Dodgers manager Dave Roberts celebrates the team’s 2020 World Series win with pitcher Clayton Kershaw. Photo credit: Screen shot, @Sportsnet, via Twitter

The Los Angeles Dodgers won their first World Series championship since 1988 Tuesday, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1, to win the best-of-seven series four games to two.

Mookie Betts set up the tying run with a sixth-inning double. He scored the go-ahead run and added an insurance run by homering leading off the bottom of the eighth of Game 6 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Tex.

Corey Seager, who hit .400, received the Willie Mays World Series MVP Award. Seager was also the MVP of the National League Championship Series, which the Dodgers won in seven games over the Atlanta Braves.

He is the first player to be the MVP of a championship series and World Series in the same year.

The Dodgers advanced to the NLCS after sweeping NL West rivals San Diego Padres in the NL Division Series.

Their manager, Dave Roberts, both played for the Padres and served as coach. He also has deep community connections in North County, from his own prep days at Rancho Buena Vista High in Vista to to his children’s schooling.

Roberts, who played for both the Dodgers and the Padres, joined the Padres after his retirement, serving in the front office, and as a coach from 2011-15. He began his Dodger managing career in 2016.

He took the team to the World Series in 2017-18, but lost both times, first to the Houston Astros, then to the Boston Red Sox.

The Rays advanced to the World Series after defeating the Astros at Petco Park, which hosted two playoff rounds because of the pandemic.

On Tuesday, Austin Barnes singled off Blake Snell with one out in the sixth. The hit prompted Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash to replace Snell, who was pitching a two-hitter, with Nick Anderson.

Betts, the first batter to face Anderson, doubled, advancing Barnes to third. Barnes scored the tying run on Anderson’s wild pitch.

Seager, the next batter, hit a ground ball to Rays’ first baseman Ji-Man Choi. Betts broke for home and beat Choi’s throw to the plate.

In a season delayed by the pandemic, though, COVID-19 reared its head during the World Series.

Dodger third baseman Justin Turner left the game before the start of the eighth inning because of a positive coronavirus test, Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed.

Later, despite the positive result, Turner was spotted celebrating on the field, both with a mask and without. He took a spot in the team picture and hoisted the World Series trophy.

– Staff and wire reports
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