ARLINGTON, United States (AFP) – The Los Angeles Dodgers have yet another shot at Major League Baseball’s biggest prize as they ride a wave of momentum into their 2020 World Series clash with the Tampa Bay Rays starting Tuesday.
A Dodgers team that came up short in baseball’s championship showcase in 2017 and 2018 looked as if they wouldn’t even make it to the World Series when they fell 3-1 behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series.
But Los Angeles roared back, capping a three-game winning streak with a 4-3 game-seven triumph on Sunday aided by home runs from Enrique Hernandez and Cody Bellinger.
”Obviously the comeback we were able to do, we do feel good about our momentum and our ability to win games at any point,” said Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who will start game one on Tuesday against opposite number Tyler Glasnow.
The Dodgers endured heartbreak in recent years as they sought the club’s seventh World Series title – but first since 1988.
They lost a decisive seventh game to the Houston Astros in 2017 — the Astros triumph later tainted by revelations of electronically aided sign-stealing that season.
In 2018 it was the Boston Red Sox who denied the Dodgers.
This time the Dodgers, one of the richest teams in Major League Baseball, will be up against a low-budget but highly talented Rays team that built the best record in the American League in the coronavirus pandemic shortened season.
The Rays had the third-lowest Opening Day payroll in the major leagues according to Spotrac at $28.2 million.
In the playoffs they knocked off the Toronto Blue Jays ($54.4 million), New York Yankees ($109.4 million) and Houston Astros ($82.5 million).
In the Dodgers they’ll face the team with the second-highest payroll at $107.9 million.
Tampa Bay’s victory over the Astros in the American League Championship Series was a gut-wrenching affair.
The Rays took a series lead before the Astros won three straight to force game seven, the Rays finally coming out on top to reach the World Series for the second time in their 22-year history.
They fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008.
