked on four pitches in the 17th inning.
While Ohtani was being walked, reliever Justin Wrobleski, after pitching in the sixth inning, kept running in and out of the Dodgers clubhouse for 11 innings with his other teammates who were out of the game, furiously changing sweatshirts, shoes, pants and anything for good luck.
“I went sweatshirt, then I went no sweatshirt, and then I went three different pairs of shoes,” Wrobleski said. “The third pair of shoes finally worked.”
Infielder Miguel Rojas was getting his arm loose and was ready in case the Dodgers wanted to turn to a position player after already using 10 pitchers. Roberts told Fox during the game that he was nearly ready to do just that.
“I was trying to get myself ready,” Rojas said. “I was going to throw everything I have, even that eephus pitch.”
Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw a complete game just two days ago, actually was warming up in the bullpen as the game ended, ready to come in for emergency relief.
There was Ohtani, who said he was tired and just wanted to go to bed, knowing he was scheduled to take the mound in a mere 18 hours.
It was a night where Freeman was the hero, becoming the first player to hit multiple walk-off homers in World Series history. In 2024, he hit a walkoff grand slam off Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes in the 10th inning of Game 1. His victim this time was lefty Brendon Little.
But another man who will be remembered in Dodgers folklore is Will Klein. He’s a 25-year-old journeyman who
OPPOSITE: When Freddie Freeman’s drive leading off the 18th inning cleared the center-field fence, his teammates exploded out of the dugout. Toronto’s Brendon Little threw a 92-mph sinker at 11:50 p.m. PT. Freeman’s shot traveled 406 feet — 11 beyond the fence — with an exit velocity of 107.4 mph. KIRBY LEE / IMAGN IMAGES
RIGHT: After his two-out home run in the top of the 11th inning, Will Smith practically sailed around the bases. It gave the Dodgers their first lead of the night and held up as the blow that decided Game 7.
JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI /IMAGN IMAGES
OPPOSITE: After the Dodgers dodged a bullet in the bottom of the ninth by retiring Isiah Kiner-Falefa on the force-out at the plate, the Blue Jays had one more chance to avoid extra innings. Yoshinobu Yamamoto still had to retire Ernie Clement with the bases loaded. Clement sent a first-pitch curveball to the warning track in left-center. Center fielder Andy Pages, inserted only a batter earlier for defensive purposes, dashed from his position, crashed into left fielder Enrique Hernández, sent him to the track, leaped high and made the catch. It was off to extra innings. NICK TURCHIARO / IMAGN
IMAGES
Davis Schneider, who homered on Snell’s first pitch, a fastball, in Game 5. Snell struck him out with a curveball.
Ninth Inning
Los Angeles: The Blue Jays were three outs from their third world championship. Ohtani would bat third. Hoffman struck out Enrique Hernández on four pitches. On his seventh pitch to Rojas, with a full count to the No. 9 hitter, Hoffman hung an 86-mph slider that Rojas blasted over the bullpen in left field. The Rogers Centre turned silent. Dodgers 4, Blue Jays 4. Toronto: On a 2-0 pitch, Guerrero gave the crowd a charge with a long drive to dead center field, but Edman coasted
under it right in front of the warning track. Bichette, though, singled to left. Isiah Kiner-Falefa entered with two good legs. It took nine pitches, but Barger coaxed a walk off Snell to put the winning run in scoring position. Exit Snell, enter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had thrown 96 pitches while winning Game 6 the previous night. His second pitch clipped Kirk, loading the bases. Roberts sent Andy Pages to replace Edman in center field for better odds against a potential walk-off sacrifice fly. The infield came in, the outfield came in. On a 1-2 splitter, Varsho hit a one-hopper to second baseman Rojas on the edge of the grass. He squatted to snare it, a knee
touching down awkwardly, and he fired basically flatfooted to the plate trying for a game-saving force-out. Lunging like a first baseman with his right foot on the dish, Smith caught the throw an instant before Kiner-Falefa slid across it. A review determined that although Smith lifted his right foot off the plate for a nanosecond, it touched down a picosecond before KinerFalefa arrived in a dusty cloud of dirt and chalk. Yamamoto still needed to dispatch Clement, already 3-for-4 and hitting .400 in the Series. Yamamoto delivered a nasty, 79-mph first-pitch curveball that Clement somehow golfed to the gap in left-center. Enrique Hernández sprinted toward the warning track for an over-the-shoulder
Freddie Freeman
Shohei Ohtani
Max Muncy Andy Pages
THIS SPREAD: Every Dodgers fan loved a parade! More than 250,000 people were estimated to have attended the festivities on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025.
AND
Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Mookie Betts
Magic Johnson
Dave Roberts
KIYOSHI MIO (LEFT PAGE)
KIRBY LEE (RIGHT PAGE) / IMAGN IMAGES
Anthony Banda