Where would a Blue Jays win rank among the biggest upsets in World Series history?

Never rule out the underdog, especially not when the World Series begins.
Will the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 World Series?
Will the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 World Series? | Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

As excited as baseball fans might be to see Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series, they’re also cognizant of a crucial reality. Regardless of what analysts or content creators might suggest, the Blue Jays — from narrative and odds standpoints — are massive underdogs to Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The FanDuel Sportsbook lists the Dodgers as -220 favorites (bet $100 for a $145.45 payout), with the Blue Jays at +184 (bet $100 for a $284 payout) as of Tuesday afternoon. It’s hard to blame anyone for expecting that the Dodgers will win their third championship in six years, especially after throttling the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays are American League champions for the first time since 1993, and they’re ready to bring a title back to Toronto.

“When you have a group of guys that genuinely play for one another, that’s a real thing,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after Toronto’s Game 7 ALCS victory. “You can’t measure it, like you can’t measure clutch. But you can feel it. It’s easy to say, but when you look up and you’re one of the last two teams standing, it’s real.”

Make no mistake, the Blue Jays earned their World Series place for a reason. However, it’s also impossible to deny that defeating the Dodgers would rank among the greatest upsets in World Series history. For this list, we’re listing each series in chronological order, and we’ve factored in everything from winning percentage to historical context. We’re also focusing solely on the World Series, so the Boston Red Sox’s 2004 ALCS comeback over the New York Yankees is not included, despite it also being a postseason series.

Honorable mention: 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks and 2003 Florida Marlins defeat the New York Yankees

We’re lumping these two Fall Classics together because they effectively marked the end of the New York Yankees’ latest dynasty — and, with respect to the early 2010s San Francisco Giants, baseball’s most recent dynasty. The Yankees won four World Series titles in a five-year stretch from 1996-2000, and they returned to Arizona with a 3-2 series lead in 2001. However, Luis Gonzalez and Arizona’s high-powered offense routed the Yankees 15-2 in Game 6, setting the stage for Game 7.

All looked lost for the Diamondbacks in the eighth inning when Yankees All-Star closer Mariano Rivera entered and promptly struck out the side. However, Rivera blew his first postseason save since 1997, and Luis Gonzalez blooped a single over Derek Jeter’s head to end the series.

Then came 2003, when Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, and the Florida Marlins came out of nowhere to take down the Giants, Cubs, and Yankees in one fell swoop. The Yankees have only won two pennants since their Game 6 World Series defeat to Josh Beckett and the Marlins.

1906: Chicago White Sox defeat Chicago Cubs

We didn’t need long to see one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Despite only hitting .230 in the regular season, the White Sox somehow took down a 116-win Cubs team with an incredible .763 winning percentage. That would sound ridiculous in a movie script, yet the third Fall Classic delivered 

The two teams split the first four games before the White Sox and their light-hitting offense managed an 8-6 victory at the West Side Grounds in Game 5. Over 19,000 people filled South Side Park the next day to see the White Sox record an 8-3 victory and their first World Series title.

Perhaps our favorite part about the 1906 World Series is that four of the six games took place in under two hours, with Game 4 lasting 96 minutes. Things seemed so much simpler when you didn’t need to worry about commercial breaks and replay reviews.

1954: New York Giants defeat Cleveland Indians

You’re forgiven if all that you know about the 1954 World Series is Giants center fielder Willie Mays’ iconic Game 1 catch. Despite a stellar 111-43 regular-season record, the Giants were outscored 21-9 against Mays and an impressive Giants team. To their credit, the Giants won 97 games and placed five games ahead of the crosstown Brooklyn Dodgers, so it’s not like they came out of nowhere.

Here’s a fun fact: Of the seven teams in league history to win at least 110 games in a season, only three have finished the job with a World Series title. These Indians followed the 1906 Cubbies, and they were eventually joined by Ichiro Suzuki’s 2001 Mariners, who also won 116 games and lost to the Yankees in the ALCS. More recently, the 2022 Dodgers went 111-51 but lost to the Giants in the NLDS. We don’t imagine the Dodgers will run into any similar problems so long as they have Ohtani. 

1960: Pittsburgh Pirates defeat New York Yankees

The Yankees only missed the World Series twice from 1949 through 1964, failing to qualify in 1954 and 1959. A year before Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris captured the world in trying to break Babe Ruth’s home run record, the two sluggers led a 97-57 Yankees club to yet another American League pennant. Their opponent? The Pittsburgh Pirates, who were seeking their first World Series title since 1925.

By now, you know the rest. Despite outscoring the Pirates by 28 runs and shutting them out twice, the Yankees lost the series on Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run in Game 7. The Yankees so thoroughly dominated the Pirates that voters named Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson the World Series MVP, the only instance of a losing player earning the award.

Decades later, envisioning a team winning the World Series despite their three losses coming by scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0 is outright surreal. For the Yankees’ sake, it’s probably a good thing that social media didn’t exist back then.

1969: New York Mets defeat Baltimore Orioles

When a team wins 109 games and ends the year 19 games ahead in the division, they should understandably be expected to complete their season with a World Series victory. Unfortunately for the Orioles, they fell short and lost to the Miracle Mets in five games. Never mind the fact that the Mets had never won more than 73 games since debuting in 1962 and were widely considered to finish in the bottom half of the newly introduced NL East.

Tom Seaver and the Mets had other plans, though, winning 38 of their final 49 regular-season games and swiping the NL East from the Chicago Cubs. Their journey didn’t end there, with the Mets sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the inaugural NLCS. As cliché as the term “team of destiny” might sound, look no further than the 1969 Mets — and perhaps Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, and the current Mets could stand to learn from them.

2019: Washington Nationals defeat Houston Astros

It’s odd to think about the 2019 Nationals making this list, but there was an 86-point difference between their .574 regular-season winning percentage and the Astros’ .660. Washington began the season 19-31 and all seemed lost early, but they kept fighting and snuck into the playoffs via the Wild Card Game. 

None of that mattered when October hit, even after the Nationals blew a 2-0 series lead and lost all three home games. With their backs against the wall, Washington pulled off a 7-2 Game 6 victory and rallied for a 6-2 win the next night. Not only did the Nationals capture their first title in franchise history, but they secured the city of Washington’s first World Series championship since the 1925 Senators.

“We stuck together,” third baseman Anthony Rendon said. “We had nothing else to lose. We were facing elimination games when people never thought we should’ve been there in the first place, and we just kept on fighting, and we finished on top.”

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