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
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.