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AFP
Arlington (US)
The Los Angeles Dodgers shook off a crushing defeat to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 on Sunday and move within one victory of their first World Series title in 32 years.
Joc Pederson and Max Muncy homered for the Dodgers and star pitcher Clayton Kershaw notched the 13th post-season win of his career as Los Angeles took a three-games-to-two lead in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship series.
“Tonight was a grind, all the way through,” said Kershaw. “My slider wasn’t as good as it was in game one. But I stuck with the game plan.”
The Dodgers, who came up agonizingly short in World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018, can lock up their first title since 1988 in game six in Arlington on Tuesday.
Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award-winner whose Hall of Fame resume is lacking a World Series title, pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits.
His six strikeouts took his career post-season tally to a record 207 – surpassing the 205 of Justin Verlander.
“It is very exciting, but at same time we got to win one more. I am going to keep it together for one more game,” he said.
The Dodgers insisted they were over the disappointment of game four, when a couple of Dodgers errors helped the Rays walk off 8-7 winners after being down to their last strike.
It certainly looked as if they were when they leapt on Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow in the first inning. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager said battling Glasnow and pushing up his pitch count would be key, and Los Angeles did a good job of it.
Mookie Betts led off with a stand-up double and scored on a single from Seager. Seager reached second and third on two wild pitches from Glasnow and scored on a single from Cody Bellinger before Glasnow – who became the first pitcher to throw three wild pitches in a World Series game – ended the inning after throwing 34 pitches.
Arlington (US)
The Los Angeles Dodgers shook off a crushing defeat to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 on Sunday and move within one victory of their first World Series title in 32 years.
Joc Pederson and Max Muncy homered for the Dodgers and star pitcher Clayton Kershaw notched the 13th post-season win of his career as Los Angeles took a three-games-to-two lead in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship series.
“Tonight was a grind, all the way through,” said Kershaw. “My slider wasn’t as good as it was in game one. But I stuck with the game plan.”
The Dodgers, who came up agonizingly short in World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018, can lock up their first title since 1988 in game six in Arlington on Tuesday.
Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award-winner whose Hall of Fame resume is lacking a World Series title, pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits.
His six strikeouts took his career post-season tally to a record 207 – surpassing the 205 of Justin Verlander.
“It is very exciting, but at same time we got to win one more. I am going to keep it together for one more game,” he said.
The Dodgers insisted they were over the disappointment of game four, when a couple of Dodgers errors helped the Rays walk off 8-7 winners after being down to their last strike.
It certainly looked as if they were when they leapt on Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow in the first inning. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager said battling Glasnow and pushing up his pitch count would be key, and Los Angeles did a good job of it.
Mookie Betts led off with a stand-up double and scored on a single from Seager. Seager reached second and third on two wild pitches from Glasnow and scored on a single from Cody Bellinger before Glasnow – who became the first pitcher to throw three wild pitches in a World Series game – ended the inning after throwing 34 pitches.
