The 2020 World Series met its conclusion Tuesday night, and the Dodgers emerged victorious, having needed six games to do so.
There were a couple reasons that the night was bad for baseball, however. One of them related to unsightly strategy, and the other being unquestionably, just bad for Major League Baseball, organizationally.
The game started slow—and I mean literally. The Dodgers’ first pitcher was a man named Tony Gonsolin. He took roughly three presidencies to deliver each pitch. The only Tampa batter to make him pay for this was, obviously, Randy Arozarena. Randy hit a solo homer in the top of the first. This would be the only run the Rays scored.
One run may have been enough if Blake Snell had been given a chance to pitch deeper into this game. Because Kevin Cash refuses to deviate from his book, he didn’t want to see that for any longer than he had to.
The Dodgers quickly sprung to life against the Rays bullpen, scoring 2 runs immediately. That was all they needed.
But Snell was dominating. Baseball doesn’t have to be this way in 2020.
Baseball should be one way in 2020: Safe. And they didn’t even manage that. Justin Turner tested positive for COVID and was allowed to play for 5 more innings once this was known. Just a complete failure by everybody involved in that process, starting at the top with Rob Manfred.
Anyways, back to the game: After Turner’s mystery (at the time) exit, the Dodgers added an insurance run. Then, Julio Urias closed it out with back-to-back strikeouts looking. At least Michael Martinez swung.
Corey Seager was MVP of the series.