What better way to top off one of the most bizarre seasons in MLB history than with a bizarre World Series. One in which the east-coast representative and the west-coast representative managed to meet in the middle, at a brand-new ballpark where even the home team hadn't played before its own fans yet, with "travel days" where nobody went anywhere, and with broadcasters who weren't even allowed to be there in person. Such is baseball in 2020. (And, sadly, probably 2021 as well.) But those 30 little golden flags are still up for grabs, so let's dive right in.
Even before the first pitch of the Series on Tuesday, the question on America's mind was not who would win, not "would Clayton Kershaw throw a no-hitter", not "how many homers will Randy Arozarena hit", it's which player was going to earn us our free taco by stealing a base. In a weird twist of fate, there's only been one World Series without a stolen base, and it was the last one where all the games were played at the same site-- the all-St Louis series of 1944. So if history was going to repeat itself, this week would have been perfect. But then we would all have to pay $1.29 for the tacos, and Mookie Betts thinks that's just totally unfair. After a leadoff walk in the 5th, he not only swiped second base (tacos!), but then swiped third as part of a double steal later in the inning (no more tacos because you don't deserve them, America). Only one other player has walked and stolen two bases in the same inning of a World Series game, and it's Babe Ruth in 1921. After the Internet calmed down over their free tacos, they started noticing both those players were traded away by the Red Sox right before their World Series outbursts. In fact, as it turns out, Mookie was the one who earned us all free tacos in 2018 by stealing the first base of that World Series for Boston; in the on-and-off history of the promotion, he's the first player to do it twice.
After the Dodgers tallied 4 runs in that 5th inning and knocked Tyler Glasnow out of the game, Mookie was up again to lead off the 6th, which he promptly did by putting one in the seats in right field. That made him the second player in World Series history with a homer and two steals in the same game, and it's happened both times the Rays have played a Game 1. Chase Utley of the Phillies was the opponent in the 2008 opener. Mookie also led off the 8th with a single, becoming the sixth leadoff batter in World Series history with 2 hits, 2 steals, and 2 runs scored. That's a nice list of notables as well: Kenny Lofton (2002), Otis Nixon (1992), Davey Lopes (1981), Lou Brock (1967), and Pepper Martin (1934).
While the 4-run 5th blew the game open, the Dodgers already had a lead thanks to Cody Bellinger's 2-run homer in the previous inning. You might remember Bellinger hitting another go-ahead homer last week. Only two other Dodgers players have hit a go-ahead homer in back-to-back postseason games: Corey Seager in 2016 and Carl Crawford in 2013, both in the Division Series. And with the caveat that the LCS has only been a 7-game format since the mid-1980s, just six players have homered in Game 7 of an LCS and Game 1 of a World Series in the same year. The other five all played for either Boston or Atlanta-- Dustin Pedroia (2007), Mark Bellhorn (2004), David Ortiz (2004), Andruw Jones (1996), and Fred McGriff (1996).
Enrique Hernandez drove in the final run of that 5th inning as a pinch hitter; you may also remember him doing a little something in LCS 7. He's the first player in Dodgers postseason history with a pinch-hit RBI in back-to-back team games; although Carl Furillo (1947) and Carlos Ruiz (2016) both did it in back-to-back personal appearances, they sat out a game in between. That was also Hernandez's fourth postseason RBI as a pinch hitter, most in Dodgers history except for Furillo's 5.
We'll also throw some love to Corey Seager, even though he didn't homer in Game 1 because he didn't need to. (Wait for it.) Instead the Rays opted to just pitch around him, walking him three times. Seager was then the back end of that double steal with Betts, making him just the second player in Dodgers history with 3 walks and a stolen base in a World Series game. And yes, of course the other is Jackie Robinson, in 1952 Game 5. (That's not the game where he stole home. Because that will be relevant later too.)
On the Rays' side the Star Of The Game has to go to Kevin Kiermaier for being the only one to do anything. He had a solo homer in the 5th and an RBI single in the 7th to account for two of the Rays' three runs. And he joins an illustrious (?) list of number-9 batters to have 2 hits and 2 RBI in a World Series loss: David Bell for the Giants in 2002, Pat Borders of Toronto in 1992, and future World Series manager Phil Garner with the Pirates in 1979.
In a normal year, buying one World Series ticket can be cost-prohibitive. Being forced to buy them in sets of four this year just makes it worse. So if you're going, you'll want to get there in plenty of time to take full enjoyment of the atmosphere and the food and the overpriced merchandise and, in this case, the new ballpark, before settling into your "pod" at 7:08. Brandon Lowe thanks you. Because at 7:10, he will be depositing a home run into the cardboard cutouts in left-center. (Yes, some of them are still there.) Given that the Rays and Dodgers don't face each other very often, it's only the fourth 1st-inning homer Tampa Bay has ever hit against Los Angeles; Brandon Guyer (2016), Akinori Iwamura (2007), and Randy Winn (2002) have the others.
Unfortunately for our scoresheet, Game 2 became the Dodgers' chance to experiment with "bullpenning" in a freakin' World Series game since they had already taken Game 1. Thus that homer would be the only hit allowed by "starter" Tony Gonsolin who made it through all of six batters. He's going to end up joining Bob Welch (1983 NLCS) and Johnny Podres (1953 WS) as the only starters in Dodgers postseason history to give up 1 hit and lose, and that's mainly because Lowe is going to homer again in the 5th off Dustin May. Considering the Rays have only been in one other World Series, it goes without saying that they've never had a 2-homer game before. They've also only had one other 2-homer game against the Dodgers, by Jared Sandberg on June 11, 2002. And the illustrious list of players with multiple homers in a World Series Game 2 includes Tim Salmon (2002), Carl Yastrzemski (1967), Mickey Mantle (1958 and 1960), fellow Dodger Charlie Neal (1959), Babe Ruth (1923), and Patsy Dougherty (1903).
In addition to Lowe's two homers, the Rays are already up 5-0 at this point because Dustin May's first act upon entering the game was to give up a 2-run double to Joey Wendle. Wendle would tack on a sacrifice fly in the 6th for the Rays' final run, becoming the first player in Rays postseason history to have 3 RBI without homering. More notably, Wendle and Lowe combined to drive in all 6 Rays' runs, something that's happened only twice before in World Series history. Hideki Matsui (6 by himself) and Mark Teixeira (RBI single) had all 7 Yankees runs in the 2009 finale over Philadelphia, while Willie Aikens and Amos Otis of the Royals combined for three 2-run homers in the opener of the 1980 Series (which they lost).
And since "bullpenning" is all the rage-- and the Rays are usually blamed as the team that started it-- there was no way they'd let Blake Snell get through the 5th inning even though he didn't give up a hit in the first four. Chris Taylor took care of that by becoming the first starting #9 batter in Dodgers history to homer in a postseason game. And because our ongoing efforts to abolish the 5-inning rule for pitcher wins have not yet been fruitful, Snell became the first starter in World Series history to allow 2 hits, strike out 9, and not get a win. And while the Dodgers fought back to a respectable final of 6-4, Taylor would strike out again to end the game and generate two more notes. That was his third whiff of the evening, joining Joc Pederson (2018) and Sandy Amoros (1955) as the only Dodgers with a homer and 3 strikeouts in a World Series game. And because of course there must be 2-out pitching changes, Taylor's K was the only out recorded by Diego Castillo. In a 2-run game that means he gets credit for a save, the first by a pitcher who only got the final out of the 9th (not extras) since Cincinnati's Rawly Eastwick in 1975.
Did it seem like our LCS post was all about Corey Seager and Randy Arozarena? Yeah, we thought so too as we were writing it. Notice we haven't mentioned either of them yet in the World Series? Okay, Seager did homer late in Game 2 to get the Dodgers one last insignificant run. But it took until the middle of the Series for those two to finally come out of hibernation. Maybe it has something to do with that piped-in "Rays home game" atmosphere. After all, the new Globe Life Field roof was closed on Friday for the first time in this postseason. Unfortunately for the Rays, Walker Buehler was open for business, and like the clearance guy on your favorite home-shopping network, he was dealing.
In Wednesday's Game 2, the "visiting" pitcher kept the "home" team hitless until the 5th while striking out 9 batters along the way. Bar set. And Buehler matched it. Game 3 featured only one walk-- erased on a double play-- before Manuel Margot connected for a two-bagger into the corner. And unlike Snell on Wednesday, Buehler would get through the 6th-- and strike out the side-- to finish the day with only 3 hits allowed and 10 opponents fanned. That lofty line had been done by only two other Dodgers pitchers in World Series history, Clayton Kershaw in 2017 and Sandy Koufax in 1965.
Meanwhile, on offense, it wasn't yet Corey Seager's turn to shine, but Justin Turner's. Following Brandon Lowe's lead, he homered as the third batter of the game, making 2020 the first World Series ever where both teams went yard in the top of the 1st. The only other Dodgers batters to hit a T1 homer in the World Series are Mickey Hatcher (1988), Ron Cey (1977), and Hi Myers (1916, off Babe Ruth).
But the Star Of The Game on Friday has to go to Austin Barnes, who had successfully executed four sacrifice bunts in his six seasons with the Dodgers. Bunting in general is a lost art in these days of everyone just wanting to mash homers, but when he came up in the 4th with Cody Bellinger on third and Joc Pederson on first, the time was right and Barnes laid down the perfect safety squeeze to score a run. There had not been such a play in the World Series since Jason Bartlett did it for the Rays in 2008 to score Cliff Floyd. But no worries, in his next at-bat in the 6th, with 2 outs and nobody on, Barnes went back to that standard Dodgers playbook of mashing homers. Barnes hit only one homer in the 60-game regular season, but his solo shot on Friday made him the second player in World Series history with a home run and a run-scoring squeeze bunt. The other was Hector Lopez of the Yankees, in Game 5 of the 1961 Series at Cincinnati (the runner being Johnny Blanchard).
Meanwhile, Mookie Betts apparently did not get the memo that we only get one taco regardless of how many bases he steals. Because both of Barnes's plays above (the squeeze bunt and the homer) were followed by Mookie hitting a single and then stealing second. He's the first player to have multiple multi-steal games in the same World Series since Omar Vizquel of the Indians in 1997. And remember that Joc Pederson was on first for that squeeze play and thus scored on the Betts single. That gave Mookie 2 hits, 2 steals, and at least 1 RBI in multiple games of the same World Series, a feat accomplished only by Cincinnati's Bobby Tolan in 1972 and Eddie Collins of the A's in 1910.
You've probably figured out that Game 3 was all Dodgers, right up until the bottom of the 9th when the aforementioned Randy Arozarena finally showed up. Because of the unwritten rule that says Kenley Jansen is not allowed to have a 1-2-3 inning in the postseason, Aroz smoked a 2-out homer to make Friday's final score 6-2. Only three homers in World Series history have been hit by a team trailing by 5+ and down to its final out... and Jansen has allowed two of them. Alex Bregman hit one in 2017; the other was by Al Simmons of the Athletics in 1931.
Did we mention there's an unwritten rule that says Kenley Jansen can't have a 1-2-3 inning in the postseason? (Yes, we did. Last paragraph.) On to Game 4 on Saturday. Or should we say off to Game 4 on Saturday, because you already know how it's going to end. Sure did take a bunch of twists and turns to get there, though.
Justin Turner hit another 1st-inning homer. Forgot about that, didn't you? He became just the second batter in Dodgers postseason history with a 1st-inning homer in back-to-back games, after (who else?) Corey Seager in the 2016 Division Series at Nationals Park. Only two other players had homered in the 1st of back-to-back World Series games-- Alex Bregman last year, and fellow Dodger Mickey Hatcher in 1988. Combined with Brandon Lowe's shot in Game 2 (which seems so long ago already), it was the first time any World Series had seen a 1st-inning homer in three consecutive games.
In the 3rd Corey Seager finally made an appearance with his eighth home run of this postseason. There is absolutely an asterisk because the 2020 postseason has more games than any other in history, but Seager joined Barry Bonds (2002, and who knows more about asterisks?), Carlos Beltran (2004), Nelson Cruz (2011), and our good buddy Randy Arozarena as the only players to go yard eight times in one postseason.
One inning later, Randy said, mm, no, I'm not sharing that record, I'm setting it. He cranked a leadoff homer on the first pitch of the 4th to become the first player in history with 9 homers in a single postseason. And this is still not the good part. Max Muncy puts the Dodgers up 3-1 in the 5th with an RBi single on which he is thrown out by Hunter Renfroe trying to stretch it into a double. And it's always the guy who makes the great defensive play who leads off the next inning. Renfroe then homers to start the 5th and get the Rays back to within 3-2. Enrique Hernandez-- not pinch-hitting this time-- keeps the Dodgers ahead with an RBI double in the 6th. And then Brandon Lowe, the first batter faced by Pedro Baez, unleashes a 3-run bomb to flip the lead in favor of Tampa Bay, 5-4. Baez was the first pitcher in Dodgers postseason history to give up a lead-flipping homer to the first batter he faced upon entering the game.
Yeah, we're not done. Nowhere near it. Seager starts the 7th with a single and then is controversially held up at third when Justin Turner doubles. If you remember Game 3, you remember that Turner also had a homer and a double in that game. And the only other player in World Series history to homer and double in back-to-back games was another Dodger, Roy Campanella in 1955.
Now we've got second and third in the 7th inning of a 1-run game. Time for Joc Pederson, whom we haven't mentioned much, to come through as a pinch hitter. 2-run single off Nick Anderson, and yet another timing play where plate umpire Chris Guccione has to decide whether the run scored before the third out was made. Because Cody Bellinger is out at third on the throw, yet again from Hunter Renfroe in right. As Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark points out, it's one of those games nobody noticed except for us. Renfroe just collected a homer and two outfield assists, the first player in World Series history to do that. In fact, no team had its outfielders combine for a homer and two assists in a World Series game since the 1983 Orioles (Dan Ford, Gary Roenicke). But as for the single itself, Pederson is the first Dodgers batter to flip the lead in a World Series game since... yeah, you knew this link was coming somewhere... Kirk Gibson in 1988. It was also just the second lead-flipping single in the 7th or later of any World Series game; Dane Iorg's walkoff for the Royals in 1985 ("we go to a seventh!") is the other. When he singled in the 9th, Pederson also became the fourth player in World Series history with 2 hits and 2 RBI in a game he didn't start; the others are Brian Hunter (1991), Dusty Rhodes (1954), and Carl Furillo (1947).
Oh but hello, Kevin Kiermaier. Your solo homer in the bottom of the 7th got us back to 6-6 and actually meant that Pedro Baez blew his own save twice in the same game. It also meant that Baez joined Brandon Morrow (2017), Josh Fields (2017), and Russ Meyer (1953) as the only Dodgers relievers to give up multiple homers in a World Series game. And what's that in the 8th but a Chris Taylor leadoff double and then Corey Seager driving him home for another Dodgers lead. The last World Series game with four separate go-ahead hits was indeed in 2017, but it's not the one you probably thought of. It was Game 5, the one the Astros won 13-12 on an Alex Bregman walkoff. And speaking of that Game With All The Homers in 2017, Saturday was the first game in postseason history where a run scored in eight consecutive half-innings. That Astros/Dodgers game had a zero in B9 that broke their streak.
Did we get to the walkoff yet? No? Game 4 has already had enough back-and-forth excitement before Kevin Kiermaier singles and then Randy Arozarena walks with 2 outs in the 9th. This is, of course, against Kenley Jansen which brings us back to our original premise. But with the Rays down to their final strike, this happens. Brett Phillips, of a .196 average and 5 total RBIs in the regular season, drives home KK for the tie and then Arozarena takes advantage of the Dodgers' comedy of errors to score the game-winner. Regardlfess of whether you think the game-winner is an E8 (on Taylor for the bobble) or an E2 (on Smith for forgetting the ball), it's a play that we love to refer to as an "error-off", and it's the first one in any World Series game since Will Middlebrooks obstruction call in 2013. The only other walkoff errors in World Series play were in 1986 (yep, the Bill Buckner play), and a pair of thrown-away bunt attempts by the Orioles in 1969 and the A's in 1913.
For all their efforts, Justin Turner and Corey Seager became the first teammates in World Series history to each have 4 hits in a loss. They were also the first teammates in any postseason game to have 4 hits including a home run in a loss. And after scoring that game-winning run on the play at the plate, Randy Arozarena is probably overlooking the fact that he grounded into a double play and was also caught stealing. We're not. No player, for any team in any game, had collected 3 hits and 3 runs scored, but also a GIDP and a CS, since Rickie Weeks of the Brewers did so on April 30, 2013.
Phillips did not technically have the game-winning RBI, but he did have a batted ball that resulted in his team walking off despite trailing when he hit it. That hadn't happened in a World Series game since... yep, Joe Carter in 1993.
In case Game 4 had too much drama for you, Game 5 is going to tone things down a notch by being a rematch of Kershaw/Glasnow from the opener. And Mookie Betts is going to put the Dodgers in front almost right from the beginning with a leadoff double. He also had one of those in the Wild Card round against Milwaukee, joining Chris Taylor (2017) as the only Dodgers batter with two in the same postseason. Corey Seager then singled home Betts for his 19th RBI of the postseason; again there's the asterisk of this year having more games than any other, but the only player with more in one postseason is David Freese in 2011 (21). Seager would later score after Glasnow uncorked two of his three wild pitches on the day; more on that in a second.
Yandy Diaz took care of Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter with his own leadoff single but then got erased on a double play. Joc Pederson put the Dodgers up 3-0 with a solo homer to start the 2nd, joning Duke Snider and Gil Hodges as the only Dodgers with five career World Series homers. And when Max Muncy led off the 3rd with another single, the Dodgers had become the ninth team to lead off the first three innings of a World Series game with base hits. They were also the eighth and the seventh, doing so in Games 1 and 7 of the 2017 Series with Houston.
They would not be the tenth, however, because Manuel Margot and Kevin Kiermaier also singled to start the Rays' 2nd and 3rd innings. That created just the second game in postseason history where each of the first six half-innings began with base hits; the other was 2014 NLCS 4 between the Cardinals and Giants. Diaz would then drive in Kiermaier with a triple, the first three-bagger in the Rays' short World Series history, but also making him the second Tampa Bay hitter ever to have a triple, a single, and an RBI in a loss in Arlington. Wade Boggs (remember he finished his career there?) did it on July 18, 1998.
You have to at least give the Rays some points for trying to be creative, though. Manuel Margot drew a walk to start the 4th (yes, another leadoff baserunner), then went to third on the first pitch when Chris Taylor fumbled a catch on a steal attempt. With 2 outs, why not deploy the old straight steal of home. It hadn't actually succeeded in a World Series game since Jackie Robinson pulled it off in 1955. Annnnd it still hasn't. Brad Fullmer of the Angels did get credit for a steal of home in the 2002 World Series, but that was as part of a delayed double steal. The last player to be caught stealing home in a World Series was Shane Mack of the Twins in 1991, with pitcher-turned-Fox analyst John Smoltz on the mound.
The Rays would leave Tyler Glasnow out for one more inning, which also meant one more solo home run by Max Muncy. That got Glasnow his own piece of postseason history as the first pitcher ever to allow multiple homers and throw 3 wild pitches in a game. The only other Rays hurler to do it, in any game, was Alex Cobb at Kansas City on August 29, 2017. And our last interesting-ness came in the 8th when Ji-Man Choi was announced as a pinch hitter for Diaz. That prompted Dave Roberts to finally remove Dustin May after six batters and parts of three innings, but that also caused Kevin Cash to go to righty Mike Brosseau instead of Choi. So Choi was announced as a pinch hitter but never actually had a plate appearance. And the same thing happened to him in Game 1. He's the second player in World Series history to get announced but not actually bat twice; Oakland's Don Mincher pulled it off in back-to-back games in 1972.
If the Rays had to go out in six games, well, at least they went down swinging. And with the faces we've come to know over the past month. Remember how Brandon Lowe homered in Game 2 as Tampa Bay's second batter of the game? In Game 6 it was Randy Arozarena who batted second, and there's no way he's going down without a fight. He greeted Tony Gonsolin with yet another home run, his 10th of the postseason to set an all-time record. And we've been saying since Game 2 that you should get to your seat on time, because in every game since then a run has scored in the top of the 1st inning. There's never been a World Series where that happened in five different games, and the 1932 classic was the only one where it happened in four games consecutively.
So now let's turn things over to Blake Snell, of 9 strikeouts in Game 2. Betts/Seager/Turner, all swinging in the 1st. Will Smith and Cody Bellinger, both swinging in the 2nd. Chris Taylor at least breaks up the no-hitter in the 3rd, but look at the 4th. Seager/Turner/Max Muncy, all swinging again. Snell racked up 9 strikeouts in the first four frames while Dodgers pitchers were busy racking up 8 of their own. Once again Gonsolin played the role of "opener" with the Dodgers holding a series lead, and just as in Game 2 he gave way to Dylan Floro in the 2nd. And then Alex Wood in the 3rd. It was the first postseason game in history with 17 combined strikeouts in its first four innings, breaking a mark set by Orlando Hernandez and (!) Rick Reed of the Mets in 2000. Although Gonsolin gave up only the one run, he joined a small list of pitchers to have multiple World Series "starts" that didn't get through the 2nd inning; the others are Yu Darvish in 2017, Art Ditmar in 1960, and Fred Toney in 1921.
At some point on Tuesday it just felt like the Rays would not be able to cling to a 1-0 lead. We started putting together our "Dodgers win" notes even before the bottom of the 6th. That's when Snell was controversially lifted by Kevin Cash after only 73 pitches but a 1-out single to Austin Barnes-- completing the second time around the Dodgers' order and bringing Mookie Betts back up to the plate. Mookie quickly took advantage of Nick Anderson with a double to put runners at second and third. Then it got fun. Anderson scored Barnes by uncorking the second save-blowing wild pitch in World Series history; the other was famously thrown by Bob Stanley in 1986, just before the famous Bill Buckner error to force Game 7. (Stanley was later a special assistant to the minor-league team near us in Norwich, Conn., and maintains to this day that it was a passed ball.) Be that as it may, we're suddenly in a 1-1 tie and Snell is no longer eligible for the win. He's the first pitcher in World Series history to allow 2 hits, strike out 9+, and not get a win....
...And that happened in Game 2! The 5-inning rule prevented Snell from getting the win in that game; this time it was the blown save that blocked out that "W" box on the scoresheet. If you even expand this stat to cover the entire postseason, Snell is the first pitcher to have two such games (9 K, 2 hits, no win)-- and he did it in a week. Ah, but don't get too caught up in that. Because one pitch later, here comes your Series-winner. That's an FCX (fielder's choice, no out) at the plate, and if it looks familiar, yeah, the Dodgers had one of those in Game 1 also. This one, however, gave them the lead, and that hadn't happened in a World Series game in 83 years. The last such play without an error, so the runner just beat the throw, was off the bat of Carl Hubbell of the Giants in 1937; Johnny McCarthy was the runner who scored on it.
So the Dodgers now have their 2-1 lead and the "hometown faithful" (such as they are at our neutral site in Texas) get to start counting down the outs. Julio Urias gets to count down those outs also, because he got the last seven of them. Yandy Diaz got rung up to end the 7th. Urias had a 1-2-3 8th on only 10 pitches. Mookie Betts, just in case, deposits a home run over the center-field wall in the 8th to give us a bunch more notes. Remember he doubled back in the 6th to start the Dodgers' rally. Betts is only the second Dodgers leadoff batter with a homer, a double, and 2 runs scored in any postseason game, joining Davey Lopes in the opener of the 1978 NLCS against Philadelphia.
Urias got to stay out for the 9th, despite calls on Twitter for Dave Roberts to let Clayton Kershaw do his Madison Bumgarner impression and finish off a World Series clincher. On 13 pitches Urias blew through Manuel Margot, Mike Brosseau, and Willy Adames to secure the Dodgers' first championship in 32 years. But Urias had been in the game since the 7th. Since the modern save rule was codified in 1969, only three other pitchers have gotten a 7-out save (or longer) in a World Series clincher. MadBum is one. Steve Howe did it for the Dodgers in 1981. And Will McEnaney finished off the Reds' sweep of the Yankees in 1976. Adding to the fun, Urias went 7-up, 7-down in finishing the Dodgers' championship. Only one other pitcher in World Series history has gotten a 7-out save without allowing a single baserunner, and that wasn't in a clincher: Dick Hall of the Orioles did it in Game 2 of the 1970 Series, also against Cincinnati.
In the Dodgers' parade of pitchers, it was Victor Gonzalez who ended up getting the win by being in the game when the lead flipped. Gonzalez struck out Brandon Lowe, Manuel Margot, and Joey Wendle in order in the 6th, and thus also had the distinction of being the second pitcher in World Series history to allow 0 baserunners, strike out 3, and get the win in a title-clincher. Aurelio Lopez of the Tigers was the other, the last time Detroit won it all in 1984.
And speaking of droughts, with the Dodgers erasing their 32-year hiatus from hoisting the 30 little golden flags (which were only 26 at the previous hoisting), the longest time without a World Series win passes to those lovable Mets, who somehow survived Bob Stanley's wild pitch and Bill Buckner's error to win it all in 1986. The Tigers now rank second on the list, followed by the Orioles (1983) and Pirates (1979).
It only took us 96 days to crown a champion in this abbreviated 2020 season. Here's hoping circumstances allow for a much better 2021. But it will be fun-filled regardless, and we'll be along for the ride. It's only 155 days away.
As always, a tremendous thank-you to the incredible Baseball Reference, recently rebranded as "Stathead", for so much of the information that powers this column throughout the year. If you like researching stuff like this yourself, it's well worth the $8 per month. Also a shout-out to Retrosheet for their trove of pre-1900 data, and our friends at the other sites listed on the right-side links bar. We couldn't do it without you.
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