Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
The World Series begins tonight in Arlington, Texas as the LA Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays commence a best of 7.
Both the Rays and the Dodgers arrive at the Major League Championship Series after emotional 7 game sets in their respective Championship Series.
In the American League Championship Series, Tampa Bay opened with 3 straight victories and then stalled as the Houston Astros, despised by almost every baseball watcher, rallied for 3 straight victories to tie the series.
Tampa Bay did prevail in the deciding contest with a 4-2 win, but even that contest had it’s jitters for the Rays as Houston threatened to come back again and erase a 4-0 deficit.
In the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers spent the whole series chasing Atlanta.
The Braves held series leads of 2 games to none and 3-1 before LA reeled off 3 straight victories to take the crown.
But even in game 7, the Dodgers fluttered at the start and needed to create another comeback as they were down 2-0 after allowing runs in the opening two innings.
In the 7th inning, Cody Bellinger homered to give LA, essentially, their first lead in the series and they nailed it down.
There’s great players on both sides of the 2020 World Series, but the underlying theme might be who learned what from their last series.
Tampa Bay may have dodged a bullet by allowing Houston to rally and the Dodgers can’t afford to perpetually be playing from behind like they did against Atlanta
Game 1 of the 2020 World Series goes tonight just after 8 pm.
I’m Fred Wallace