WORLD SERIES GAME 3: Walker Buehler continues his postseason dominance with an excellent outing
BASE HIT: Max Muncy celebrates after hitting a 2-RBI single in the top of the third inning in Game 3 of the World Series on Friday.
October 27, 2020
Again, just as in Game 2, the winner of Game 3 was the first team to score. This time, the Dodgers started the scoring early and never let up.
Like all Dodgetober fans, I did not watch this game and got caught up after Havdalah by watching highlights of the best plays and runs. As I saw in the newspaper in the morning, the Dodgers had won and it seemed like it put smiles on the faces of all the Dodger fans who I know.
The starting pitchers in this game had both been dominant during this year’s postseason, but the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler pitched better than the Rays’ Charlie Morton, giving up just one run compared to Morton’s five.
Justin Turner tied a franchise record by hitting his 11th home run in the postseason; he would break the record, hitting his 12th in Saturday’s Game 4. On Friday, it made the score 1-0 in the first inning.
Buehler started the game off strong with multiple fastballs that were overpowering to the hitters. He never slowed down from there.
At the top of the third inning, with two outs Corey Seager was hit by a pitch and Turner hit a double to advance him to 3rd base. The next batter, Max Muncy, hit a single up the middle to make the lead 3-0.
The Dodgers continued this dominance in the fourth inning. Cody Bellinger started off with a single to right field. Then after one out and another single, Austin Barnes laid down a bunt to the Rays’ first baseman, who tried to get the sure out at home leaving Bellinger to score.
Mookie Betts followed Barnes and singled to center field, scoring Joc Pederson who had reached base on a single earlier in the inning. Betts then stole his third base of the series to reach second base. The inning ended with Seager grounding out, and now the score was 5-0..
As Buehler entered his fifth inning, he had only given up one baserunner on a walk. This meant that he had a no-hitter thus far, but it ended with Mauel Margot hitting a double. With two outs in that same inning, Buehler gave up another double, this time to Willy Adames, scoring Margot and making the score 5-1.
Morton was removed from the game during the fifth inning after giving up five runs on eight baserunners while striking out six. Buehler pitched the following inning and finished the game with 10 strikeouts, giving up one run on four baserunners.
A pitching matchup that a fan could only dream of had become a one-sided game. It was very surprising as Morton had a 0.57 ERA coming into this game.
Dominating equally as hitters, the Dodger kept up the pressure. In the top of the sixth, Austin Barnes hit his first home run of the World Series to put them up 6-1. The next run was in the bottom of the ninth.
The Dodgers brought in Kenley Jansen to get the final three outs of the game. With the Rays’ hottest hitter up, he threw a cutter — a pitch that comes inside to a lefty and outside to a righty when Jansen pitches. It usually has slight movement but just enough to cause the batter to hit the ball weakly. The pitch that Jansen threw to Randy Arozarena didn’t have any movement.
When a pitch that’s not a four-seam fastball doesn’t have movement, it becomes a very easy pitch to hit. Arozarena clobbered the ball to left field and made the score 6-2, which ended up being the final score.
Once the Dodgers scored one run they kept on scoring. The Dodgers now had the advantage in the series — at least until the events of Saturday’s crazy game.
