Dodgers face Rays in World Series, but did they want chance for revenge vs. Astros?
When the Los Angeles Dodgers reached the World Series in 2017, their opponent was the Houston Astros.
It was competitive series, taken to seven games, and the Astros found a way to win Game 7 at Dodger Stadium to take home the first world championship in franchise history.
Two years later, that triumph was forever tainted by a cheating scandal in which the Astros used an illegal camera to steal signals from the opposing catcher in home games and relay the information to hitters in real time by banging on a trash can.
A look at Houston’s home/road splits in the World Series certainly can make those vanquished Dodgers wonder if everything was on the up and up.
And maybe want some revenge in another World Series, like the one they are about to play.
Alas, the Astros are at home after being knocked out of the postseason Saturday by the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
The Rays and Dodgers, who topped the Atlanta Braves on Sunday to win the National League Championship Series in seven games, open the 116th Fall Classic on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field.
The Dodgers aren’t looking back at the Astros, or so they say.
“The Rays are a very formidable opponent, and winning the World Series is going to be special no matter who you play,” left-hander Clayton Kershaw said. “2017 is over. We can’t look back on that. Hmm, yeah. All I’ll say is this World Series is all we’re preparing for now.”
Kershaw, the Dallas native, was smirking through part of the answer, either because he couldn’t say what he wanted or he found the question ridiculous. It might have been a combination of both.
He will start Game 1 against the Rays in what will be his fifth World Series start. The first two came against the Astros.
He struck out 11 and allowed one run in three hits over seven innings in the series opener, but allowed six runs in four innings in Game 5. He struck out two and walked five.
Kershaw is one of nine Dodgers who were on the NLCS roster who were on the 2017 World Series roster. Reliever Joe Kelly was not one of them, but he was the most vocal critic of the Astros during the season.
The Dodgers and Astros met in the first week of the season at Houston, and Kelly intentionally threw at Astros star Alex Bregman. As he left the mound after the inning, he infamously mocked shortstop Carlos Correa, making a crybaby face and cursing at him.
That cause the benches to empty. Kelly was suspended eight games.
He was miffed because the players were granted immunity from penalties while coaches and executives took the fall. Manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Lunhow were fired, and the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets fired managers Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran for their roles in the 2017 scandal.
“The people who took the fall for what happened is nonsense,” Kelly said in August on a podcast. “Yes, everyone is involved. But the way that was run over there was not from coaching staff.
“ ... They’re not the head boss in charge of that thing. It’s the players. So now the players get the immunity, and all they do is go snitch ... and they don’t have to get fined, they don’t have to lose games.”
Center fielder Cody Bellinger let the Astros have it in February at spring training after the Astros’ staged apologies from their camp in Florida.
Not only did he think the Astros had cheated to win the World Series, he felt that Jose Altuve cheated Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees out of the 2017 American League MVP award.
The punishment handed down by commissioner Rob Manfred, which included one-year suspensions for Hinch and Lunhow and the loss of multiple draft picks, was far too light on the players.
“I thought Manfred’s punishment was weak, giving them immunity,” Bellinger said. “I mean, these guys were cheating for three years. I think what people don’t realize is Altuve stole an MVP from Judge in ‘17. Everyone knows they stole the ring from us.”
The Dodgers will have to take comfort in knowing that the Astros are watching the World Series rather than playing it.
This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 6:48 PM.
