On a night Clayton Kershaw and Tyler Glasnow both labored through their respective outings, the Los Angeles Dodgers took an early lead and used it to come away with a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 of the World Series.
This year marked the 47th time in World Series history it was tied 2-2. Of previous 46 cases, the winner of Game 5 has won the series 30 times (65%).
If there were any questions how the Dodgers would recover from a deflating loss, those were quickly answered as Mookie Betts opened the game with a double and Corey Seager followed with an RBI single.
Seager’s aggressiveness on the basepaths turned into another run as Cody Bellinger’s infield single into the shift scored him. Glasnow’s troubles continued in the second as Joc Pederson led off with a home to left-center field.
It was one of two homers Glasnow surrendered as Max Muncy doubled the Dodgers’ lead with his solo blast in the fifth inning. The Rays’ right-hander fought a high pitch count but managed to give the Rays five innings to help preserve a bullpen that followed him with scoreless work.
That kept the pressure on Kershaw, who had a more manageable pitch count faced traffic throughout essentially all of his 5.2 innings pitched. The Rays had the leadoff man reach in each of the first four frames.
They only managed to capitalize in the third, when Yandy Díaz hit a slicing drive down the right-field line to score Kevin Kiermaier, who started the inning with a single. Betts misjudged the ankle and saw the ball skip by him, resulting in a triple for Díaz.
Randy Arozarena followed with an RBI single to pull the Rays within a run. They appeared prime to at least tie the game when Manuel Margot led off the fifth inning with a walk, stole second base and took third when Chris Taylor inexplicably dropped the throw.
Hunter Renfroe’s walk put runners at the corners, but Kershaw retired the next two batters. Then as Kershaw faced Kiermaier, Margot attempted to time a steal of home. Kershaw stepped off the rubber and threw to Austin Barnes, who got the tag down just in time.
Kershaw remained in the game for the sixth inning and picked up two quick outs on as many pitches. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts nonetheless came with the hook, and Dustin May provided 1.2 innings.
He gave way to Victor Gonzalez, who issued a walk upon entering the game. That made Arozarena the go-ahead run at the plate. He flied out on the first pitch and Brandon Lowe also was retired.
Blake Treinen took over in the ninth for a third appearance in as many days and worked around a leadoff single to convert his first career postseason save.
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