Major League Baseball 2020

[JohnS]

Great news...yes, we will get Baseball in Season 2020. The season will commence on July 23rd and 24th. It will be a 60 game season (instead of the usual 162) due to Covid-19, there will be only divisional interleague play and National league teams will feature a designated hitter for every game (for the first time).

Personally, the idea of a DH for the National League would induce me to want to be permanently nauseous, but I'd compromise for this season just to get baseball.

Consequently, I anticipate that the NFL preseason for 2021 will start on time.

For further information about the 2020 MLB season follow the links below...

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-2020-regular-season

https://www.mlb.com/news/faq-for-2020-baseball-season

https://www.mlb.com/news/national-league-teams-with-best-dh-options

[JVasky]

On 6/24/2020 at 10:05 PM, JohnS said:

Personally, the idea of a DH for the National League would induce me to want to be permanently nauseous

I'm with you on that!

[Capt. Corona]

NO DH please.....look how it ruined the AL.  Pussy pitchers.  Learn how to bunt.  I'll be surprised if they make it all the way thru their short season. 

But one can only hope.

 

[JohnS]

Well October, for me, means one thing and that is Baseball Postseason. I really enjoyed last week's best-of-three Wild Card showdowns, there was some top-class baseball played. I can't wait for more action in the Division Series this week. The image below shows the line-ups...

My questions from the possible outcomes are...

• Can the LA Dodgers capitilise on their outstanding season in 2020 and trips to the World Series in the last few years to actually win this year?
• Can the NY Yankees win for the first time since 2009?
• Can the Astros put their technologically-assisted sign stealing controversies behind them?
• Can the Oakland Athletics actually go further in the postseason?
• How hot are the San Diego Padres right now despite significant player injuries?
• What are Miami Marlins doing here and how did they get here?

[LLC]

I guess time will answer most of your questions. I’d like to see NY vs. LA in the WS with the Dodgers winning in 7.


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[JohnS]

13 minutes ago, LLC said:

I guess time will answer most of your questions. I’d like to see NY vs. LA in the WS with the Dodgers winning in 7.

That would be quite something. I wouldn't mind seeing that either!

[JohnS]

And then there were four... (who we've mostly seen before at this time of year!)

[LLC]

Were not going to see my first choice of Dodgers winning in 7 vs the Yankees. Second choice is Dodgers sweeping the Astros.


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[JohnS]

At this point of the Championship Series I've been most surprised by the following:

1. Los Angeles been held scoring-wise (until the last three innings of Game 2)
2. The amount of basic defensive fielding errors by Houston, especially by Jose Altuve. Also, how does Paredes come on in relief and hit not one but two Tampa Bay batters? Just strange!

Anyway the odds for the teams behind, based on past postseason playoff results, are:

1. Los Angeles being 2-0 down have a 15% chance of winning 4 games out of the next 5 to advance to the World Series.
2. Houston have a 2.7% of winning the next 4 games in a row to advance to the World Series. In fact, Tampa Bay have a 81% chance of wrapping things up in Game 4.

[JohnS]

Well 15% chance is all the Dodgers needed. And what a comeback by Houston only to fall short in Game 7. Two historic outcomes are possible in this World Series; one, the Dodgers win for the first time since 1988 and two, Tampa Bay win for the first time.

Scheduled times for the World Series at Arlington, Texas are below...

THE 116th WORLD SERIES
Best-of-seven (Italics below indicate "if necessary")
Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas

Tuesday, Oct. 20
• World Series Game 1, TB vs. LAD, 8 p.m., FOX

Wednesday, Oct. 21
• World Series Game 2, TB vs. LAD, 8 p.m., FOX

Thursday, Oct. 22
OFF-DAY

Friday, Oct. 23
• World Series Game 3, LAD vs. TB, 8 p.m., FOX

Saturday, Oct. 24
• World Series Game 4, LAD vs. TB, 8 p.m., FOX

Sunday, Oct. 25
• World Series Game 5, LAD vs. TB, 8 p.m., FOX

Monday, Oct. 26
OFF-DAY

Tuesday, Oct. 27
• World Series Game 6, TB vs. LAD, 8 p.m., FOX

Wednesday, Oct. 28
• World Series, Game 7, TB vs. LAD, 8 p.m., FOX

[LLC]

Great come back by the Dodgers. They are on a roll and don’t see Tampa Bay beating them but you never know. I say Dodgers in 6.


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[JohnS]

World Series Game 1: Los Angeles Dodgers 8 Tampa Bay Rays 3 (Los Angeles leads the 2020 World Series 1-0)

 

Mooke Betts...can that guy do it all? Just when you think that he's due a postseason home run he does so and makes sure it's an opposite field one! However, apart from his outstanding defense in outfield I thought his base running in the 5th innings was the difference in this game. Tyler Glasnow for Tampa Bay was pitching okay, in my opinion, it's just that Betts seized the initiative and manufactured a run through outstanding base stealing. Clayton Kershaw pitched well for six innings and silenced some critics (of his overall postseason career). Cody Bellinger did the rest (with his home run).

Incidentally, Tampa Bay threatened a rally in the 7th inning to make it 8-3 but Victor Gonzalez caught a rocket line drive and threw out Mike Brosseau at second base to end the inning with a somewhat unconventional double play!

[JohnS]

World Series Game 2: Tampa Bay Rays 6 Los Angeles Dodgers 4 ( World Series tied 1-1)

 

I can't remember a game with so many opposite field home runs! Brandon Lowe, who has had a quiet 2020 postseason, accounted for two of those to lead the Tampa Bay victory over Los Angeles in Game Two. The Dodgers use of starting the game with relievers didn't pay off this time as they fell behind and were never able to make the difference. Today is a off-day, but Game 3 promises to be special as Walker Buehler (Dodgers) and Charlie Morton (Rays) square off in a classic pitchers' duel!

 

 

 

[JohnS]

World Series Game 3: Los Angeles Dodgers 6 Tampa Bay Rays 2 (Los Angeles leads the 2020 World Series 2-1)

The best way to describe today's win by the Dodgers is relentless. They were simply persistently brilliant in attack and defense, in playing the long ball and small ball and most importantly, pitching. Walker Buehler pitched six innings for 10 strikeouts and one run conceded. Austin Barnes hit a rare sacrifice bunt and home run in the same World Series game. Charlie Morton has won his last 5 postseason games with a 0.70 ERA but the Dodgers kept finding a way to get two-out, two-strike hits. Such tenacity wins ballgames. Heck, such tenacity wins you a World Series.

For the Rays, I thought they played well, it's just that the Dodgers played better. Ji-Man Choi was awesome at first base, Randy Arozarena tied the record for the most home runs in a postseason with eight and set a record for the most hits in a postseason at 23 when he hit Kenley Jansen for a home run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. But it was too little, too late. Teams that win Game 3 in the World Series after a 1-1 deadlock in the first two games go on to win the series 68% of the time. Julio Urias and Clayton Kershaw await the Rays in Games 4 and 5 respectively.

[LLC]

Looking forward to tonight’s game ️


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[JohnS]

World Series Game 4: Tampa Bay Rays 8 Los Angeles Dodgers 7 ( World Series tied 2-2)

Game 4...World Series. I'm in shock. Still trying to catch my breath. Did I witness a Game 6 1986 moment? Did the ball go wide right as in Superbowl XXV in 91? One thing I know is that Max Muncy threw the ball to Will Smith a touch too far to the right. Then again Randy Arozarena slipped and fell running the bases. It was like nothing I've witnessed in baseball for a long,long time!

Justin Turner and Corey Seasger both went 4-for-5 and hit a home run each but Tampa Bay countered that with home runs to Hunter Renfroe, Kevin Kiermaier, Randy Araozrena (who set a new record for postseason home runs with 9) and Brandon Lowe. In fact, I will believe that in years to come fans will forget just how critical Brandon Lowe's 3-run home run was to this game.

No, in years to come all we will remember is Brett Phillips, with two out and two strikes doing something akin to what Kirk Gibson did in 1988 or Mookie Wilson in 1986. How could you forget it?

[LLC]

Tough way to lose a game. It will be interesting to see how they bounce back.


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[JohnS]

I agree. You have to credit the Rays for hanging in there in this series thus far. It's been entertaining for sure.

[JohnS]

World Series Game 5: Los Angeles Dodgers 4 Tampa Bay Rays 2 (Los Angeles leads the 2020 World Series 3-2)

 

When the Dodgers forked out a lot of money for Mookie Betts to play for them on a long-term deal, it meant players like Joc Pedersen and A.J. Pollock weren't as necessary to the everyday line-up. After today's 2-run homer, I would bet every other team would love to have a player like Joc Pedersen on the fringe! Max Munch also homered to help the Dodgers win 4-2.

Clayton Kershaw pitched very well. As you are most probably aware, his postseason reputation is very different to his overall Baseball career, but today's performance was vintage Kershaw. For the Rays, Randy Arozarena set a new mark with most postseason hits with his 27th today. Today I felt the Dodgers were clinical in everything they did, just like they were in Game 3. Again, I must credit the Rays, the third-smallest budget team in MLB for being so competitive.

And so onto Game 6 tomorrow. Game 6 has a wonderful tradition of bringing out the very best highlights in a World Series. Think of Carlton Fisk's foul-ball hugging home run in 1975 or Mookie Wilson's colossal at-bat in 1986. What about David Freese in 2011? I guess it's the game where one team is one win away from the World Series and the other is one loss away from elimination. That indeed motivates players to bring out their all. Bring on Game 6!

[Subcomandante]

Siglo iii for the third World Championship for the Dodgers in my lifetime.  I know it’s just baseball and there’s so many more important things going on right now. But thinking about all the fun games I’ve gone to since the 80’s with my dad, grandpa, and nino right now, man. After being a season ticket holder and watching a heart crushing game 7 by the cheating Astros it feels good to see Kershaw get his and bring a championship to Los Angeles. 

[JohnS]

World Series Game 6: Los Angeles Dodgers 3 Tampa Bay Rays 1 (Los Angeles wins the 2020 World Series 4-2)

Rays manager Kevin Cash raised his right arm, signaling for the bullpen. Tampa Bay starter Blake Snell bit his lip and shook his head.

And the Dodgers smelled blood.

The Dodgers are World Series champions for the first time since 1988 because they seized their moment when Snell's dominant Game 6 outing was controversially cut short Tuesday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington. With a sudden offensive awakening against Rays reliever Nick Anderson in the sixth inning, the Dodgers won, 3-1, to claim their long-awaited crown and complete their domination of the shortest, strangest season in Major League Baseball history.

"This team was incredible all throughout the year, all throughout the postseason, all throughout the quarantine," said Corey Seager, who drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth and became the eighth player to win the League Championship Series MVP and World Series MVP in the same year. "We never stopped. We were ready to go as soon as the bell was called. And once it did, we kept rolling."

It was a 2020 season of unprecedented challenges for all involved -- right up until its final game, when the World Series champs' starting third baseman, Justin Turner, was pulled prior to the eighth inning after receiving the results of a positive COVID-19 test midgame.

On the flip side was Randy Arozarena, who overcame a month of COVID-necessitated quarantine to become the Rays' surprise October hero (his first-inning homer in Game 6 was his record 10th of the postseason).

And yet, for all the unpredictability and obstacles, the Dodgers, winners of eight straight National League West titles and losers of the 2017 and '18 World Series, ended up right where so many expected when they pushed in their chips last offseason and placed Mookie Betts in their already loaded lineup.

They hoisted the Commissioner's Trophy for the first time in a generation.

"This is our year," manager Dave Roberts said during the on-field celebration, in front of an intentionally limited number of attendees at Globe Life Field. "We said it. This is our year. Everyone in this ballpark wearing Dodger blue, everyone all over the world wearing Dodger blue, never wavered. This is our year."

After a coronavirus surge in the States dramatically reshaped the length and look of the MLB regular season, the Dodgers mercilessly ran through their shuffled schedule with a .717 winning percentage (43-17) -- the fifth highest of the Modern Era, albeit in a 60-game season.

When a new-look postseason format asked more of the division winners, the Dodgers ran roughshod over the Brewers in the NL Wild Card Series and the division-rival Padres in the NL Division Series, and then overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Braves in the NL Championship Series.

And when the Rays threatened to push this neutral-site World Series to a Game 7 behind Arozarena's early homer and Snell's fantastic first two turns through the order, the Dodgers pounded down the door the minute it was cracked ajar.

That moment arrived in the sixth inning.

It's the moment that will forever define this Game 6.

With one out, Snell allowed a line-drive single to Austin Barnes -- just the third ball he had let out of the infield in 5 1/3 innings of wowing work in which all of his pitches were on point. Snell had thrown only 73 pitches and allowed only two hits.

"I believe in me, I believe in what I was doing," said a disappointed Snell, who also racked up nine strikeouts through four innings. "I didn't walk anybody. For most of that game, man, I was dominating every outcome possible."

But Cash showed fierce devotion to his pitching plan and went to his bullpen as the lineup turned over for a third turn. Immediately, the move to Anderson, who had allowed a run in six straight postseason appearances, backfired against Betts.

"I think at that point, I was like, 'I got a chance,'" Betts said. "Snell was rolling… I wasn't asking any questions, though. I was just like, 'Hey, your manager said you gotta go, next guy's coming in.' At that point, I tried to put an at-bat together and go from there."

Betts grounded a double down the left-field line to put runners at second and third. Then Anderson uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Barnes to score the tying run and advanced Betts to third. And when Corey Seager scooted a ground ball to first with the infield drawn in, Betts took off on contact and slid in safely at the plate, ahead of Ji-Man Choi's throw, to give the Dodgers the go-ahead run, 2-1.

"I guess I regret [the Snell move] because it didn't work out," Cash said. "But I feel like the thought process was right. Every decision that's made, that end result has a pretty weighing factor in how you feel about it. If we had to do it over again, I would have the utmost confidence in Nick Anderson to get through that inning."

Though the Dodgers' own pitching plan had some early difficulty in the form of Arozarena's first-inning homer off Tony Gonsolin, who was pulled after only five outs, the trail of six relievers trotted out by Roberts held the Rays scoreless for the remaining 7 1/3 frames. Alex Wood's two perfect innings allowed Roberts to align his most trusted options late.

Betts' monster solo shot in the eighth was an emphatic exclamation mark on his first season in Dodger blue, and Julio Urías' 2 1/3 perfect innings finished off the seventh World Series title in franchise history. As was the case in the only comparably short MLB season -- the 1981 campaign reduced by a work stoppage -- the Dodgers finished on top.

The Dodgers came into this year both angered and inspired by the Astros' sign-stealing scandal and what they felt was robbed from them three years ago. And though Tampa Bay's American League Championship Series triumph over Houston prevented a rematch, Los Angeles got what it felt was due. The Dodgers ended the third-longest streak of ring-less postseason appearances (13).

That they did it as the "home" team in the Rangers' brand-new ballpark, of all places, was even oddly appropriate, given that the Cooperstown-bound Clayton Kershaw finally shook off the pains of Octobers past about 15 miles west of his hometown.

"I've been to the postseason, I've lost every single year," Kershaw said. "To look up, I wish it was Dodger Stadium, but it feels like it right now with all these Dodger fans around. To see how happy these fans are, they've been waiting a long time, too… It's just a special feeling."

Kershaw has been with the Dodgers long enough to have the highlight of Kirk Gibson's Game 1 walk-off home run in 1988 burned on his brain. They've played that on repeat in Los Angeles for 32 years.

Now, there's a new sequence to sum up a Fall Classic. Instead of Gibson coming off the bench, it's Anderson coming out of the 'pen, and the 2020 Dodgers making magic all their own.

By Anthony Castrovince

Source: https://www.mlb.com/news/dodgers-win-2020-world-series

[LLC]

Great win for the Dodgers, very happy they finally got another WS.

Added bonus, my prediction of Dodgers in six was right.


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