Focused Dodgers, hopeful Rays clash in World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers have made it a mission to win the 2020 World Series.
After losing out in the Fall Classic in both 2017 and 2018, they’ll get another crack at it against the Tampa Bay Rays.
That after Cody Bellinger’s seventh-inning solo home run held up for them in Sunday’s Game 7 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series.
“It’s going to fun,” Bellinger told Fox Sports. “We know Tampa’s good … We’re going to do what we can to bring the trophy home.”
Perhaps the third time — in four years — really is the charm for the Dodgers.
Of all the big boppers on the Dodgers — and there are plenty — Bellinger is the biggest.
The reining NL MVP’s solo shot came in the spotlight of the seventh game to give the Dodgers the clutch 4-3 victory at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Bellinger blasted a nodoubter — he knew it from the moment it left the bat — over the right-field fence off Braves reliever Chris Martin to break the 3-3 deadlock.
“I just tried to stay with myself right there,” Bellinger told Fox Sports post-game. “With two strikes, I was in battle mode (fouling off three), and I got a pitch I could hit. You know right away — it felt really good.”
From there, it was up to Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias to shut the door on the Braves in the final two innings.
He did to cap a rally from down three games to one against the Braves.
“Man … we’re resilient,” Bellinger told Fox Sports. “Every day when you see the lineup that we have, we think, ‘We can do this — why can’t we do this?’ We won three games (in a row) before all the time.
“We’ve been in this situation before. We were grinding.”
The Dodgers are chasing their seventh World Series crown and first since way back in 1988.
It’s their 24th trip to the Fall Classic.
RAYS REPRESENTING AL
‘Champa Bay?’
That’s a nickname which is gaining traction on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
And why not, since there’s plenty of reasons to be excited about the sports teams in the Tampa Bay area?
There’s the Lightning partying these days with the Stanley Cup.
The Buccaneers might be feeling like they’re Super Bowl-bound with Tom Brady aboard the ship, especially after conquering Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
And how about those Rays? It was ding, dong . . . the wicked witch is dead’ Saturday night when the magic of Charlie Morton, Randy Arozarena and Co. made the much-hated Houston Astros disappear from the 2020 Major League playoffs.
After staving off elimination three straight nights, the Astros — finally — fell to the Rays in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
And ... oh, yeah ... the Rays are headed to their secondever World Series.
“That sounds amazing,” Rays catcher Mike Zunino told TBS. “It hasn’t been the easiest road to this point … This is what we play for. This is going to be fun.”
The Rays earned the championship series berth after holding off the Astros in a Game 6 4-2 knee-knocker at San Diego’s Petco Park.
Morton, as the man on the mound for the Rays, was the difference in the victory.
“Special feeling,” Morton told TBS.
The solid starter kept the usually loud Astros bats quiet by allowing just two hits and striking out six in keeping it clean over nearly six innings.
He was masterful before getting the hook from manager Kevin Cash in what must have been a difficult decision in the fifth inning.
“(Cash said to Morton) ‘Thank you,’” Zunino told TBS. “It’s one of those things where it’s not an easy (decision), especially with the way he was throwing it, to be taken out. But . . . hey . . . just another great outing for ‘Chuck’ and his playoff resume.”
Morton got offensive help from the Rays’ usual suspects in this ALCS.
Arozarena’s first-inning home run got them started. After Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. hit Manuel Margot with a pitch, Arozarena hit a ball over the centre-field fence to make it 2-0 Rays.
It was just another magical moment for the rookie Arozarena in these playoffs.
He’s hitting .382, with seven homers and 10 RBI and 14 runs scored, and his clutch play gave him the honour of ALCS MVP.
“I don’t have any words that can describe what (Arozarena)’s done, what he’s meant to this post-season,” Cash told reporters. “For him to have a bat in his hand with an opportunity for a big home run — really, I think it settled a lot of people in the dugout. It certainly did me.”
One inning later, Cash and Co. got another deep one courtesy of another slugger, when Zunino bashed a solo shot off McCullers Jr..
And it was Zunino — again — with a sacrifice fly in the sixth to add insurance.
It was more than enough on the board to turn back the Astros, who didn’t find their mojo until Game 4 of the series and until the eighth inning of this one.
That’s when they cut the four-run lead in half when they loaded the bases on struggling Rays reliever Nick Anderson for Carlos Correa to drive home two runs on a simple single to the opposite field off next-man-on-themound Pete Fairbanks.
But Fairbanks got Alex Bregman to strike out on the very next at-bat, leaving two men on in what would be the Astros biggest threat to tie the game or take the lead.
And then Fairbanks came on in the final frame to get three of four Astros for the save.
“It sucks, man,” McCullers Jr. told reporters. “It really does, but congrats to the Rays. They’re a damn good team. They’ve been the best team in the AL all season.”
When last we saw the Rays in the World Series, it was 2008.
There were no pandemic issues.
No hub cities or bubbles. And no World Series title for them after losing four games to one to the Philadelphia Phillies.
“We know Tampa’s good … We’re going to do what we can to bring the trophy home.
Cody Bellinger Dodgers