The Los Angeles Dodgers won the best-of-seven series 4-2 against the Tampa Bay Rays. This is the seventh World Series win for the Dodgers, who hadn’t won a championship since 1988, 32 years ago.
This comes as a big disappointment to the Rays, a team with no World Series wins and only two World Series appearances (2008 and 2020).
This was a significant win for the Dodgers, with this being their third World Series appearance in four years. They lost back-to-back against the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Many fans wanted a Dodgers v.s. Astros match-up, which would’ve allowed the Dodgers to avenge their 4-3 loss to the Astros back in 2017. This has been the Astros’ only World Series title, which many baseball fans and players claim was only won because the Astros were stealing signs. The commissioner of baseball, Rob Mandred, was heavily criticized for not punishing any of the Astros players for their role in the cheating scandal.
But at the end of the day, Dodgers v.s. Rays were the perfect World Series match-up since they had the best two records in the league (Dodgers: 43-17; Rays: 40-20). The two teams faced off for the first game in the series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, the home of the Texas Rangers. The decision to play at a neutral location was made to eliminate cross country travel and possible contamination of COVID-19.
This series was full of highlights. The Dodgers started the series off strong with an 8-3 win. Game 2 saw Dodgers’ player Corey Seager set a record for most home runs in a single postseason by a shortstop, after hitting seven homers. The Rays also set a record of 28 home runs in the postseason after two homers from Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe, which helped the Rays win this game 6-4.
The next two games were split, with the Dodgers winning 6-2 in Game 3, and the Rays taking an 8-7 win in Game 4. In Game 5, Clayton Kershaw broke the record for most strikeouts in the postseason with 207 strikeouts, breaking the previous record of 205 held by Astros pitcher Justin Verlander.
Going into Game 6, the Rays started off with a solo homer from outfielder Randy Arozarena, who has broken the record for most postseason home runs, giving them a
1 - 0 lead. This would be the only run scored for the Rays in game 6.
In an ironic twist of fate, Mookie Betts, the right fielder who helped Boston beat the Dodgers in 2018, was an integral part of the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series win. After the Rays Manager, Kevin Cash, decided to take out pitcher Blake Snell for giving up a single (even though he had 9 strikeouts), and put in Nick Anderson, Betts hit a double off of him immediately. Anderson then threw a wild pitch which allowed for the tying run to come in. Soon after, Betts slid into home giving the Dodgers a 2 - 1 lead. In the 8th inning, Mookie Betts hit a solo homer giving the Dodgers a 3 - 1 lead.
Just before Betts’ home run, Dodgers’ third baseman, Justin Turner, was taken out of the game after results from a previously-taken COVID-19 test came back positive, but he eventually joined his team on the field to celebrate their 7th World Series win. According to The New York Times, MLB released a statement saying that “While a desire to celebrate is understandable, Turner’s decision to leave isolation and enter the field was wrong and [he] put everyone he came in contact with at risk.”
But this didn’t stop the Dodgers from celebrating. Corey Seager won MVP of the 2020 World Series unanimously, and this was Clayton Kershaw’s first World Series win after playing in the major leagues for 13 years. “I was trying to take it all in, as best I could,” Kershaw told ESPN. “It was just a content feeling -- just like, the job is done. We won. We did it.”