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Well, that’s it.
After a fairy tale regular season , a dominant run through most of the post-season, and six games of a wild World Series, it all ended for the Dodgers on Wednesday night with a 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros in a decisive Game 7.
The Dodgers struggled right out of the gate, giving up five runs in the first two innings. Astro George Springer homered off of starter Yu Darvish in the second, tying the record for most home runs by a single player in the World Series with five:
SPRINGER DINGER WOW! @astros take the 5-0 lead in the 2nd. #WorldSeries https://t.co/UyUT4g3VXB
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) November 2, 2017
Then...well, not much of note happened after that. Clayton Kershaw came in to throw four scoreless innings, but the Dodgers couldn't muster much offense. Aside from an Andre Ethier RBI in the sixth, the team couldn't bring anyone home. Cody Bellinger struck out three times. Everyone else grounded out or flew out. Yadda yadda yadda. Jaleel White—a.k.a. Steve Urkel—waved a Dodgers flag (photo above); not that it matters, but it gave us something to mention.
The loss caps off a fairly insane World Series that sent us through a roller coaster of emotions. Game 2 saw the Astros squeak by in 11 innings, leaving us to think back to several moments that could have turned the game around for the Dodgers (What if Yasiel Puig had made that attempted diving catch? What if Ross Stripling hadn’t given up that walk?).
Somehow, Game 5 proved to be even more unpredictable. The slugfest started with a three-run lead by the Dodgers in the first, and ended in the 10th inning with an Alex Bregman walk-off single that resulted in a 13-12 win for Houston. The game lasted a little over five hours, and saw the Astros and Dodgers break the record for the most combined homers in a World Series (the record was last formed in 2002 between the then-Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants).
Other insane stuff happened.
Like when pitchers for both the Astros and the Dodgers said the baseballs were “juiced” and “slick,” which may have resulted in the high number of home runs.
Or when this Astros fan stole a home run ball from a woman and threw it back at the Dodgers (the homer was hit by Puig).
Or, on a more serious note, when Yuli Gurriel made a racist gesture and remark in Game 3 to mock Darvish, which led Rich Hill to encourage Dodger Stadium to cast a hail of boos down on Gurriel.
And this is only mentioning some of the more notable things to have happened in this series.
Yeah, it's awful it had to end this way. The worst part was how anti-climactic it was. But tomorrow's another day, and there are future seasons to be played. Have a good night, and stay blue.
