What We’ve Learned So Far From the 2025 World Series

After a split in Toronto, the Fall Classic heads to Los Angeles all tied up. Here’s what we’ve learned — and what will determine where the series goes from here.

Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Will Smith of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate after the Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 of the 2025 World Series on Saturday, October 25, 2025. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

The travel break after Games 1-2 of the World Series always offers a chance to reset and take stock of what we’ve learned so far — and to fact-check what we thought we knew going in. A year ago, the story was whether the Yankees could climb out of their 0-2 deficit against the Dodgers and make it a series. (They didn’t.) This year, the question is whether Toronto’s Game 1 blitz has turned what looked like a mismatch into a true coin-flip — or if L.A.’s counterpunch in Game 2 restored the Dodgers’ aura of inevitability.

Let’s run through the biggest lessons — and lingering questions — from the first two games before the series shifts West:

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⚾ Los Angeles remains favored… right back where we started.

Before the series began, I noted that the Dodgers were fairly heavy favorites according to a medley of different ratings and forecasts. Those ranged from Polymarket on the high end for Los Angeles to my Elo system on the low end, but the overall consensus set L.A. with around a 64 percent chance to win their second straight title.

And wouldn’t you know that, after a split pair of games in Toronto, we’re right back there again? The same average of systems gives the Dodgers a 63.8 percent chance to win the title, almost exactly where they were on the eve of the Fall Classic:

Not that Toronto didn’t briefly upgrade their status with the win in Game 1. They were Elo favorites on Saturday morning, though the betting markets were still backing the Dodgers (just by a slimmer margin). Now things are back to square one, even though Toronto outscored Los Angeles 12-9 through two games — and they continue to own the superior runs-per-game differential in the playoffs overall, +1.92 to +1.25.

⚾ The Dodgers’ rotation is fearsome — but not flawless.

Another big theme that was going to determine this World Series (and still will) are the performances L.A. receives from its star-studded starting rotation — and Games 1-2 have illustrated both the dominant and perhaps overrated sides of this group.