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The Dodgers beat the Rays 3-1.

I must admit, even if I don’t follow the regular baseball season that closely, there is a certain romance to seeing a team clinch the World Series, especially if they haven’t won in a hot minute. The Los Angeles Dodgers were our Cinderella story for this season, not having won a World Series since 1988, which is why when they earned the right to play the Rays this time around, the seats sold like hotcakes. Well, that and the fact that the neutral stadium setting was only at half capacity. Regardless, after a 32 year streak, the Dodgers have finally done it: they’ve won the World Series.

In the six game series against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Dodgers won rather soundly at 3-1. When the game ended, the stadium erupted in whoops and hollers I haven’t seen since the last time I watched The Mighty Ducks. The Dodgers were feeling pretty chuffed with themselves, as they so deserve.

“This is our year,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “We said it. This is our year. Everyone in this ballpark wearing Dodger blue, everyone all over the world wearing Dodger blue never wavered. This is our year. These players right here showed what toughness is all about. Resiliency. I’ve never been around a group that’s closer, that’s tougher, that I love more.”

A moment to remember. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/Qb2ZaywfhE

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 28, 2020

While the Dodgers turned in a great game, sports analysts have noted that one of the deciding factors of the game may have actually been made on the Rays’ part. During the sixth inning of th last game, Rays manager Kevin Cash opted to pull Blake Snell, the team’s ace pitcher. Snell had really been giving the Dodgers a run for their money, but Cash didn’t want Snell to deal with the full batting order for the third time in the game, so he replaced him with reliever Nick Anderson, who almost immediately gave up two runs. Ouch.

Even with the unusual, unpleasant circumstances of the world confusing the operation of the league, the fact of the matter is that the Dodgers are World Series champs, and nobody can take that away from them.