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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 game six and winning the series four games on two.
Los Angeles had been waiting for this moment for 32 years, which happened 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
Although it was the Dodgers ‘third World Series appearance in the past four years, they hadn’t 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 Randy Arozarena home run in the first inning, the Rays had a 1-0 lead towards the end of the sixth, and their starter, Blake Snell, was throwing a gem.
He went 5 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts, but after 73 shots, Snell was hit by coach Kevin Cash after conceding a shot to Austin Barnes.
It’s a decision that will likely be discussed by fans after the season ends, if not more.
From then on, the Dodgers capitalized on the move. With Nick Anderson pitching for Tampa, Mookie Betts doubled up, taking Barnes to third place.
A wild step from Anderson allowed Barnes to score and Betts moved up to third place. A game later, Betts slipped home to safety, scoring the lead on a Corey Seager jab.
A solo home run by Betts in the bottom eighth gave the Dodgers the run to secure play.
Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts celebrates after a home run against the Rays in 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 salaries in baseball, worth $ 107.9 million, while Tampa has one of the lowest, $ 28.3 million.
It was a World Series that provided an exciting finale to the Major League season.
In a way, it’s extraordinary, given that seven months ago it was hard to believe that even one 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 shrank to 60 games instead of the usual 162.
There was no bubble, like in other leagues, such as NBA, WNBA and NHL.
The teams have traveled and used their own stadiums, with the exception of Canada’s Toronto Blue Jays, who had to move to Buffalo, New York to play this season.
A season like no other
There have been 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 an additional inning, each half inning began with a runner on second base.
Seven-innings doubleheader games were also added, which were used largely 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 on neutral courts.
The only games with fans were at Globe Life Field, the host of the National League Championship Series and the World Series, with a maximum of 11,500 tickets available for each game.
An unorthodox season culminated in the Dodgers, in their eighth consecutive year in the playoffs, finally finishing what they had started, with the best team of 2020 winning the 116th edition of the World Series.
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