One night after the heartbreaking Game 4 loss on a final-play defensive breakdown, the Dodgers quickly turned the page with a 4-2 Game 5 win. They are now 1 win away from winning 2020 World Series.
Mookie Betts and Corey Seager ignited things early with their bats. But one of the lesser heralded parts of the game was an important factor in the Dodgers’ jumpstart. That part was baserunning, and the key player was Seager, who took two bases off balls in the dirt and eventually scored the Dodgers’ second run in the first inning.
Betts opened the Game 5 by working a long at-bat against Tampa Bay Rays starter Tyler Glasnow. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Betts roped a 99-mph fastball into the left field corner for a double.
Two pitches later, NLCS MVP Corey Seager singled Betts in to give the Dodgers a 1–0 lead. After Justin Turner strikeout, Muncy was in the batter’s box and down in the count 0–2. Glasnow threw a curveball that skipped off catcher Mike Zunino. Seager recognized the dirtball immediately and took off for second base, sliding in a hair before the tag of Willy Adames.
Two batters later, with Glasnow ahead of Cody Bellinger, the 6-foor-8-inch pitcher delivered a 100-mph fastball in the dirt. The ball slipped past Zunino, and rebounded off home plate umpire Marvin Hudson. Zunino quickly tracked it down, but Seager again quickly broke as soon as he saw the ball in the dirt and made it to third base. Bellinger singled Seager home on the next pitch, giving the Dodgers a 2–0 lead.
Los Angeles extended the early lead to 3-0 when Joc Pederson took Glasnow deep with a solo shot in the second and shouted, “They don’t want that smoke!” after crossing home plate.
But the Rays answered back with 2 runs in the third. With one aboard, Yandy Díaz punched a hit down the right-field line. Betts took a bad route to the ball, and Díaz scooted all the way to third with an RBI triple. He then scored on Arozarena’s record-setting 27th hit of this postseason, an RBI single that made it 3-2.
In the bottom of fourth, Manuel Margot tried to do the first straight steal of home in a World Series game since Jackie Robinson in 1955. Margot drew a leadoff walk, Tampa Bay became just the sixth opponent in Kershaw’s long career to get the leadoff batter aboard in each of the first four innings. Margot then swiped second and advanced to third when second baseman Chris Taylor couldn’t get a grip on Barnes’ throw.
But after Joey Wendle popped out and Willy Adames struck out, Margot took his electrifying but ill-fated shot at the steal of home. Kershaw had his back to the play but took a cue from shouting by first baseman Max Muncy.
“[Muncy] was yelling at me, ‘Step off! Step off! Step off!’” Kershaw said. “So instinctually, I just kind of did it. That was a big out for us right there.”
The big out was followed by a big homer, Muncy’s 434-foot blast to right-center with two out in the fifth. It put Glasnow in an unfortunate place in the record books. Just as his teammate Arozarena has set a postseason mark by hitting nine home runs, Glasnow has set a record by allowing nine home runs.
Roberts’ decision to pull Kershaw with two out and none on in the sixth made the Dodgers’ fans (and the Kershaw clan) in attendance in Texas too boo him. And going to 23-year-old rookie right-hander Dustin May, who entered with a 5.00 ERA in this postseason, was a risk.
May, though, went from maybe to certainty by delivering the next five outs. Roberts’ next difficult decision — pulling May for rookie left-hander Victor González with one on and one out in the eighth — also worked. González walked Mike Brosseau but got Arozarena and Brandon Lowe to fly out to end the threat. And though Blake Treinen served up a leadoff single to Margot in the ninth, he proved the right man for the save opportunity by retiring the last three batters in succession.
Kershaw pitched 5 2/3 effective innings, allowed 2 runs,5 hits, walked 2 and struck out 6 at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Sunday night, he confidently pitched the Dodgers to the cusp of their first crown since 1988.
“Any time you can have success in the postseason, it just means so much,” he said. “It’s what you work for, it’s what you play for this month. I know what the other end of that feels like, too, so I’ll definitely take it when I can get it.” said Kershaw after the game.
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