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Blue Jays: Being a perennial underdog has made this postseason unforgettable
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Photo credit: © Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Oct 23, 2025, 19:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 23, 2025, 04:22 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays‘ special season continues, as they are set to play in the World Series.
In 2024, the Jays finished with a 74-88 record, toward the bottom of the league. This came after four seasons of subpar results in the postseason, or not even making it, which was the case in 2021.
None of those seasons had a special feel like this year. This truly feels like Canada’s team, as this run has been the talk of the sports world. Canadian fans of hockey and basketball know that what’s happening with the Blue Jays is special.
This isn’t my first rodeo covering a team in their respective championship. In the last two seasons, the Edmonton Oilers have made the Stanley Cup Finals, losing both to the Florida Panthers. Growing up an Oiler fan two years after their 2006 run, it was amazing to see them make those runs.
Although I’ve never written about the Raptors, I am still a fan of the team, even if most of my attention is drawn to the Blue Jays, Oilers, and Calgary Flames. I was a casual fan from 2013 until 2015, but their 2016 run to the Eastern Conference Final made a fan out of me. The 2018 season was heartbreaking; they really should’ve beaten the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Thankfully, they won it all the next season in what was a fun postseason. There was a special moment in that postseason I missed, the Kawhi Leonard shot. I think about what could’ve been every day. To this day, but hopefully for not much longer, this was the only time a team I cheer for has won its league’s championship.
None of these three runs comes close to feeling as special as what the Blue Jays are doing. At this point in their contention window, the Oilers are expected to make it deep in the postseason. Neither run has felt special, even leading into the Stanley Cup Finals. 
If the Oilers completed the reverse sweep in 2024, perhaps that would change things, but they didn’t, and both Final losses have been easy for me to shake off. Now, a third consecutive loss in the Stanley Cup Finals would be heartbreaking, but I’m not sure the if I can shake off a Jays World Series loss.
In 2019, the Raptors won it all. Sure, there were special moments in the run, such as the aforementioned shot by Leonard, as well as his dunk over the league’s best player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, to come back from 2-0 down in the series. Ironically, I missed both.
Like the Oilers, things probably could’ve been different if the Raptors were able to beat a fully healthy Golden State Warriors team. It always feels like there’s a caveat beside the Raptors, which is a shame because that team was very good and very fun.
The difference for the 2025 Jays is that they’re seen as the underdog. They went from finishing toward the bottom of the league in 2024 to finishing with the best record in the American League in 2025. Still, they were doubted in the American League Divisional Series against the New York Yankees.
To Blue Jays’ fans, it was clear that they were the better team from their regular season matchups, but the rest of the league thought it’d be an easy series win for the (then) reigning American League pennant winners. That was quickly dispelled, as the Jays destroyed the Yankees at Rogers Centre, before punching their ticket to the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium in Game 4.
In their ALCS matchup against the Mariners, the Blue Jays were once again seen as the underdog. After back-to-back losses at Rogers Centre, no one thought they’d return from a 2-0 deficit, just like the Raptors six years before them.
They again quickly silenced the doubters, thrashing the Mariners in Games 3 and 4. It looked as if they were going to win a tight Game 5, but a disastrous decision cost them the game as the Mariners put up a five-spot in the bottom of the eighth.
There was no way the Jays would even up the series… until the Blue Jays did just that. They scored early in Game 6, taking a 2-0 lead, then a 4-0 lead, then a 5-0 lead, before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a solo home run to make it 6-2 Blue Jays. Rookie Trey Yesavage made just his sixth big league start in this game, getting out of two bases-loaded situations with a double play.
That set up a winner-take-all Game 7, just the second time the Blue Jays have ever played in a Game 7. The Mariners scored in the first inning, but the Jays were able to match them. Then came the next five innings, where the Jays had a baserunner reach first, but no further, in four of the five innings.
Down 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, it looked as if the Blue Jays’ magic had finally run out, but then they silenced everyone once again, as George Springer hit the second-biggest home run in franchise history, a three-run blast to give the Jays a 4-3 win.
Now entering the World Series, you shouldn’t be shocked to learn that the Blue Jays are once again seen as the underdog against the reigning World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. If there’s anything to take away from what the 2025 Blue Jays have shown us, is that while everyone may count them out, they sure as hell have belief in themselves. And this has shown up in results, as they’ve continuously beaten the odds.
This team is special, and there isn’t a chance they’re ready to give up the season because they’re seen as the underdog once again. We fans shouldn’t either.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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