ARLINGTON, TEXAS — There was not a former MVP ambling from the Dodgers’ dugout to take the mightiest swing his aching legs could muster, no October surprise off the bench in the late innings of an election year World Series. There was only a once and likely future MVP at the peak of his power and the height of his speed taking the 90 feet needed to win the title.
Mookie Betts raced home on a groundout in the sixth inning for the go-ahead run and he added a home run in the eighth for panache that sent the star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers to an entirely believable 3-1 victory Tuesday against Tampa Bay in Game 6. The win claimed the club’s first championships since Kirk Gibson’s blue crew won in 1988.
Believe what you just saw.
Believe what you just saw — one of the most predictable finishes to any World Series as the fleet-footed Betts carried the team with the best record in baseball’s shortened season to the franchise’s seventh title and one unlike any other. Aided by a shocking Rays pitching move that hooked lefty Blake Snell in the midst of a dominating outing, the Dodgers defeated the best team from the American League four games to two in the best-of-seven series.
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“To have our own moment is great for the city of Los Angeles, great for the Dodgers,†said manager Dave Roberts, whose team had lost the series in 2017 and 2018. “I’m glad we finally did it. This is something that no one can take away from us.â€
Different from previous champions — whether they wear pinstripes, red or blue — these Dodgers quarantined together for more than a month because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. They had to navigate the strain and randomness of four rounds of playoffs, not two or three. When the Dodgers claimed the title 32 years ago they had to win eight playoff games. These Dodgers had a far shorter season — they won 43 of 60 games — but had to win 13 to lift the trophy, the final 11 at Globe Life Field, a neutral-site ballpark they subleased from the Texas Rangers for the playoffs.
And then, even in the throes of their title, baseball was reminded about the pandemic at their door and the possibility their champs will begin their reign quarantine.
Roberts was notified at the end of the seventh inning that he had to remove third baseman Justin Turner immediately because a test he took earlier in the day for COVID-19 returned positive. LA had to “get him out of the game,†Roberts said.
Turner was in isolation for the final two innings, but he emerged from the dugout to participate in the celebration. He wore a mask some of the time, but posed for photos with the trophy a lot of the time and left the Dodgers answering questions on why, on baseball’s final day, they chose to ignore protocols. Players with positives tests are, by rule, supposed to be removed from the team and quarantined. Turner mingled with his teammates, many of whom had their families on the field, and he sat between executive Andrew Friedman and Roberts for the team photo.
Not one of the three wore a mask.
“I don’t know if there was anyone who was going to stop him from going out,†said Friedman, president of baseball operations, whose job is in part to stop Turner from going out. “From his standpoint, having a chance to take a photo with the trophy was incredibly important and meaningful to him. And obviously from our standpoint the contact tracing figuring out who has been around him – the test results are all going to be important from this point moving forward.â€
Betts said the team wouldn’t “exclude†Turner from their shared achievement.
The Dodgers had rapid testing for COVID-19 awaiting them when they returned to the team hotel Tuesday night, and the club was not certain when it would be allowed to leave Texas. Friedman said they had to understand the number of infections first.
The trophy hadn’t been presented yet and the virus had popped baseball’s ball, inviting criticism and questions. Would a regular-season game have stopped immediately upon the notice of a positive test? What would Major League Baseball do for a Game 7 with one team dealing with a possible infection and widespread tests?
“You don’t even know what to ask. We don’t even know what to ask,†said shortstop Corey Seager, the World Series MVP. “To take that away from him it’s gut-wrenching. If I could switch places with him I would. He deserves to have that picture with the trophy.â€
The game and the series and history hinged in the sixth inning when Betts reveled in the abrupt end to Snell’s start. He greeted Rays reliever Nick Anderson with a double. After that, the Dodgers tied the game and took the lead without a ball leaving the infield.
Snell had held the Dodgers to two hits through 5 1/3 innings, and he struck out nine, including Betts twice. His pitch count wasn’t a concern as he readied to throw a 74th pitch when manager Kevin Cash marched to the mound.
Snell had thought he’d done everything possible to defy the numbers.
“I want to be the guy who goes out there and if they beat me, they beat me,†said Snell, a former Cy Young Award winner. “I wanted the burnout. I wanted to be the one who won or lost the game. I was rolling. I was in a groove. I really felt dominant. I felt like I had them guessing. It’s going to be tough for me, for a while to accept that.â€
The Rays, ever devoted to analytics, turned to Anderson to face Betts instead of Snell for a third time. After an exceptional season, Anderson had allowed runs in six consecutive appearances. Make that seven. The Rays led 1-0 on Randy Arozarena’s first-inning homer and the former Cardinals prospect’s record 10th of the postseason. The lead vanished fast. Betts’ double moved the tying run to third. That run scored on Anderson’s wild pitch. Betts raced home on a groundout to first base.
Snell watched his game, his season, his team come undone from behind a mask.
“We’ve had a certain formula throughout the whole year, and we’ve won a lot of ballgames,†center fielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “I thought it was Blake’s game to lose. That’s my opinion. I had a great seat in center field and watching how he was just striking out everybody. His slider, curveball, heater, changeup – had everything going. … It was Blake’s game. He was dominating. I don’t really care what numbers say.â€
Cash explained that he was not adhering to a plan or to a script, but he was compelled to avoid getting Betts and Seager a third peek at Snell.
On Monday, the Rays’ manager described how rested and ready his relievers were, and if his lineup could get a lead early he pledged to be “aggressive†with the bullpen to hold the score and force a Game 7. Data-driven would have been another way to say it. He explained that he put value on shifting from slinging sliders from a lefty to the heat off righthander Anderson’s pitches, because “the different look means something.†Pushed by large data sets and analytics, many teams in baseball have become allergic to a pitcher going a third time through the lineup. Especially in the playoffs, teams set that alarm for the starter and when it buzzes, there’s no snooze.
“He did above and beyond what any of us could have asked him for,†Cash said of Snell. “To limit that lineup the way he did was outstanding. He gave us every opportunity to win. It felt like see Blake another time (and with) the margin for error Blake was pitching, I thought the different look was going to be beneficial. It wasn’t. I regret it because it didn’t work out. I felt the process was right.â€
Perhaps the most telling thing about Cash’s move was not Snell’s reaction, or his teammate’s comments, but the looks from the team on the other side of the field.
“Mookie looked at me with a little smile,†Roberts said.
“We didn’t have an answer for him,†Seager said. “When he came out, it uplifted us.â€
The two times Snell faced the top of the Dodgers’ lineup, Snell struck them all out, each time. He struck out Betts, Seager, and Turner in order in the first inning. He got Betts swinging at a 98-mph fastball to end the third inning. To lead off the fourth, Seager went fishing after a curveball in the dirt. Turner did the same. Cleanup hitter Max Muncy followed, and for him, Snell had the high-rise fastball at 97 mph to the top of the zone. Muncy couldn’t catch up. He had the Dodgers on a string, and would late describe how he felt two steps ahead.
With one out in the sixth, Los Angeles’ No. 9 hitter Austin Barnes skipped a one-out single up the middle for a the second hit against Snell. It was just as innocuous as the first, but it was possibly enough to cost the game. Cash lifted Snell at that moment to protect the 1-0 lead. Snell had thrown 29 fastballs through his 5 1/3 innings, and the Dodgers had not put one of them in play, according to Statcast.
The third fastball Anderson through, Betts rocked for a double.
Two pitches later, Anderson spiked a breaking ball that went wild and allowed Barnes to bolt home as the tying run. On the next pitch came Seager’s grounder flipped the game when Betts beat the throw home.
The go-ahead run gave Seager 20 RBIs for the postseason, one shy of David Freese’s record 21, set in 2011. It took Freese 18 games in the Cardinals’ most recent World Series title run to reach 21, and Seager got to 20 in his 18th game and last of this expanded postseason.
Betts added a solo homer in the eighth to give LA’s bullpen the insurance Tampa Bay didn’t give Snell to stay in the game longer. The Dodgers’ bullpen struck out 12 in its 7 1/3 scoreless innings. Lefty Julio Urias pitched the final 2 1/3 innings and cinched the win with a called strike 3.
Out in the bullpen, just in case, veteran Clayton Kershaw watched and raised his hands in triumph. A part of 10 playoff Dodgers clubs and one of the game’s all-time greats, Kershaw’s troubles and anguish chasing the ring have become the plotline of the Dodgers’ lengthy quest. It ended in elation. A Cy Young Award winner who will be a Hall of Famer, Kershaw late Tuesday night he was trying to try on his new title.
“I’ve been saying World Series champ in my head over and over again to see if it will sink in,†Kershaw said. Fans in LA “have waited a long time. To be the team that did that for LA it’s incredible. The 2020 Dodgers won the World Series.â€