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(CNN) – After a major league season like no other, the Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 in the sixth game and winning the series four games against two.
Los Angeles had waited 32 years for this moment, which occurred during a pandemic, in front of a limited crowd of fans, mostly the Dodgers, at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
It also comes just over two weeks after the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship for the first time in 10 years.
Dodgers, champions for the first time in decades
While it was the Dodgers ‘third appearance in the World Series in the past four years, they had not won it since 1988, a decade before the Rays’ inaugural season.
This was Tampa’s second appearance in the World Series, the other was in 2008.
Courtesy of a home run by Randy Arozarena in the first inning, the Rays had a 1-0 lead coming to the end of the sixth, and their starter, Blake Snell, was throwing a gem.
He went in 5 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts, but after 73 pitches, Snell was pulled by coach Kevin Cash after allowing Austin Barnes a hit.
It’s a decision that will likely be debated by fans after the end of the season, if not longer.
From then on, the Dodgers capitalized on the move. With Nick Anderson pitching for Tampa, Mookie Betts doubled, advancing Barnes to third.
A wild pitch by Anderson allowed Barnes to score and Betts moved to third. A play later, Betts slid home at safe, scoring the lead run off a hit by Corey Seager.
A solo home run by Betts in the bottom of the eighth gave the Dodgers the run to secure the game.
Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts celebrates after a home run against the Rays during the eighth inning of Game 6 of the World Series.
The best of the season
The Dodgers and Rays had the two best records in the 2020 season, but with different philosophies to get to this point.
Los Angeles has one of the highest payrolls in baseball, worth $ 107.9 million, while Tampa has one of the lowest, at $ 28.3 million.
It was a World Series that provided an exciting finale to the Major League season.
In a way, that’s remarkable, since seven months ago it was hard to believe that even having a season was possible.
The coronavirus pandemic put the Major Leagues on hold during spring training in March.
The start of the regular season was delayed, and team owners and players were slow to agree on how to play it.
The 2020 regular season ran without fans and shortened to 60 games instead of the usual 162.
There was no bubble, as in other leagues, such as the NBA, WNBA and NHL.
The teams traveled and used their own stadiums, with the exception of the Toronto Blue Jays of Canada, who had to move to Buffalo, New York, in order to play this season.
A season like no other
There were other deviations from the usual MLB rules during the regular season.
The National League implemented the use of the designated hitter for the first time in history.
If a game required additional innings, each half inning began with a runner on second base.
Seven-inning doubleheader games were also added, which were used in large part due to the covid-19 outbreaks in the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.
This postseason had more teams (16) than in previous years, and the league championship and World Series games were played at neutral venues.
The only fan games were at Globe Life Field, the host of the National League Championship Series and the World Series, with a maximum number of 11,500 tickets available for each game.
An unorthodox season culminated with the Dodgers, in their eighth straight year in the playoffs, finally finishing what they started, with the best team of 2020 winning the 116th edition of the World Series.
