Blue Jays vs. Dodgers: Everything to know about this week's World Series rematch

The 2025 pennant winners are headed back to Toronto for the first time since Game 7
The Toronto Blue Jays are hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game series starting on Monday at Rogers Centre.

This is, obviously, the first time these two teams have met since the Dodgers took Game 7 in extra innings to clinch one of the most dramatic World Series in MLB history.

Here are some things to know heading into Monday's opener:
The Dodgers look awesome...again
They aren't perfect and the rest of the league is going to continue to give them its best shot, but the Dodgers have a case as the best team in baseball again.

They are 7-2 with a +20 run differential through their first three series.

The offense is hitting .285/.352/.485, collectively, far above the league average in all three categories.

The rotation has at least three pitchers right now capable of throwing like aces ( Yoshinobu Yamamoto , Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow ) and the bullpen is much more settled with Edwin Díaz now serving as the anchor.

There isn't a glaring weakness.

The Blue Jays are struggling, quite badly
Though the Jays started the season with a three-game sweep of the Athletics, they required a walk-off victory in the first two games and needed 11 innings in the second game.

The results are ultimately all that matter, but it wasn't really an overwhelming performance.

The results since then have been terrible: the Blue Jays have lost five of their last six.

Going 1-5 against those two teams should be the worst six-game stretch of the season for a contender, right?

Toronto had better hope so.

Betts headlines notable injuries
The Dodgers are well known for having three MVPs hitting toward the top of their lineup (Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts ), but one of them is hurt at present.

Mookie Betts was placed on the injured list Sunday due to a strained oblique muscle.

He joins Tommy Edman and Enrique Hernández among Dodgers position players on the shelf.

Remember those three pitchers capable of looking like aces?

That's usually four, but Blake Snell is also on the IL.

On the Blue Jays' end, they have a pair of starters from the World Series rotation on the IL in Shane Bieber and Trey Yesavage .

They are joined by fellow starting pitchers Cody Ponce and José Berríos.

All-Star catcher Alejandro Kirk has a fractured thumb and is out and, though he had very little impact last season, we should also note the absence of Anthony Santander .

Lots of firepower on both sides
We'll likely see plenty of offense.

Of course, there's great pitching, too.

This is always subject to change, but here's how things look right now.

Spoiler: Two bouts have the potential to look like Ace vs.

Ace.

Max Scherzer (1-0, 1.50) vs.

Justin Wrobleski (0-0, 6.75): Scherzer is 41 with a ton of tread on those tires, but he looked very good his first time and he'll always have know-how and guile out there.

The Dodgers might lean heavily on the bullpen after Wrobleski, depending on how the game is going.

Kevin Gausman (0-0, 0.75) vs.

Yamamoto (1-1, 3.00): Gausman has looked like arguably the best pitcher in baseball through the incredibly small sample of two starts.

He's struck out 21 without walking anyone in 12 innings and has seen the bullpen blow wins for him twice.

Yamamoto returns to the venue where he won World Series MVP.

At Rogers Centre in the Fall Classic, he appeared twice as a starter and once as a reliever, going 3-0 with a 1.02 ERA in 17 ⅔ innings.

Game 3 (3:07 p.m.

ET Wednesday)
Dylan Cease (0-0, 2.79) vs.

Ohtani (1-0, 0.00): Armed with a more effective changeup, Cease has 18 strikeouts in only 9 ⅔ innings so far this season.

He's finished second and fourth in Cy Young voting before, so we're well aware of the upside.

Ohtani worked his way back from elbow surgery in time to be full-go for the playoffs last year and did not disappoint.

He was ace-like in his one outing so far this season.