Seven months after the Dodgers began the Major League Baseball season in Tokyo, Japan, they will be the protagonists of the last battle of the season in Toronto, Canada. The Blue Jays stand in the way of the reigning champions in the decisive World Series showdown, in which both teams will be looking to make history.
The Dodgers want to become the first team with two consecutive titles since the Yankees’ three-peat between 1998 and 2000, while the Blue Jays are looking to break a 32-year drought without being crowned in the best baseball in the world. The fate of both will be decided in a seventh do-or-die game, a scenario they have experienced in the past.
The Dodgers: A century of game 7
With a century-long history, the Dodgers have faced a seventh game 10 times in postseason series, with an even record of five wins and five losses. Their first duel in these life-and-death circumstances was more than a century ago, in the 1920 World Series, when they were called the Brooklyn Robins.
On that occasion, they faced the Cleveland Indians and lost the seventh game by a shutout (3-0) and were left without the MLB title. Their streak of defeats in game 7 of the postseason extended until 1952, with setbacks in the Fall Classics of 1947 and 1952 against the Yankees.
The first time the Dodgers won a Game 7 in the playoffs was in the 1955 World Series, with a fantastic pitching performance by Johnny Podres, who silenced the Bronx Bombers. The left-hander pitched nine scoreless innings and gave the crown to a team full of stars such as Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Don Zimmer and Sandy Amoros.
However, the following year the Yankees took revenge and gave them a taste of their own medicine in the seventh game of the Fall Classic: a 9-0 shutout and relentless punishment from the stellar Yogi Berra, who hit a pair of home runs and drove in four runs.
After this episode, the Dodgers have been dominant with four wins and only one loss in Game 7s in the postseason between 1965 and 2020. The four wins:
- 1965 World Series vs. Minnesota
- 1988 Championship Series vs. Mets
- 2018 Championship Series vs. Milwaukee
- 1988 Championship Series vs. Atlanta
His only loss came in the 2017 World Series against Houston, a game that is well remembered for the subsequent Astros sign-stealing scandal.
Of all the Dodgers’ appearances in Game 7 of the playoffs, seven have been in World Series and their record is not positive: just one win and six failures. Will this trend change against the Blue Jays?
Toronto, against history
The Blue Jays have only played two Game 7s in the postseason. The first memory is a distant one, from the 1985 Championship Series, when they faced and lost to the Royals, who went on to win the championship that season. The more recent episode is just a few days ago, when they defeated the Mariners for the American League pennant.
Toronto will have to defy the history of home teams in World Series Game 7s, who have a negative record of 20 wins and 24 losses, with four consecutive failures between 2014 and 2019. In that span, Kansas City, Cleveland, the Dodgers and Houston all fell as hosts in decisive games.
Read the full article here
