#Shortstops: A Win at Home Away from Home
Just two years after Mookie Betts helped the Boston Red Sox win the 2018 World Series, he was on the championship field again – but this time with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His team wasn’t the only thing different about this World Series appearance, though: The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting protective measures drastically altered the structure of the series for players and fans alike.
A typical World Series takes place across two stadiums: The respective home fields of the represented National League and American League teams competing for the trophy. The team with the better regular season record claims home field advantage, hosting Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 (if necessary); the other team hosts Games 3, 4 and 5. In 2020, however, there was no traveling to and from home stadiums during the championship series. In fact, there were no home stadiums at all. Due to restrictions, the Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays battled it out at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, home of the Texas Rangers. Both teams were still designated as home or away depending on their record. But there was no familiar field, no frantic fans shouting behind them that usually have the power to make that home field advantage so sweet.
Betts wore a Dodgers road jersey for each of the Dodgers’ designated away games (Games 3, 4 and 5). The Dodgers took Game 3, with Betts driving in the second run of the fourth inning with two outs and two strikes on the board, continuing a series trend for his team. He demonstrated the sort of persistent attitude present in so many major league players – persistence to win, but to also just play at all in those so-often-called “unprecedented times.”
“Obviously, there are two outs, but you can still build an inning… not give away at-bats,” Betts said in a postgame interview. “That’s just the recipe for that. That’s how you win a World Series.”
With this determined effort from him and his teammates, the Dodgers were now up over the Rays in the series 2-games-to-1.
In Game 4, however, the Rays put some offensive pressure on LA. Betts went 0-for-5 that night, though his teammates put up some impressive numbers – a combined seven runs scored. Ultimately, this effort was not enough, as the Rays won the game with eight runs and tied the series. The Dodgers had some work to do.
It wasn’t long before Game 5 saw the Dodgers back on top, with Betts hitting a double off of Tyler Glasnow and scoring a run. It would be one of four runs that secured the Dodgers’ win. They were now up 3-games-to-2 over the Rays and would return to “home field” advantage in Game 6 – the game they wound up winning it all.
Though Betts put up relatively modest numbers in the Rays’ “homestand,” his contributions aided the Dodgers to their first World Series win since 1988 and their first of the decade; they would soon follow up with another win in 2024 against the New York Yankees.
His road jersey from the 2020 World Series is part of the Hall of Fame’s collection.
Maeve Stanford is a 2025 programming intern in the Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Leadership Development
