The Dodgers are World Series champions once again, for the first time since 1988, after taking Game 6 over the Tampa Bay Rays.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The drought is over. The Dodgers are World Series champions once again, for the first time since 1988! Los Angeles pounded out a gritty win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 6 of the World Series, with some big help from their pricey 2020 offseason acquisition Mookie Betts. It was the team’s seventh championship in a history that dates back more than a century to their founding in Brooklyn. It also follows two frustrating losses in the World Series in the last three years. In this year of pandemic-shortened sports seasons, the win came only a few weeks after – and during the same month as – the Lakers winning the NBA title. The last time the Dodgers won was also a year in which the Lakers took the title. Game 6 opened as a pitching duel. While Randy Arozarena hit a solo home run in the first, the score stayed parked at 1-0 until the sixth inning. Then Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash pulled starting pitcher Blake Snell, who had been dominant until then and seemed like he still had plenty left. That’s when the Dodgers pounced. Cash came out to get Snell after No.9 hitter Austin Barnes singled with one out for the Dodgers‘ second hit. Snell had thrown just 73 pitches, and the 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner looked as if he disagreed with the quick hook. Mookie Betts then greeted Nick Anderson with a double, and Barnes scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Betts scored on Corey Seager’s grounder to first baseman Ji-Man Choi, easily beating the throw home. The pitching change likely will be questioned for years to come. Betts had a.531 OPS against lefties this season, compared to 1.061 versus right-handers. In the eighth inning, Betts then made the score 3-1 with a solo homer to center off Peter Fairbanks. Snell joined Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers to pile up nine strikeouts through the first four innings of a World Series game. Koufax did it for the Dodgers in the 1963 opener against the New York Yankees. The Dodgers started Tony Gonsolin, but he was gone by the second inning and manager Dave Roberts went back to his bullpen again and again. If a Game 7 had been needed, ace Walker Buehler was lined up to start, with Clayton Kershaw available in the bullpen after throwing 85 pitches Sunday in Game 5 for his second win of the Series. The LA-tilted crowd among the pandemic-reduced total of about 11,000 was leading frequent chants of „Let’s go Dodgers“ in the neutral-site Series in Texas, even while Snell was keeping the Dodgers bats quiet. Arozarena’s early homer was his 10th of the postseason, extending his own record. And it was his third just in the World Series, the first time a rookie has hit three in the Series since Charlie Keller did it for the New York Yankees in 1939. Arozarena became the first rookie to drive in a run in four consecutive Series games. Justin Turner was pulled from the game after MLB received the results of a positive COVID-19 test. The results of that test were expedited following a test the day before that was described as inconclusive.
