The 2020 MLB World Series is currently being played at Globe Life Field. It is hard to imagine that the first playoff games played at the new stadium will not be by the hometown Texas Rangers. However, the October Classic is a matchup between the second highest payroll in baseball and the third lowest payroll in baseball. That would be the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays. Both respectively won their divisions and were both the number one seed heading into the playoffs. 

Any casual baseball fan would look at the Rays lineup and not know a single player. That is because they do not sign big-money players. The only time they have done that this decade was for Charlie Morton in 2019. That signing definitely paid out for them last season as Morton finished the top three in Cy Young Voting behind Justin Verlander (winner) and Gerrit Cole. 

The Rays are very good at being able to build a team full of guys that just want to win and that is exactly what they are doing. In the first round of the playoffs, they faced a very young and inexperienced Toronto Blue Jays team. The Rays handled business by sweeping them 2-0. In the next round, they would face their division rival the New York Yankees. The Rays lost game one but managed to win two in a row to take a 2-1 lead heading into game four. The Yankees came out strong in that game and forced a game five. Tyler Glasnow got the ball in game five for the Rays only on two days of rest. Two days was just enough for the Rays to advance and get a game five victory 3-1 over their rivals the New York Yankees. 

In the ALCS they would face whom they lost to last year in the divisional round to the cheating Houston Astros. The Rays quickly went up 3-0 in the seven-game series and would fall to the Astros in the next three. Heading into game seven the former Astro Charlie Morton gets the ball. Morton was completely dominant in game seven leading the Rays to victory and an eventual matchup against the Dodgers.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were the clear favorite to make it out of the National League but it was not as easy as they would’ve hoped it would be. The first two rounds were cake-walks as the Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 and then took care of their division rival the San Diego Padres in a 3-1 series. Then it got a bit difficult.

The Atlanta Braves, who didn’t lose a single game in the playoffs until this series, took out the Dodgers in game one of the NLCS. The Braves also managed to take game two but the Dodgers would bounce back and win game three. Then the Atlanta Braves would win game four to take a 3-1 NLCS lead. But Corey Seager led the Dodgers to make a remarkable comeback and go to the World Series for the third time in four years.

In game one of the World Series, the Dodgers looked totally dominant in an 8-3 victory led by the all-time great Clayton Kershaw who threw for six innings with eight strikeouts and one earned run. 

Blake Snell took the mound in game 2 and carried the Rays to a much-needed game two win 6-4 tying the series up 1-1. Walker Buehler, who has been dealing with a blister on his right hand, was able to overcome the slight issue and lead the Dodgers to a 6-2 game three win with 10 strikeouts in six innings pitched. Heading into game 4 the Dodgers had a 2-1 series lead with Julio Urias on the mound for the Dodgers and Charlie Morton on the mound for the Rays. 

Game four was back and forth the entire 9 innings and it eventually led to an amazing bottom of the ninth for the Rays. The pinch hitter Brett Philips came up huge with a two-run single walking off the game to tie the series up at two games. This series has been nothing short of fun and exciting.