LOS ANGELES — After a night when the lights at Chavez Ravine suddenly became heavier than ever, the Los Angeles Dodgers opened the 2025 World Series with an 11-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. The stadium was filled with blue, but the atmosphere was thick with silence. Amid the stunned faces of the fans, manager Dave Roberts walked into the press room with a hoarse voice, delivered a message that choked the hearts of millions in Dodger Nation — and then left it hanging mid-sentence.
“We know you’ve been waiting for this all year… and I probably won’t sleep tonight,” Roberts said, trying to keep a smile through the constant stream of flashbulbs. “But this is just the beginning. These guys still have fire.”
While Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani both hit bright shots, the Dodgers couldn’t find their rhythm. The Blue Jays, led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., rained down at-bats in the fourth and sixth innings, turning the opening night into a chilling warning. When the scoreboard read 11–4, many fans stayed until the end, only to applaud as Roberts walked onto the field, patting each young player on the shoulder.
“We’ve had worse nights, and we always come back stronger,” Coach Roberts continued, his eyes lingering on the back row—where a group of fans held up a sign that read, ‘Still believing.’
In the locker room, the atmosphere was unusually quiet. Ohtani sat quietly, Freeman let out a long sigh. But instead of blaming, Roberts chose to inspire confidence. “I told them the World Series doesn’t end overnight. This is a long story,” he shared.
On social media, the hashtags #ForTheBlue and #InDaveWeTrust quickly climbed to the top of national trends. Fans wrote that they were crying not just because of the loss, but because of how their team kept its pride and fighting spirit until the end.
“We lost, we were doubted, but we never gave up,” one veteran fan wrote on X. “Roberts is more than just a coach — he is the heart of this team.”
Now, as the Dodgers prepare to enter Game 2, the team knows they carry not only the expectations of the city of Los Angeles, but also the unconditional love of millions. And as Roberts said in the final sentence of the press conference, his voice fading over the sound of cameras:
“If there is a team that knows how to get back up after every fall… it is the Dodgers.”
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