LOS ANGELES — Some of the Dodgers staff arrived at Dodger Stadium little later than expected on Sunday. Not because of traffic on the 110, but because one of the Dodgers’ charter flights didn’t cooperate. Dave Roberts walked into the ballpark around 5 p.m., still in travel mode, and explained what happened: “There was some delays. I don’t know if there was intent or not,” he said. “But, man, the international stuff was a bear. But we made it. We made it.” He added that part of the hold-up was time on the tarmac. That was the manager’s plane. Other parts of the traveling party had smoother trips.
Tyler Glasnow, who starts Game 3 on Monday night, was on one of the other jets. His travel story was the opposite of his manager’s. “No, my flight was fine,” he said. “Got in and was good.” He smiled and left it at that. The Blue Jays, for their part, didn’t have it easy either. They left after Saturday night’s game in Toronto and reached their hotel in Los Angeles around 4 a.m.
If the post-game sprint out of Canada felt hurried, the Dodgers had a good reason. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had just thrown a four-hit complete game in a 5–1 win that evened the World Series. The game wrapped in two hours and 36 minutes, the quickest Fall Classic tilt since 2017. It also meant a clubhouse that could pack quickly, split across multiple planes, and try to reclaim a normal off-day rhythm at home.
About those multiple planes. This is not a World Series one-off. Back in May, Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times detailed how the Dodgers revamped their travel last year and decided to keep it going. The club now uses two chartered jets for almost every trip. Players on one, everyone else on the other. The idea started during the run to last year’s title, and it stuck because the buy-in from the roster was strong. “I think it’s just [a way for us to make sure] more of the time we spend is together,” Freddie Freeman said then, per the Times. Roberts told the paper it was a player-driven change: “It was driven by them. And we facilitated it.”
There were practical benefits, too. Scott Akasaki, the team’s senior director of travel, called it “reimagining team travel” and pointed to rest and space on flights for the players. Fewer bodies on the player plane. More room to stretch out. The club also liked having what general manager Brandon Gomes called a “fail-safe.” If one charter has a mechanical issue, there is another aircraft already in the air-plan mix. “In theory, the players and critical staff can hop on the working plane and go,” Akasaki said in the story, while the rest wait for repairs. That redundancy mattered last October after a few long delays. It mattered Sunday, too, when Roberts’ flight ran behind while Glasnow’s did not.
The two-plane setup also changed when the Dodgers leave town. With the second jet available, the players often depart right after a series ends rather than waiting to fly on an off-day. It turns the open date into a true off-day on the road. “I think it’s better,” Freeman told the Times. “It gives us actually a whole day off.” Max Muncy agreed back in May, explaining that traveling during an off-day can make rest feel incomplete. Arriving the night before gave him a full day to recover or even grab a family visit when the schedule lined up.
Of course, splitting a traveling party is not simple. Akasaki’s group has to divide equipment and manage two airline partners. The Dodgers work with a Delta 757 and a United 737-800. There was even conversation within the organization about the environmental cost of adding flights, the Times reported. The club weighed those trade-offs and decided the benefits in recovery and reliability were worth the investment. Gomes noted ownership’s support and joked that pitching free agents on a two-plane travel routine “doesn’t hurt” either.
Sunday’s hiccup was an example of why a second plane can be helpful. Roberts’ travel day turned into a slog. “I just arrived about 30 minutes ago,” he said a bit later in his Sunday availability, describing the delays and the grind of international logistics. Yet the rest of the day flowed. The players who beat the Blue Jays on Saturday were already in Los Angeles, and the team’s workout proceeded. Glasnow got his work in and kept his focus simple, the same way he answered every question about preparation this month.
Travel stories rarely win or lose a World Series game, but late planes can tug at routines and energy. That is exactly why the Dodgers built a system with more cushion. Most days it helps. Some days you still sit and wait on a runway. Sunday delivered a bit of both. The manager’s plane lagged. The starter’s did not. And by the time the sun dipped behind the pavilion, the Dodgers had finished their work, reset their clocks, and pointed all attention at Monday night.
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