For the first time since 1988 the Los Angeles Dodgers are world champions. The Dodgers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 6 of the Fall Classic Tuesday night at Globe Life Field (LA 3, TB 1). It is the seventh title in franchise history (1955, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988, 2020).
Chances are, Game 6 will remember not so much what the Dodgers did as what the Rays did. In particular, manager Kevin Cash pulled his ace, Blake Snell, in the sixth inning despite being out all night. Los Angeles immediately jumped on reliever Nick Anderson and took the lead.
Mookie Betts hit an insurance solo homer in eighth – can you believe the Red Sox traded this guy? – Bring game 6 to bed. Julio Urias recorded the last seven outs to end the win and the World Series.
Snell was dominant
Blake Snell was in Cy Young form Tuesday night. The 2018 AL Cy Young winner overpowered the Dodgers in 5 1/3 innings, holding them on two hits and no runs while scoring nine hits. Between Game 2 and Game 6, Snell knocked out 18 of the 38 batters he faced in the World Series, or 47.4 percent. Sources confirm that is a good thing.
Check out the nine strikeouts. This is a master class:
Raised fastballs over the zone and snapdragons break balls off. The 16 mistakes came to 34 swings, giving Snell an insane swing and miss rate of 47.1 percent. He was the first pitcher to beat nine batters through the first four innings of a World Series since Sandy Koufax in Game 1 of the 1963 Fall Classic.
Snell did not allow a ball to be struck from the infield until Will Smith’s flight began for the fifth inning and the nine balls he allowed had an average exit speed of 78.4 mph. AJ Pollock was third in third place, otherwise Snell didn’t allow any hard contact at all. He was dominant.
The quick hook failed
The Rays have shown time and time again that they will stick to their schedule no matter what, and the Game 6 schedule called for Snell to go through the line-up twice and no more. Despite his dominance, manager Kevin Cash Snell tore after Austin Barnes finished 9th in sixth place. He threw 73 spaces.
Blake, what do you think of the quick hook?
Yup. Snell is a Cy Young winner and he has lived his entire life working up to this point and he delivered in spectacular fashion. Then his manager pulled him to 73 parking spaces for the third time by the fine, which is a real thing. Snells career splits:
- For the first time by setting up: .592 OPS
- For the second time by setting up: .711 OPS
- Third time by setting up: .742 OPS
I get the quick hook. I do. But gosh, Snell threw the snot out of the ball. Think of it this way: Would Mookie Betts, Corey Seager and Justin Turner rather face Blake Snell or Nick Anderson? Those three went six times against Snell in Game 6 0 to 6. I suspect they were happy to see Anderson.
Anderson’s postseason battles continued into Game 6, of course. Snell came out, Anderson came in and six pitches later Tampa’s 1-0 lead was a 2-1 deficit. Betts doubled up, Anderson gave the Dodgers a run in a wild field, then Betts met Seagers Grounder first. Six spaces were all it took to backfire.
This made Anderson the first pitcher in baseball history to allow a run in seven consecutive post-season appearances. He finished his postseason with nine runs in 14 2/3 innings after allowing seven runs in 37 2/3 innings of the regular season with the Dodgers in the past two years.
Given the outcome, it’s easy to beat up analytics for deciding to pull Snell, but the Rays (and Dodgers!) Relied heavily on analytics to get them to the World Series in the first place. I mean look:
Pulling Snell was not an analytical error. It was a management mistake. Cash didn’t think about what was happening right in front of him, and it wasn’t just the Dodgers looking helpless against Snell, but Anderson, who wasn’t himself this October. More confidence in the ace was required. Pulling Snell was Cash’s moment to leave Zack Britton in the bullpen.
Arozarena struck again
For the fifth game in a row, runs were scored in the first inning. The Rays did it in Game 2, the Dodgers did it in Game 3-5, and Randy Arozarena did it in Game 6. The handsome Randy brought Tony Gonsolin with a quick 1-0 lead and his tenth home game on the opposite field of the postseason. About the action footage:
Not a terrible pitch! It wasn’t a Good Pitch, it was a slider hanging up but it wasn’t terrible and it wasn’t in the strike zone. According to Inside EdgeArozarena had five hits on pitches outside the strike zone this postseason. He only had one during the regular season. Plus, this was only the third of his 10 post-season homers on a non-fastball.
Arozarena’s 10 homers extended his post-season record and he joined Charlie Keller (1939 Yankees) as the only freshman to hit three homers in the World Series. There have been 21 home runs in this World Series in general. This is the third most common of all time:
- Dodgers vs. Astros in 2017: 25 homers (7 games)
- Nationals vs. Astros in 2019: 22 homers (7 games)
- Angels versus Giants in 2002: 21 homer (7 games)
- Dodgers vs. Rays in 2020: 21 Homer (6 games)
The Rays desperately needed to avoid falling back early in Game 6, and they did. However, the first inning also summed up the past season offense: Arozarena did all the work. Tampa finished first and second, trailing Homer, but failed to advance.
The Los Angeles bullpen was great
Dodger’s starter Tony Gonsolin only had five outs in Game 6, but the occasionally contested Bullpen picked him up in tremendous ways. Six reliefs kept the Rays from two hits in 7 1/3 scoreless innings. They knocked out 12. Julio Urias withdrew the last seven batters to end the game.
The game’s greatest single player came in the second inning. The Rays had two runners with two outs to Arozarena, and Dylan Floro came out of the bullpen to beat him on three fields. All changes too. It was a big challenge to keep the rays close. Tampa had two base runners for the rest of the game.
There have been many strikes
Lots of strikes. A LOT OF. The Rays and Dodgers beat 27 batters in Game 6, most of them in a nine innings World Series game. The previous record was 25 multiple strikes, most recently in Game 3 of the 2000 World Series. The record for strikes in a World Series game of any length is 34 in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series. That was, of course, the 18-inning game . More than half of the outs in Game 6 were strikeouts. Pretty crazy.
The Dodgers are world champions
The drought is over and Clayton Kershaw’s legacy is complete, and that’s pretty cool.
