World Series Game 3 Breakdown: Jays Poised To Expose Tyler Glasnow

The 2025 World Series has already delivered some magical, unforgettable moments that will stand in the record books, and archives of baseball lore for generations.

One feat, being the pinch-hit grand slam home run, by Addison Barger, came as the shock and awe moment that nobody, other than Dan Plesac of course, could have foreseen for game one. That had never happened before, so to be certain, there will be a display in Cooperstown, set aside for fans to relive the at bat that blew the game open, in favour of the Blue Jays.

Yamamoto

Conversely, there was game two, when Yoshinobu Yamamoto surprised no one, by methodically deconstructing Toronto’s pesky and at times, powerful offence. The Dodgers’ ace became the second pitcher in the team’s history, to have a complete game (CG) victory in both the NLCS, and the World Series. The feat brought back memories of Orel Hershiser’s complete games, and incredible streak of scoreless innings back in 1988.

That performance fed perfectly into Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ game plan. The scenario where the bullpen was never called upon, and Yamamoto throwing 105 pitches, 73 of which were strikes, was effectively an upgraded carbon copy of his dissection of the Milwaukee Brewers batting order in game two of the NLCS.

The only truly hard hit balls, in his two dominant outings, were from Jackson Chourio, who took Yamamoto deep for a solo blast, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who nuked a line drive that left a divot on the Rogers Centre left field wall. Had the fence been a few feet shorter, Vladdy’s shot would have most definitely gone out, and an entirely different scenario, and stat line, might have played out for Yamamoto.

Now that game three of the World Series is upon us, the Blue Jays are tasked with trying to figure out the Dodgers’ number four starter. Granted, the fourth best pitcher on the Los Angeles Dodgers, could theoretically be considered the ace on all but just a small handful of other MLB teams. 

Game three poses about the best chance that the Blue Jays offence will see, to rally, rack up a high pitch count and ultimately score runs on a Dodgers starting pitcher. Glasnow is really, really good, but so are Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, and Luis Castillo. The Blue Jays offence was able to visibly frustrate each of those starters, by continuously fouling off pitches, taking borderline calls, and not chasing.

The Chase

Glasnow has the velo, and pitch arsenal that is as good or better than the guys listed here, but the difference is his dependency on the chase. He will use his high 90’s 4-seamer to peg the strike zone, and then throw his wicked curveball, sinker, or slider outside of the zone for the punch out. 

The Blue Jays do not chase anywhere close to the rate that some other teams do. The only way that Glasnow will go beyond five innings in game three, is if his fastball command is almost perfect. 

Blue Jays hitters, and especially the middle of the order, now with Bo Bichette, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., have the ability to catch up to any fastball. Alejandro Kirk, who will be hitting behind the two Jays’ perennial All-Stars, can go with the pitch, and slap it into the right field gap about as well as any hitter in the game.

As far as the Jays’ lineup goes, each and every hitter that is projected to start, will look to frustrate Tyler Glasnow, and expose the same cracks in his armour, as were shown with Blake Snell. Elevate the pitch count, get on base, and get to the Dodgers’ bullpen, where the loss of high-leverage specialist lefty Alex Vesia for the series, is really starting to become exposed.

End Of Tyler Glasnow – World Series Rant

Any team will always have their work cut out for them when they see the name Glasnow, on the lineup card as the opposing pitcher. As for preferences though, at this time in the incredibly intense, dramatic and flat-out fun 2025 World Series, he presents the Blue Jays with about the best possible chance for getting on base and putting another formidable number on the scoreboard. If Max Scherzer can somehow rise to the occasion again, like he did with his lone start in the ALCS, then game three could be a huge win for Toronto, effectively securing another trip back to the Rogers Centre for game six, and (maybe) seven.

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