Los Angeles Dodgers: World Series Champions by the numbers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions, they have finally returned to the mountaintop of Major League Baseball.

The Los Angeles Dodgers did it by beating the Tampa Bay Rays in six games, in a series where they hit better, pitched better, and fielded better.

The Dodgers World Series win was a testament to the organization where 14 of the 28 players celebrating after the final out were homegrown products. The win culminated a shortened 60 game season where the Dodgers only lost one series, and never lost more than two games in a row.

The World Series win is about a resilient team, who when they played their best were unbeatable, lets explore the numbers that got the Dodgers their seventh World Series title.

7 1/3

When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took out starting pitcher Tony Gonsolin after just five outs, Dodgers fans could not be faulted for fearing the series would go to a Game Seven. But in the end, the Dodgers bullpen strung together the other 22 outs over 7 1/3 innings.

The bullpen kept the Rays at bay striking out 12 batters giving up just two hits and walking none. After struggling at times during the season, in the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves, and against the Rays in a game four walk-off loss in the end the Dodgers bullpen had their shining moment.

2-0 2.31

Clayton Kershaw put away all talks of a narrative and cemented his legacy as the best pitcher of his generation, going 2-0 in the World Series with a 2.31 ERA striking out 14 Rays in 11 2/3 innings.

Kershaw wasn’t otherworldly as he had to be in the past, when he carried the team on his back he was just perfect enough to be effective and help the team win a World Series. In the end, the picture of him and the Commissioner’s Trophy is all anyone will remember.

8/20/20/50

Corey Seager had one of the greatest October’s in Dodgers history and almost had the greatest in MLB history. Seager was named the World Series MVP just as he had been named for the NLCS. Seager set a record for a shortstop with 8 home runs in a postseason, he has the second-most RBI (20), runs (20), and total bases (50) in a postseason year.

https://twitter.com/MLBStats/status/1321320776855900160?s=20

A year ago Seager was struggling through a rough NLDS where he failed to contribute and the Dodgers lost in five games. There were thoughts because of his recent injury history and struggles to return to his elite status that Seager could be traded, in the end, he showed not only the organization but the world just how valuable he is.

7

The only number that’s going to matter to Dodgers fans is number seven. The Dodgers seventh World Series title comes after 32 years in the wilderness. Trading Pedro Martinez, trading Mike Piazza, mediocrity, bad ownership, playoff losses, blown games, the cheating Astros, the Kershaw sad face. All of it is erased thanks to the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers.

Clayton Kershaw has his ring, Dave Roberts doesn’t have to be second-guessed for Game Four, Kenley Jansen’s blown saves don’t matter, the quiet bats in seven straight playoffs woke up, Dodgers fans young, old, and in between the drought is over your team are World Champs and that’s all that matters.