Morning Coffee: Blue Jays defy the odds again to force a Halloween thriller

Halloween 2025 in Toronto will be unforgettable.

We’ve jumped to a timeline where the Toronto Blue Jays are two victories away from clinching one of the most improbable World Series wins in baseball history.

Regardless of what happens tonight in LA, they’ll be back in Toronto for a Game 6 thriller on Friday night.

Trick or treat?

The Blue Jays, which opened the season at 65-to-1 to win the World Series at FanDuel and could be found as high as 100-to-1 in the summer, are two wins away from immortality after a 6-2 upset win in Game 4 last night.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. continued his red-hot postseason with a go-ahead two-run home run off Shohei Ohtani in the top of the third inning.

It was his seventh career playoff home run, breaking a tie with Joe Carter and Jose Bautista for the franchise record.

Vladdy now ranks first or tied for first in postseason hits, extra-base hits, walks, and home runs for the Blue Jays.

His odds to win World Series MVP were cut from +1000 to +320 as the second choice to win that award behind only Ohtani.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays odds to win the World Series were cut from +385 to +146 at FanDuel.

Their implied win probability nearly doubled from a 20.6 per cent chance to a 40.7 per cent chance.

Toronto is +172 to pull off another upset in Game 5 tonight with Trey Yesavage scheduled to get the start opposite Blake Snell for Los Angeles.

Can Yesavage run it back with a similar performance to the gutsy effort he delivered in Game 1?

Can the Blue Jays bats rough up Snell again?

The Dodgers are a heavy favourite to win tonight at -205.

The most likely World Series outcome according to FanDuel is still LA to win in six at +156.

The Dodgers to win in seven is +245.

The Blue Jays to win the World Series in six is +490.

Toronto to win it in seven is +340 at FanDuel.

I’m not saying that I’ve hedged my bets on the Dodgers to win the World Series just yet.

That said, I also wouldn’t bet on LA to win it in six.

The Blue Jays can turn the World Series into a house of horrors for the defending champs.

If they can pull off another upset win tonight in LA, Vladdy and company will have a chance to clinch the World Series on Halloween night in Toronto.

Stranger things have happened.

At the very least, the World Series is headed north of the border for a potential thrilling finale this weekend.

Let’s take a closer look at the most intriguing storylines entering Game 5 of the World Series in this Wednesday October 29^th, 2025, edition of Morning Coffee.

Blue Jays Defy the Odds Again to Force a Halloween Thriller

After a marathon Game 3 at Dodgers Stadium, I wasn’t convinced the Blue Jays had the depth or resolve to defy the odds once again in Game 4 in Los Angeles.

That’s exactly what they did.

Shane Bieber navigated a deep Dodgers lineup, giving up just four hits over 5.1 innings of work.

The Blue Jays bullpen took over from there and limited the LA offence to just two hits the rest of the way.

The resilience that Toronto has demonstrated all season has made them the biggest surprise in baseball.

Now they have the potential to overcome the odds one more time in a moment they have proved they deserve.

Once again, the Blue Jays will pin their hopes on a 22-year-old rookie starter in a critical Game 5 tonight.

Yesavage outdueled the two-time Cy Young award winner Snell in the series opener.

Now he’ll make just the eighth start of his MLB career in Game 5 of the World Series tonight.

While both teams will approach tonight’s game with the same sense of urgency, everybody I’ve talked to about the series has stressed a similar talking point when it comes to the Blue Jays outlook.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto held Toronto to one earned on four hits over nine innings of work in a 5-1 win in Game 2.

There’s been a strong sentiment that the Blue Jays can’t afford to return home down 3-2 in the series with Yamamoto set to get the start in Game 6.

Finally, there’s the “Dodgers Stadium” curse that Toronto fans continue to remind me about.

LA hasn’t clinched a World Series at home since 1963.

That drought will continue after the Blue Jays forced a Game 6 with a win last night.

That doesn’t mean they won’t be in position to clinch when the World Series returns to Toronto.

However, after stealing Game 4 on the road, there is certainly a renewed sense of belief among Blue Jays fans now that the World Series is down to a best-of-three.

After 27 innings of baseball over the past 48 hours, we’re about to find out how much both teams have left in the tank tonight.

Like Addison Barger, I’ll be banking on adrenaline and a lot of caffeine to get me through the next 24 hours.

Regardless of what happens tonight in LA, the stage is set for a memorable Halloween in Toronto on Friday night.

For Blue Jays fans, the hope is that it will include a chance to clinch the World Series on home soil.