Dodgers beat Rays in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington. Their 8-3 victory over the Rays gave them the early 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven series. Dodgers are playing their 21st World Series while Rays are in their second World Series.
Clayton Kershaw’s 201 post-season strike outs
Today’s Game 1 marks Kershaw’s fifth career World Series start, and his third World Series Game 1, Kershaw once again had swing-and-miss stuff after making an adjustment in the first inning. His first strikeout of Hunter Renfroe helped the Dodgers escape a two-on, one-out situation in the first inning, and he struck out multiple batters in each of the the third and the fourth, when Manuel Margot’s inning-ending swinging punchout gave Kershaw 199 career postseason strikeouts to tie John Smoltz for second all-time.
When Kershaw retired Joey Wendle and struck out Willy Adames to open the fifth for career postseason strikeout No. 200, he had retired 13 consecutive hitters. But the streak came to an abrupt end when the next Rays hitter, Kevin Kiermaier, hit a slider for a home run that cut the Dodgers’ lead to 2-1.
Kershaw stopped the inning there with, yep, another strikeout. He ended his night with eight strikeouts over six innings on only 78 pitches as the Dodgers had pulled out to an 8-1 lead. Seven of the eight strikeouts came on well-executed sliders.
Game 1 was the Mookie Show
Betts used it as a platform to remind the world at large what all the fuss was about when the Red Sox controversially dealt him to the Dodgers — a little more than a year after he helped bring Boston the 2018 title at L.A.’s expense. The Dodgers brought in Betts as the perceived final piece in their bid to atone for seven consecutive empty Octobers.
It was Betts’ outfield defense that assisted the Dodgers in Games 5-7 of the NLCS win over the Braves. Here in the World Series Game 1, he used his legs and lumber, stealing two bags and launching a solo homer.
In the fifth, Betts became the first player since Baseball legend Babe Ruth — to walk and steal two bases in the same inning of a World Series game, keying the four-run frame that broke open the ballgame.
The first of those steals marked the second time in his career that a Betts swipe earned all of America a free taco (he did it in the 2018 World Series, too) — a grand feat not even the Babe can claim. After a Corey Seager walk, Betts swiped third as part of a double steal. That forced the Rays to draw their infield in. When Max Muncy grounded a ball to first, Betts’ secondary lead was so strong and his feet so fleet that he was able to slide in ahead of Yandy Díaz’s throw home to make it 3-1.
Talented as they are and prepared as they were, the Rays were powerless to stop Betts and the Dodgers. Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash was uncharacteristically lenient with the leash for his starter, granting Glasnow a season-high 112 pitches, even as he walked six batters.
“The walks are definitely not ideal,” Cash said. “Glas would be the first to recognize that. But we didn’t do a good job of holding the runners on. We can’t let them double-steal right there. Then when they got over to Muncy, we needed a strikeout. There might be nobody better equipped to get a strikeout right there than Glas.”
Glasnow didn’t get the strikeout, and he wasn’t lifted until after the next batter, Will Smith, singled Seager home to make it 4-1. Cash surprisingly turned to Ryan Yarbrough, the Rays’ potential Game 4 starter, and the runs kept coming with well-placed RBI singles from Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández to push the lead to 6-1.
With Betts adding to his epic performance by taking Josh Fleming deep with a solo shot in the sixth and Muncy adding an RBI double three batters later, the Rays’ two-run seventh was but a mere blip. That comeback attempt ended when Mike Zunino’s scorching liner went straight into the glove of Victor González, who was able to double Mike Brosseau off the second-base bag.
