Rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage (2-1, 4.20 ERA) is scheduled to start Game 1 for Toronto, while the Dodgers have tabbed two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (3-0, 0.86).
Yesavage, 22, made his major league debut just five weeks ago and pitched in three regular-season games before having a breakout postseason. Yesavage's first batter of the game will be Shohei Ohtani and that is not lost on him.
"He's a special player. He can do damage on both sides of the baseball," Yesavage said on Thursday. "But it doesn't take away the fact that we are in this situation for a reason. So, just go out there and be ourselves and if there's adjustments that we need to make to try to neutralize him, we'll make those adjustments."
Snell is 5-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 16 career starts against the Blue Jays. The Dodgers won two of three from the visiting Blue Jays Aug. 8-10, with Snell blanking Toronto over five innings on 10 strikeouts Aug. 9.
He feels the Blue Jays seem to be a different team at this moment.
"They've got a lot of confidence right now," Snell said. "They're doing a good job of just, like, each at-bat fueling off each other. ... They have always been a good lineup. Bat to ball is good."
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer figure to be particularly tough opponents, but Snell was not about to share how he will approach them.
"I can't really give too much away," he said. "They're veteran hitters. They know what they're doing. They know what they're looking for."
The Dodgers announced that left-handed reliever Alex Vesia is away from the team to deal with a personal matter.
"Right now, we're in the mode of trying to understand the process, the rules, a way that we could sort of try to navigate the roster," Roberts said.
--Larry Millson, Field Level Media