Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers scores the go-ahead run in game six against the Tampa Bay Rays in Arlington, Texas. Photo: Kyodo
Source:
https://scmp.com/sport/other-sport/article/3107352/los-angeles-dodgers-win-first-world-series-title-1988-beating Other Sport
Los Angeles Dodgers win first World Series title since 1988, beating Tampa Bay Rays
- Mookie Betts stars as Dodgers end frustrating championship drought in Covid-19-shortened season
Los Angeles Dodgers players Chris Taylor, Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts celebrate after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in Major League Baseball’s 2020 World Series. Photo: EPA
Mookie Betts came to the Los Angeles Dodgers to make a World Series difference. With a mad dash to home plate, the Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 in game six to claim their first championship since 1988.
It was the end of a frustrating championship drought for LA – and perhaps just the start for Betts and the Dodgers in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Betts bolted from third for the go-ahead run on Corey Seager’s infield grounder in the sixth and led off the eighth with a punctuating homer.
The Dodgers had played 5,014 regular season games and were in their 114th postseason game since Orel Hershiser struck out Oakland’s Tony Phillips for the final out of the World Series in 1988, the same year veteran lefty Clayton Kershaw – the three-time National Cy Young Award winner who won games one and five of this series – was born in nearby Dallas.
Kershaw was warming in the bullpen when Julio Urias struck out Willy Adames to end it and ran alongside teammates to celebrate in the infield – many players and coaches still wearing face masks at the end of a season played out during the coronavirus pandemic.
Los Angeles had come up short in the World Series twice in the previous three years. Betts was on the other side two years ago with the Boston Red Sox, who before this season traded the 2018 American League MVP to the Dodgers. They later gave him a US$365 million (HK$2.8 billion), 12-year extension that goes until he turns 40 in 2032.
Betts’ 3.2-second sprint was just enough to beat the throw by first baseman Ji-Man Choi, pushing Los Angeles ahead 2-1 moments after Rays manager Kevin Cash pulled ace left-hander Blake Snell despite a dominant performance over five innings.
In a year that has been so improbable, the @Dodgers are #CHAMPS. pic.twitter.com/bsiXjhDcWf
— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2020
Randy Arozarena, the powerful Tampa Bay rookie, extended his postseason record with his 10th homer in the first off rookie right-hander Tony Gonsolin, the first of seven Dodgers pitchers.
The Rays never got another runner past second base as LA’s bullpen gave reliever-reliant Tampa Bay a taste of its own medicine.
The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate beating the Tampa Bay Rays to win the 2020 World Series. Photo: USA Today
About two and a half weeks after the Lakers won the NBA Championship Finals while finishing their season in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida, the Dodgers gave Los Angeles another champions.