The Los Angeles Dodgers’ thrilling 11-inning Saturday win over the Toronto Blue Jays was the most watched World Series game since 2017, according to Nielsen data.
The Fox telecast of the Game 7 contest giving the Dodgers their second consecutive world championship attracted an average of 25. 5 million viewers on Fox.
Viewers watching the Spanish-language telecast on Fox Deportes and Fox Sports streaming platforms brought the audience figure to just under 26 million.
The Dodgers’ 5-4 win delivered the largest audience for a World Series game since the Houston Astros’ Game 7 win over the the team in 2017, which had an audience of 28.3 million.
The figure was 10% over the last decisive game seven World Series game in 2019, when the Washington Nationals defeated the Astros.
The battle on Saturday will go down as one of the most memorable games in World Series history, with a number of spectacular plays in the field and a dramatic go-ahead home run by Dodgers catcher Will Smith.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto won his third game of the series with his strong relief outing, earning him the Most Valuable Player Award for the series.
The audience level peaked between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. Pacific, with 31.5 million viewers tuned in.
The Dodgers became the first Major League Baseball team to win back-to-back championships in 25 years.
HOUSTON — José Soriano and two relievers combined for a two-hitter and Oswald Peraza hit his first home run since a trade from the Yankees to lead the Angels to a 3-0 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Angels outfielder Taylor Ward was injured trying to make a catch on that hit when he crashed face-first into the metal scoreboard in left field.
He was bleeding and appeared to have a cut above his right eye. He held a smaller cloth to his head as he was slowly carted off the field while resting his head on the shoulder of a team employee who rode the cart with him. There was no immediate update on his injury.
Soriano (10-9) allowed one hit and struck out eight in seven innings. Luis García allowed one hit in a scoreless eighth and Kenley Jansen threw a perfect ninth for his 25th save.
There were two outs in the fifth when Peraza connected off Hunter Brown (10-7) into the bullpen in right-center field to put the Angels up 1-0. His homer comes after his two-run single in the ninth inning Saturday helped Los Angeles to a 4-1 victory that snapped a three-game skid.
Yoán Moncada walked to start the eighth and scored on Mike Trout’s double that bounced off the wall in center field to make it 2-0. Ward walked before Luis Rengifo reached and Trout scored on an error by Lance McCullers Jr. when the pitcher overthrew first base.
Yordan Alvarez singled with no outs in the first and Soriano walked a batter in the second and sixth innings. The Astros didn’t get another hit until Ramón Urías doubled with one out in the eighth inning.
Brown allowed three hits and a run with five strikeouts in six innings. McCullers Jr. allowed three hits and two runs in his first relief appearance since 2018.
Up next: LHP Yusei Kikuchi (6-9, 3.68 ERA) will start for the Angels in the series finale Monday. Houston hasn’t announced its starter.
According to rankings released Friday based on sales of Nike jerseys from the Fanatics network, fans have purchased Ohtani’s No. 17 Dodgers jersey more than that of any other player during the first half of the 2025 season.
It’s not Ohtani’s first time at the top of the jersey sales rankings. The two-way superstar from Japan was No. 1 for the 2023 regular season, his last with the Angels, and the 2024 regular season, his first with the Dodgers. His jersey was also the top seller during the most recent offseason, after he was named the 2024 National League MVP and won his first World Series championship.
According to MLB, Ohtani’s jerseys have sold more than any other player in the U.S., Japan and worldwide since 2023.
New York Yankees superstar and reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge is No. 2 on the 2025 list, followed by Freeman at No. 3 and Betts at No. 4. Freeman and Betts also joined Ohtani in the top four in sales during the offseason, with Freeman at No. 2 and Betts at No. 4.
For the 2024 regular season, Betts ranked at No. 4, while Freeman came in at No. 18. Freeman has been riding a wave of popularity since the World Series, during which he hit a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 and eventually was named the series MVP.
New York Mets star Francisco Lindor has the No. 5 jersey of 2025 so far, followed by Mets teammate Juan Soto, Rafael Devers of the San Francisco Giants, Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros, Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres and Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, in his 18th MLB season, has the No. 20 bestselling jersey.
But, in a reminder of the still-tenuous pitching depth the Dodgers have relied on for much of this first half, long man Justin Wrobleski came back down to earth in a five-run, 4 ⅔-inning outing thereafter, sending the team to a defeat that clinched a series loss to the Astros.
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts is tagged out by Houston Astros third base Isaac Paredes while trying to stretch a double into a triple at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
In the big picture, this weekend has offered hope for the Dodgers’ long-term pitching plans.
On Friday, manager Dave Roberts said injured $136.5-million right-hander Tyler Glasnow is on track to return from his shoulder problem during next week’s road trip.
Before Saturday’s game, injured $182-million left-hander Blake Snell threw his second live batting practice of the week, striking out four of the eight hitters he faced in what is expected to be his final simulated session before going on a minor-league rehab assignment. Both he and injured reliever Blake Treinen, who also threw an inning of live batting practice Saturday, are lined up to be activated from the IL “at some point in time shortly after the All-Star break,” per Roberts.
Then there was Ohtani, who despite once again being limited to a short workload in his fourth pitching start of the season, was also once again dominant in a 31-pitch display.
After Isaac Paredes singled to lead off the game, Ohtani broke Cam Smith’s bat on a 96-mph fastball for a double-play grounder to second. In the second inning, Ohtani fanned Christian Walker with a slider, then Victor Caratini and Yainer Díaz on a pair of big-breaking sweepers — all while also touching 101 mph on the radar gun.
In his six total innings this year, Ohtani has given up just one run, one walk and four hits while striking out six batters on what was his 31st birthday.
And though it remains unclear exactly when he’ll be fully stretched out — or exactly how built up he will eventually get this year, coming off a second career Tommy John surgery — the Dodgers are inching steadily closer to having the rotation they envisioned this year: One with Ohtani, Snell and Glasnow joining likely All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a star-studded quartet the club has spent lavishly the last two offseasons to build.
“We can see a little squint of light,” Roberts said. “It’s taken a little longer than we’ve all expected or hoped for, as far as getting our guys together. So we haven’t gotten there yet. But we’re hopeful and excited.”
In the short term, however, the Astros have put a dent in the optimism the club had clung to among its stable of young pitching depth.
After Ben Casparius was knocked around in a historic blowout on Friday night, Wrobleski suffered a similar fate against Houston’s surging lineup. Upon entering the game at the start of the third, he quickly blew an early 2-0 Dodgers lead, giving up a leadoff single to Cooper Hummel and back-to-back two-strike doubles to Mauricio Dubón (who fouled off fastball after fastball before whacking a full-count heater the other way) and Zack Short (who got three-straight off-speed pitches, pulling the last one down the third-base line to score two runs).
Miguel Rojas, tapped to play third base Saturday in place of the recently injured Max Muncy, made matters worse by misfiring on a tough throw to first on a soft ground ball from Smith with one out, allowing a run to score. Then Walker, an unlikely Dodgers killer over his career, lined a two-out single to right to make it a four-run inning and a 4-2 Astros lead.
Wrobleski did eventually settle down, but not before Díaz homered at the start of the third to put the Astros up there.
That deficit proved insurmountable for the Dodgers. They made it 5-4 when Rojas homered in the fourth (he also had an RBI single in the second inning, and drew a walk in the fifth) but stranded a string of opportunities down the stretch, finishing the day one-for-five with runners in scoring position and with nine men left on base.
Angels manager Ron Washington will be out indefinitely because of health issues, and bench coach Ray Montgomery will manage Friday night’s series opener against the Houston Astros.
Washington, 73, experienced shortness of breath and appeared fatigued toward the end of a four-game series against the Yankees. He was cleared by Yankees doctors to fly home with the team Thursday night and underwent a series of medical tests on Friday.
The Angels did not specify what symptoms Washington is experiencing, but said the manager was able to address the team in the clubhouse along with Minasian on Friday, and he was planning to watch the game from the GM’s Angel Stadium suite. Washington was not made available to the media.
“Wash has not felt great the last couple of days,” Minasian said. “We want to make sure he’s 100% before he’s back in the dugout and managing. How long it’s going to take, I don’t know. I don’t expect it to be too long.
“We all know how important this is for all of us, but health is more important than anything, and me personally, I’m not letting him back in the dugout until I know he’s 100% OK. I love the guy too much.”
Washington, who managed the Texas Rangers to back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011, was hired by Minasian before a 2024 season in which the Angels lost a franchise-record 99 games.
The Angels entered Friday night’s game at 36-38 — 6½ games behind the Astros in the AL West. The Angels are 15-6 in one-run games, a major league-best .714 winning percentage, and 5-0 in extra innings.
“He wants to manage — I don’t know if he’s ever missed a game–but at the end of the day, you have to make tough decisions,” Minasian said. “For me, I want to make sure the guy is absolutely healthy, and physically, he’s in the right place before we put him back in the dugout.
“We play some close games. They’re not the types of games you can sit back, kick your feet up and just watch. They’re pretty tight games, stressful games, and I want to make sure he’s good to go health-wise before he gets back in the dugout.”
