The Second Guess
The post-game chatter on game six, which the Dodgers won 3-1, centered around a classic sports conversation, the second guess. It happens in all sports--who can forget in Super Bowl XLIX, when Seattle coach Pete Carroll chose not to use his dominant running back, Marshawn Lynch, to score from the goal line, and instead called a pass play that led to an interception that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
In game six, Tampa's Blake Snell was cooking with gas. He had gotten into the fifth inning allowing only one hit, striking out nine, and walking none. In the fifth he gave up a single to Austin Barnes, and was immediately lifted by manager Kevin Cash, much to the amazement of everyone, and the delight of the Dodgers. Cash's reasoning was that he didn't want the Dodger hitters to see Cash for a third time, which has become a sort of magical threshold for starting pitchers these days. To someone my age, who remembers when complete games were a thing, this seems nuts. Cash, a new school manager who relies heavily on analytics and new-fangled ideas, like a four-man outfield, was ignoring what he was seeing and followed a script. It cost him. He brought in Nick Anderson, who had been lights out during the regular season, but faltered as the post-season wore on. He promptly gave up a double to Mookie Betts, and the Dodgers quickly erased a 0-1 deficit to take the lead.
It was all anyone could talk about after the game, and everyone and their sister decried the move. Of course, we have no way of knowing what would have happened if Snell had stayed in. The Rays never added another run, shut down by the Dodgers' bullpen, led by Jose Urias, he of the space age white goggles.
The other thing people were talking about, which brought back the specter of the pandemic that forced this season down to sixty games and had teams playing in a bubble, was Justen Turner, who was lifted in the midst of a game after a positive test for COVID-19. This was surreal--did we realize they were running tests during a game? No positive tests had been found for several weeks in Major League Baseball, and here was one in the seventh inning of the last game of the World Series. When the Dodgers got the last out, the usual body piles of celebration were curtailed--social distancing applied even then. Masks were worn during the celebration, mostly.
The Rays did give us the storybook ending of one of the best Series games ever played, game four. Both teams scored in a record eight straight half-innings, the lead changing hands in a blink of an eye. In the bottom of the ninth, the Rays were down 8-7, but got two runners on off Dodger closer Kenly Jansen. With two outs, Brett Phillips, the last man on the Ray bench, who is usually only used for pinch-running and defense, was the Rays last hope. Almost everyone, perhaps even Phillips, thought the game was over. But he lined a single to right-center. Chris Taylor booted the ball. The tying run scored easily, but now Randy Arozerana, the great star of the Rays, came pell-mell around third for the winning run. But he stumbled, doing a somersault, and jumped up to retreat to third, a certain out in a rundown. But Dodger catcher Will Smith, assuming Arozerana was still barreling toward home, went to make a swipe tag before he had control of the ball, which scooted away. Arozerana slid into home hands first, slapping the plate with his hand, lying face down, grinning.
That game was a reminder of baseball's greatness Few people were watching, and who can blame them? Sports this year have been an afterthought. It's sort of like, "are they playing a season?" It's funny that the Dodgers also won the championship in 1981, when a middle chunk of the season was cancelled due to a work stoppage.
But I have no trouble believing the Dodgers would have won it all after a complete season, they were that good. And they would have had David Price, who opted out this year due to the pandemic. Nothing should be taken away from their victory.
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