Tampa Bay Rays @ Los Angeles Dodgers — WS G1 (10/20/20) — Final: LAD 8, TB 3

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Behind splendid hitting and a stellar Clayton Kershaw performance, the Los Angeles Dodgers cruise to the victory in Game One of the 2020 World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-3.

Clayton Kershaw, the former-MVP and three-time Cy Young Award winner, was introduced to the mound as LA’s starter, attempting to get his team going quickly. Kershaw, looking to change his personal postseason narrative of struggles and costly mistakes, fired a first pitch strike before Yandy Díaz poked a leadoff single against the shift. Kershaw responded with a pop-out of Brandon Lowe, but walked Randy Arozarena with some uncompetitive off-speed pitches. Kershaw, continuing to veer away from the strike-zone, threw a beautiful curveball to get Hunter Renfroe to chase strike-three. Kershaw worked a soft grounder of Manuel Margot, fielded, and threw to 1st to work out of the early jam. 27-year-old flamethrower Tyler Glasnow, standing 6’8”, was given the ball for the Rays. Glasnow got ahead of Mookie Betts fast, ane ultimately got him to ground-out with the count full. Corey Seager had a couple impressive takes that resulted in a one-out walk. Justin Turner pounced on a hitters count, but just missed a middle-middle fastball and flew-out. Max Muncy flew-out to center on the first pitch of his at-bat for out number three. Kershaw worked a fly-out of Joey Wendle, struck-out Willy Adames, and got Kevin Kiermaier to fly-out in a clean top of the second. In the home half, Glasnow fooled Will Smith twice to avoid a walk, striking him out. He got Cody Bellinger to ground-out softly, but Chris Taylor pulled a two-strike single to keep the inning alive. Glasnow struck-out Joc Pederson swinging to end the seconnd. Kershaw had bookend strike-outs of Mike Zunino and Lowe in a perfect frame in the third. Glasnow froze Austin Barnes and pounded a fastball by Betts for a pair of strike-outs in the bottom half. He walked Seager with two-away, but got Turner swinging. Kershaw opened the fourth with a strike-out of Arozarena, and he completed a spotless frame with a strike-out of Margot. Muncy led-off the Dodgers’ half with a walk, and he advanced to 2nd on Smith’s fielder’s choice. Seeing a center cut fastball, Bellinger attacked the first pitch he saw and launched a towering two-run home run, breaking the scoreless tie and giving the LA a 2-0 lead. Glasnow proceeded to issue Taylor a free pass, and he snagged 2nd on a curveball in the dirt during Pederson’s at-bat. Pederson lost a battle with Glasnow, striking-out, and Barnes went down looking to strand Taylor. Kershaw worked a ground-out and struck-out Adames for a pair of easy outs to begin the fifth; however, he missed his spot with a hanging slider, and Kiermaier made him pay. Crushing a line-drive that stayed airborne long enough, Tampa Bay cut their deficit in half thanks to Kiermaier’s solo shot, 2-1. Kershaw got Zunino swinging to complete the frame. In the bottom turn, Glasnow walked Betts preceding a stolen base. Seager earned a walk next, putting two-on with no-outs. Glasnow got Turner swinging, but at the expense of a successful double steal. With Betts only 90ft away now, Muncy’s job became easier, and he delivered. He pulled a chopper, and Betts’ savvy and speedy baserunning allowed him to beat Díaz’s throw home, getting the run back for the Dodgers. Smith battled and finished a great at-bat with an RBI-bloop single, making it 4-1 LA. With it, Glasnow was pulled, and Ryan Yarbrough trotted in from the Rays bullpen. It took ten pitches, but Yarbrough worked an infield pop-up of Bellinger for an important second out. Taylor smacked Yarbrough’s next pitch into left for a base hit, giving the Dodgers a 5-1 advantage. It became 6-1 when Kiké Hernàndez, pinch-hitting for Pederson, drove a ball through the hole to score another. Yarbrough got Barnes to fly-out, leaving a pair though the damage had already been done. Kershaw, back out after an extended rest in the dugout due to his teammates’ offense, got the help of a diving Turner, a tremendous play, for the first out of the sixth. Kershaw worked soft contact of Lowe and Arozarena to seal another 1-2-3 frame and conclude his day. After a shaky first, Kershaw simply dealt. He was just outstanding, nearly untouchable, and it was a beautiful sight. The only blemish: the lone mistake he made to Kiermaier. Kershaw’s final line displays his dominance: 6IP, 1ER, 2H, 1BB, 8K and the W. Additionally, he only threw 78 pitches. Josh Fleming entered to pitch LA’s half, and he was greeted by a Betts solo homer the opposite way on the initial pitch. After a weak pop-out from Seager, Turner hammered a double that ricocheted off the top of the wall in center. On the next pitch, Muncy smashed a double into the gap, putting two more on the board for the Dodgers to make it 8-1. Smith lined-out sharply to center, and Fleming got Bellinger swinging to send the game to the seventh. Dylan Floro’s day commenced with a strike-out of the pinch-hitting Austin Meadows. Margot reached with one-down on a seeing-eye single, and subsequently, Wendle sent one into the gap where Bellinger, with a full head of steam, couldn’t hold on to the ball. With runners now on 2nd and 3rd, Ji-Man Choi was given a bat, and Floro was relieved. Victor González took his place, now facing Mike Brosseau as the Rays countered LA’s call to the bullpen. Brosseau poked a single to the opposite field, and Keirmaier blooped one in a similar spot to pull Tampa Bay within five, 8-3. With a full count, Zunino ripped a comebacker that González snared (more reasonably found in his glove), turned, and threw to 2nd to top off an unbelievable double-play. Fleming struck-out Taylor in a harmless home frame. Pedro Báez was turned to for the eighth and he worked a trio of lazy fly-balls in a brief half. Betts led-off the bottom of the inning with a laser single, but it was erased on Seager’s double-play. Turner walked with two-away and Muncy blooped a knock, but they were left stranded. Joe Kelly got the ninth and was immediately helped by Bellinger, who possibly robbed Meadows of a home run (definitely extra bases) with a leaping catch a few feet in front of the short wall. Kelly punched-out Margot, then deflected Wendle’s comebacker right to Seager, who made the throw to 1st to end the ballgame.

Smooth all-around, the boys in blue win Game One of the 2020 Fall Classic steadily. Tomorrow, the Dodgers will hope to grab a commanding 2-0 lead. The starter is unannounced; however, a combination of Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, and Julio Urías (similar to NLCS Game Seven) will likely be the formula. For the Rays, looking to even things up, 2018 Cy Young award winner Blake Snell will get the ball. Snell, the 27-year-old lefty, is 2-2 this postseason with a 3.20 ERA. While he can be erratic at times, more often his opponents struggle to score runs. Enough said! 5:08pm first pitch. Go Dodgers!