Chapter 19: 2020, The Year the Bubble Never Bursts
The Dodgers make a big acquisition and then wait out a virus that permanently reshapes human society only to win it all while playing in suburban Dallas
In November 2019, Mike Fiers, who pitched for Houston in 2017, told Evan Drelich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that the Astros used to employ a camera in center field to steal catcher’s signs which were later relayed to hitters through a system of banging sounds on a trash can. The reaction to this was huge. Carlos Beltran, who was one of the originators of the plan, decides not to take the Mets managerial job. Astros manager A.J. Finch loses his job along with G.M. Jeffrey Luhnow. Boston manager Alex Cora is suspended for a year for his complicity. The anger lasts to this day.
On December 12. 2019, a hospital in Wuhan, China reports that it has a cluster of patients that have a type of pneumonia that doesn’t respond well to normal treatments. Public health officials investigate and on December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization takes over the investigation.
The culprit is a type of virus called a coronavirus. The media call it the “Wuhan Virus”, but the WHO doesn’t like using place names to identify diseases. So the virus gets called SARS-CoV-2 at first before they settle on the name of COVID-19 for “coronavirus disease first identified in 2019.”1
We live in a big world and the virus starts to spread. Eventually Tom Hanks gets it. Now, it’s serious. Well, that and people are dying. It’s not a fun time. And the anger and horror over this virus still last to this day.
Before the world shuts down to figure out how to deal with an unknown potentially lethal virus, the more mundane parts of the world go on. Like the Boston Red Sox deciding that they cannot re-sign their star right fielder Mookie Betts. The Dodgers are happy to take Betts off the Red Sox hands and eventually give him a long and expensive contract. The Dodgers lose only one player of consequence, outfielder Alex Verdugo.
Dodgers fans were eager to see Betts, but there was a problem. There seemed to be no way to safely play baseball games. Much of the season was canceled. But it finally started on July 23 with several modifications.
The season would be 60 games long.
All games would be played in empty stadiums.
The designated hitter would be used in all games.
Any doubleheaders would consist of two seven inning games.
Any game that went to extra innings would have each half inning start with a runner on second base.
Teams would play only games in their own division and the corresponding division in the other league.
There would be no minor league season. Teams would keep players at their minor league complexes in the longest extended spring training ever.
The 2020 Dodgers, in this oddest of seasons, thrived. They dominated their competition with a 43-17 record, the best in all of baseball. Only Tampa Bay in the AL won at least 40 games.
Betts hit 16 homers in the short season to lead the potent Dodgers attack. AJ Pollock also hit 16 homers and Corey Seager belted 15. But the 2019 MVP, Cody Bellinger hit just 12 homers and batted only .239.
With pitchers not having a regular spring training, no pitcher tossed many inning. Clayton Kershaw led the staff with 58 1/3 IP. Dustin May, the Opening Day starter, had 56 IP.
The truncated season led MLB to expand the playoffs to 16 teams overall. The top two teams in each division automatically made the playoffs and then the two best teams in each league that finished below second made the tournament.
The first round, called the Wild Card Series, would be best of three, with all the games played at the home park of the team with the better record. The Dodgers drew Milwaukee, who finished fourth in the Central with a 29-31 record. The Brewers were offensively challenged all year and went down meekly, losing two straight games by a 4-2 and a 3-0 score. In the second game, Kershaw fanned 13 in eight innings.
The final three rounds would be played at neutral sites so teams could maintain something of a “bubble” like the NBA had used for its playoffs in Florida. The Dodgers, as the team, with the best record earned the right to play all of its remaining games in the same place. That was not Dodger Stadium, which would host American League action, but rather Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Next for the Dodgers was the Division Series against a San Diego team that had made rapid improvement over the year and featured rookie Fernando Tatis, Jr. as well as former Dodgers for a half season, Manny Machado.
The Dodgers quieted the Padres in Game 1, winning 5-1 as five Dodgers pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts.
Game 2 was a raucous affair with some defensive gems including a home run robbery of Tatis in center field by Bellinger to keep the Dodgers ahead. The Dodgers led throughout, but Kenley Jansen had a shaky ninth, allowing two runs, forcing Joe Kelly to come in to get the save.
Padres manager Jayce Tingler ran out 11 different pitchers in Game 3 to keep the series going, but the Dodgers cruised to a 12-3. The Dodgers had no homers in the game but had 14 hits, drew 9 walks, and also had two HBPs. Catcher Will Smith was 5 for 6 in the game.
The NLCS brought in a familiar playoff foe in Atlanta, although this would be the team’s first meeting in an NLCS. Atlanta surprised the Dodgers by taking the first two games. Game 1 was 1-1 until the ninth when Atlanta scored four runs with homers from Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies. In Game 2, Atlanta led 8-3 in the ninth and the Dodgers rallied to score four and had Bellinger on third base with two outs, but Pollock grounded out to end the game.
Game 3 saw the Dodgers score 11 runs in the first inning en route to an easy 15-3 win, Atlanta bounced back with a 10-3 win thanks to a six-run sixth against Kershaw and reliever Victor Gonzalez.
The Dodgers needed three straight wins to keep the season going. They had never won any playoff series when they had trailed 3-1 in franchise history.
Game 5 was the next day as there were no days off in the series. Atlanta had a 2-1 lead in the sixth when Atlanta reliever Will Smith faced Dodger catcher Will Smith with two runners on. The Los Angeles version won the battle with a 3-run homer that led to a 7-3 win.
The Dodgers took Game 6 3-1 with all the Loa Angeles scoring in the first. Jansen got the save to set up a winner take all Game 7.
Dave Roberts and the Dodgers analysts planned for a bullpen game. May started and gave up a first inning run. Tony Gonsolin relieved and gave up a homer to Dansby Swanson to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. Will Smith tied it for the Dodgers with a 2-run single in the third.
Riley edged Atlanta ahead again in the fourth with an RBI single that knocked Gonsolin out and brought in Blake Treinen. Enrique Hernandez tied the game in the sixth with a homer off of A.J. Minter. And in the eighth, Bellinger homered off Chris Martin. The Dodgers won the game and the series 4-3. Julio Urias pitched the last three innings for the win with Jansen not being used.
Now there was one more obstacle for the Dodgers: the Tampa Bay Rays, who prevented a Dodgers-Astros showdown after winning the ALCS in seven games. The Rays were making their second World Series appearance, losing to the Phillies in 2008. There would be fans in the seats for the games as Texas health authorities allowed around 12,000 fans into the stadium.
Game 1 was a breeze for the Dodgers as Kershaw pitched well and Belinger and Betts homered in an 8-3 win. The Rays tied the series with a 6-4 win behind two homers from Brandon Lowe.
Even though the games were played in one place, there was a “travel day” between Games 3 and 4. The Dodgers had little trouble in Game 3, winning 6-2 and Buehler struck out 10 Rays in six innings. Rookie Randy Randy Arozarena hit his eighth homer of the postseason in the ninth off of Jansen.
Game 4 looked to be a nightmare game for the Dodgers. It was a seesaw affair that saw the Dodgers take a 7-6 lead to the ninth with Jansen coming into to try lock down the win and a commanding 3-1 series lead. The Rays had two on with two outs, but were stuck having to bat Brett Phillips who had just three hits in 20 regular season at bats for the Rays after being acquired from the Royals. What followed is hard to describe. But I shall try.
Jansen got ahead of Phillips 1-2, but his fourth pitch was out over the plate and Phillips lined it into center. Chris Taylor charged the ball, but it bounced off his glove. Kevin Kiermaier scored the tying run. Arozarena was charging around third trying to score the winning run, but slipped and fell. Taylor recovered the ball and threw home to Smith who was preparing to make a sweep tag on Arozarena. However, there was no Arozarena. Nor was there a ball in Smith’s glove anymore. Arozarena got up and scored the winning run. The Series was tied 2-2.
Game 5 was a night when the Narrative was told to go home. Kershaw faced Tyler Glasnow of Tampa Bay. The Dodgers had a 3-2 lead in the fourth. Kershaw lost control of the strike zone and walked two batters and allowed Manuel Margot to steal second and move up on an error by Taylor, now at second base.
With two outs and Brandon Lowe at bat, Margot tried for a straight steal of home. Kershaw caught sight of Margot, stepped off and delivered a strike to Barnes at home who tagged out Margot to end the inning. The Dodgers held on for a 4-2 win with Blake Treinen getting the save for Kershaw.
With a chance to win their first World Series in 22 years, the Dodgers started rookie Tony Gonsolin. The Rays started Blake Snell, a former Cy Young Award winner.
Gonsolin lasted just 1 1/3 innings, giving up Arozarena’s 10th home run of the postseason. Snell held the Dodgers to just one hit through five innings.
With one out in the sixth, Austin Barnes singled for the Dodgers second hit. Rays manager Kevin Cash then made a fateful decision. He pulled Snell, whom he rarely used to face batters more than twice in a game, in favor of Nick Anderson. Betts doubled, Anderson threw a wild pitch to score Barnes with the tying run and Seager scored Betts, who broke on contact and easily beat the throw home. The Dodgers were up 2-1 and needed nine more outs for a championship.
Who would be asked to get those nine outs? Dave Roberts first turned to rookie Brusdar Graterol who got two outs, but gave up a hit. Then he turned to lefty Julio Urias who got the final seven outs. Betts2 added an insurance run with a homer.
Amid the very 2020 instance of Justin Turner being pulled midgame because of a positive COVID test, the Dodgers had finally prevailed in a season that was highly irregular.3
Because of COVID, there was no parade for the team (the NBA Champion Lakers could empathize). There were baseball pundits (or mostly just people complaining on social media) that decried that the World Series win didn’t really count because it wasn’t a full season.
However, there is a 2020 World Series trophy. And the Los Angeles Dodgers won it. And it’s highly doubtful that the 29 other teams would have turned it down if they had won it either.
And so we could say goodbye to the Narrative.
But we did not.
If the paper identifying the virus had been published a day later, we’d all be talking about COVID-20, which sounds less weird.
Betts and Kelly joined a select group of players who have played on teams that beat the Dodgers in the World Series and then played for a Dodgers World Series winners. The others are Bill Skowron and Jay Johnstone. David Price could have joined the group, but he opted out of playing in the 2020 season. Ryan Brasier (2018 Red Sox) could join this group if the Dodgers win the World Series in 2023. Jake Marisnick (2017 Astros) could also, but he is injured and will not play in the postseason.
The handling of Turner’s positive test was a big news story for about three days and has since been memory holed like a lot of stuff about COVID.
This just might be my favourite one yet!
I’m glad you didn’t decide to write one paragraph for each division winner. These full length posts are wonderful.