On this day in Dodgers history, Los Angeles finally ended its championship drought in dramatic fashion, beating the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1, in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series.
The turning point came in the third inning, with the Rays still holding a 1-0 lead and Blake Snell rolling. Snell had retired the Dodgers after a leadoff single by Chris Taylor, and Los Angeles didn’t put another runner on until the sixth. Then Austin Barnes singled with one out, and Kevin Cash made the move that changed everything by going to his bullpen.
The decision backfired immediately. Mookie Betts doubled off Nick Anderson, and Barnes came around to score on a wild pitch to tie the game.
“It was kind of like a sigh of relief,” Betts would say of Snell being removed. “Had he stayed in that game he may have pitched a complete game.
I don’t know exactly what would’ve happened, but he was rolling. He was pitching really, really well.
“That was the Cy Young Snell that came. Once he came out of the game it was a breath of fresh air.
We’d had some pretty decent at-bats off their bullpen guys, so we figured we could scratch one across since we saw the bullpen guys a little better. Snell, got to tip your cap.
He did amazing.”
From there, the Dodgers kept pushing. Corey Seager reached on a fielder’s choice to give L.A. the lead, and Betts added a solo homer in the eighth for insurance.
Julio Urias then slammed the door in relief. He entered with a runner on and two outs in the seventh, then struck out four across 2.1 scoreless innings to earn the save.
The win capped the Dodgers’ long wait for another title after their 1988 championship. They were favored to repeat after winning a franchise-record-tying 106 games, but they fell to the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series.
MLB still hasn’t had a repeat champion since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. That remained the case in 2022, when the Braves were knocked out by the Philadelphia Phillies, and again in 2023, when the Texas Rangers eliminated the Houston Astros to reach the World Series.
The Dodgers now have eight World Series titles, which ranks sixth in MLB history.
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