There have been 121 World Series played in MLB history, and yesterday, the Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk became the first Mexican player in MLB history to hit a home run in the fall classic.
Kirk, 26, was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and he launched a two-run home run against Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda to extend the Blue Jays’ lead to 11-2 in the sixth inning of the World Series at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario. The Blue Jays went on to win game one of the World Series 11-4.
Kirk’s home run had Canada rocking, and the sold-out crowd of 44,353 was in a frenzy for the majority of the night. Kirk was one of the top performers of the game, going 3-for-3 with two RBIs, a walk, and three runs scored. Kirk is the Blue Jays’ captain, and he has been the unsung hero for the Blue Jays this entire season.
This postseason, he has four home runs, nine RBIs, and an OPS of .902 in 48 at-bats. Kirk also had an outstanding regular ranking second among catchers with an fWAR of 4.7, which only trailed Seattle Mariners’ catcher Cal Raleigh, who had an fWAR of 9.1. He was also second in framing runs with 16, and that was nine behind San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey. Kirk caught 19.8% of runners stealing, had a fielding percentage of .991, and four passed balls during the regular season.
He had a career-high 15 home runs, 76 RBIs, and his slash line of .282/.348/.421 in 506 at-bats in 2025. The most impressive thing of all of this is arguably that Kirk only struck out 59 times during the regular season, which is 11.7% of his at-bats and he had the 11th lowest rate in MLB.
Kirk was signed out of Mexico to a minor league deal by the Blue Jays in 2016 and has been on their MLB roster for six seasons. Kirk was going to play for Mexico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but he didn’t attend because of the birth of his daughter. He could very well join Mexico in the upcoming World Baseball Classic in 2026, but right now, he is focused on trying to end the Blue Jays’ 32-year World Series Championship drought.
So far, so good with a 1-0 lead, but it will be a tall task to go up 2-0 on the defending World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Game 2 of the World Series will take place at the Rogers Centre at 8 p.m. EDT.
Photo: Alejandro Kirk connects for a solo home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the sixth inning in Game 1 of baseball’s World Series, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
