World News – AU – Kershaw, MOON stars shine, Dodgers lead Rays 8-3 in series

Arlington, TX • Clayton Kershaw, Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts and Los Angeles Dodgers left the Tampa Bay Rays stranded to start a strangest world series played out amid pandemic

Kershaw dominated for six innings, Bellinger and Betts made a homerun, and the Dodgers chased a savage Tyler Glasnow in the fifth inning for an 8-3 victory on Tuesday night in the first series held at a neutral site

A crowd limited by the coronavirus to 11,388 at Globe Life Field, the Texas Rangers’ new $ 1.2 billion household, marked baseball’s smallest event in 111 years

« It’s hard not to think about winning It’s hard not to think about what it could be, » said Kershaw « Constantly keep putting this in your brain: tomorrow, win tomorrow, win tomorrow, win tomorrow You do this three more times and you can think about it as much as you want « 

A regular season star with an erratic playoff history, Kershaw looked like the ace who so often plays on summer nights with the San Gabriel Mountains behind him at Dodger Stadium With those staggered games, the left-hander of 32-year-old ended up pitching not far from his off-season home in Dallas

Three-time award winner Cy Young allowed one run and two hits, struck out eight and walked one He induced 19 jumps and misses in his 78 throws – more than his previous three series starts combined

« You can totally appreciate and see why he makes it to the Hall of Fame someday every time he’s done, » said Rays manager Kevin Cash

Kershaw threw nine balls in the first, when he failed a pair of runners, then threw nine more over the next three innings

« He had a game plan to try and really calm things down from there and he executed, » said Kevin Kiermeier, who ended Kershaw’s 13-streak and retired consecutively with a fifth inning homerun which reduced the Rays deficit to 2-1

Five-time ERA champion Kershaw improved to 2-2 in the World Series and 12-12 in the playoffs, a shadow of his 175-76 regular season record

Game 2 is on Wednesday night The Dodgers, who posted the best majors record in the shortened season and showed all of their stars in Game 1, plan to launch a collection of pitchers pitched by Tony Gonsolin against Rays ace Blake Snell

Bellinger, the 2019 NL MVP who started the opener with a 114 career batting average in 12 World Series games, had the Dodgers leading in fourth with a two-run homerun in the off Glasnow, having no problem driving a 98 mph throw into the center-right Dodgers’ enclosure

Bellinger, whose seventh inning homeroom put the Dodgers in the lead in Game 7 of the NL Championship on Sunday, raised an arm triumphantly as Glasnow spun around and watched the ball go out

He wiggled his feet, patting gently as he crossed the plate and celebrated by dancing towards the canoe, a sign he remembered jumping his right shoulder during the boisterous festivities two nights earlier Bellinger topped off his evening by jumping over the 6-foot central court wall in the ninth, depriving Austin Meadows of a possible home run

« I said it today before the game: if I hit one, I don’t hit nobody’s arm, » Bellinger said « I’m going straight to the foot, and that was pretty funny »

Betts, brilliant throughout October but slumping to plate, added their first playoff homerun for the Dodgers, a solo shot in sixth from Josh Fleming

Betts had two hits, scored two runs and stole two goals in the four-run fifth, when Corey Seager slipped one as Los Angeles became the first team to steal three goals in a streak since the New York Giants in 1912 5 vs. Boston

« Stolen bases are one thing for me This is how I create races and wreak havoc on base paths, » he said

After helping Boston beat the Dodgers in the 2018 Series, Betts was traded to LA ahead of this season The former AL MVP showed his defensive skills in the NLCS with three superb catches

Los Angeles is in the series for the third time in four years, but is seeking its first title since the team led by Kirk Gibson and Orel Hershiser in 1988 After an unusual LCS of games over seven consecutive days, the Dodgers have planned a full release for the next game

After a regular season without fans, MLB resumed ticket sales with a limited amount for the NLCS at Globe Life and maintained that by allowing about 28% of the capacity to be filled at the 40,518 stadium. building, where the roof was open The crowd was widely dispersed and was the smallest in the series as 10,535 attended Game 6 between the Pirates and the Tigers at Bennett Park in Detroit in 1909, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

« They’re everywhere They’re always coming out, » Kershaw said. « And so as far as a game we wished it had been at Dodger Stadium and the 56,000 chants, after everything that has happened this season , to have 10-, 11,000 people in the stands and big Dodger fans , that’s pretty cool and it definitely helps us « 

Glasnow was chased after 4 1/3 innings with an ominous pitching line that included three hits, six runs, six goals and eight strikeouts He launched a career of 112 shots and became the first in walk six or more in a streak since Edwin Jackson of St Louis in Game 4 of 2011 Glasnow counted three balls on 12 of 23 batters

Los Angeles widened its lead to 4-1 in the fifth, when Rays manager Kevin Cash left Glasnow to face southpaw Max Muncy with runners on the corners Muncy hit a scorer against the first player. Yandy Diaz goal with the infield, and Betts beat a strong but slightly disconnected pitch with a head-first slide past wide receiver Mike Zunino

Will Smith finished Glasnow with an RBI single, and Chris Taylor and pinch hitter Kike Hernandez followed with singles scoring a run from Ryan Yarbrough for a 6-1 lead

Pinch hitter Mike Brosseau and Kiermaier made a points single in the seventh against Victor Gonzalez, who snagged Zunino’s practice line and doubled Brosseau on second base for a late inning double play

Kershaw took his playoff total to 201 strikeouts, passing John Smoltz (199) for second behind Justin Verlander’s 205

Glasnow attended William S Hart High School in Santa Clarita, California, the same school that produced Bob Walk, who started and won the 1980 Series opener for Philadelphia

Snell (4-2) lost Game 6 to Houston on Friday, throwing 42 shots in two innings The Dodgers have said they are heading for an empty play in the pen rather than using Walker Buehler for three days off

World Series, Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays