By What had the making of a Hollywood classic quickly turned into a Hollywood nightmare for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night.
After the Dodgers kept their title hopes alive in game six, Los Angeles was filled with confidence.
The city was brimming with pride as parents and grandparents were elated that future generations had the chance to experience what they did in 1988 — a Dodgers’ World Series championship.
It was a chance for Dodgers’ historians to put the Kirk Gibson home run stories to bed and give Los Angeles a new story to tell. It was a story the Dodgers wanted to be told after securing home-field advantage with 104 wins in the regular season — the most the team has had in LA.
Casual Los Angeles sports watchers were barking with the prospect of a major sports team winning a title for the first time since 2010 when the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics.
This ended up not being a Hollywood classic, as our heroes were knocked off by the team in orange.
The Astros sent the crowd of 54,124 into a state of disbelief as they jumped on Yu Darvish in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead.
Darvish, the guy who was supposed to solidify the Dodgers’ rotation, was crushed. In what was intended to be redemption for his disappointing game three performance, turned into a catastrophe.
George Springer, who was a Dodgers’ killer and World Series MVP, put the nail in the coffin as he hit a two-run homer in the second inning to give Houston a decisive 5-0 lead.
Forced into making an early bullpen change, the Dodgers turned to their ace Clayton Kershaw. The shaggy-haired All-Star did what he needed to as he pitched four scoreless innings allowing two hits, while striking out four Astros.
But, as some Dodgers’ enthusiasts have come accustomed to, the offense couldn’t put up enough runs to mount the comeback.
It was a performance reminiscent of the 2008 NBA Championship, when the Lakers were sent home in an embarrassing 39-point loss to the Boston Celtics. This time it was the Dodgers who didn’t have one more comeback up their sleeves.
Going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, the Dodgers only run came from veteran Andre Ethier when he hit a RBI-single in the bottom of the 6th.
That was it for the Dodgers as they weren’t able to muster enough runs on the biggest stage.
It’s a World Series that will be remembered by many and for some it will be one they want to quickly forget. In history, people will also talk about the winding of baseballs and the number of home runs that were hit.
But for the Astros, it’s their first title in the club’s 55-year history. The Astros outhit the Dodgers from the opening game and it proved to be too much for the Dodgers’ pitching staff that was in shambles.
In Los Angeles, fans will have tons of questions this offseason. Why didn’t Clayton Kershaw start? Why didn’t Dave Roberts take out Darvish with Springer up to bat? Where did the Dodgers’ bats go?
In the end one thing will matter — the Astros ended their title-less streak in the Fall Classic.
Winter has come and next year will mark 30 years since the Dodgers’ last title — thus beginning another summer of hope.
Huh? LA last major team championship since 2010…. Poor reporting and fact checking. There is another Staples Center team called the LA Kings that won not 1 but 2 of their league titles in both 2012 and 2014. Your story needs to be updated to reflect this fact. That Championship is called The Stanley Cup.
I really hope you are not a sports writer.