ARLINGTON, Texas -- Since Orel Hershiser struck out Oakland's Tony Phillips for the final out of the 1988 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers have played 5,014 regular-season games and 113 more in the postseason in pursuit of their next title. They have spent $3.69 billion in player payroll over 32 seasons.
One more win and that elusive seventh championship will be theirs.
"I think it's going to be really welcoming to the players, this generation," Hershiser said Monday, a day before the Dodgers take a 3-2 World Series lead into Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Rays. "It's definitely a generational win for this group of guys, and I'm thinking of the Kenley Jansens, the Clayton Kershaws, the Justin Turners, the guys that have been here through all the division titles."
Kershaw got his second win of the Series on Sunday, and Tony Gonsolin starts tonight against the Rays' Blake Snell. The rookie right-hander hopes to keep the World Series from reaching a Game 7 for the fourth time in five years.
If Tampa Bay manages to win, Walker Buehler would start Game 7 for the Dodgers on Wednesday and Charlie Morton would go for the Rays.
Gonsolin was used as an opener in Game 2, allowing Brandon Lowe's first-inning homer, lasting just four outs and taking the loss as the Rays won 6-4. Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said he views the 25-year-old right-hander as a traditional starter this time through, and hopes for five or six innings from him.
"It's mostly an eye test because he's shown that when he's rolling, he gets lefties, righties out. When he's not, you can see that he's not on point," Roberts said. "I think for me, it's just let Tony go until he's not being as effective as we feel he should be."
Los Angeles, with a big league-leading payroll of $95.6 million in the pandemic-shortened season, has outplayed the low-budget Rays, 28th among the 30 teams at $29.3 million. The Dodgers have outscored the Rays 29-21, outhit them .264 to .228 and outhomered them 11-8 with an offense led by Corey Seager (.471, 2 HR, 4 RBI), Max Muncy (.389, 6 RBI) and Justin Turner (.364).
While Manuel Margot (.400), Kevin Kiermaier (.375, 2 HR, 3 RBI) and Randy Arozarena (.333, 2 HR, 3 RBI) have produced, Austin Meadows (.154), Joey Wendle (.133) and Mike Zunino (0 for 13) have struggled. Lowe (3 for 21, 3 HRs, 6 RBI) has been hit and miss.
Rays Manager Kevin Cash said he plans on formulating his lineup to guard against a short outing by Gonsolin followed by righty-lefty switches. He hopes Snell pitches aggressively.
"We just haven't done a good enough job of establishing that we're going to get outs within the zone early in the count," he said. "But the Dodgers do a tremendous job of seeing pitches, getting deep in the count, pretty fearless with hitting with two strikes."
Mookie Betts is 5 for 22 (.227) but has sparked the Dodgers with superior defense and 4 stolen bases -- 3 shy of Lou Brock's Series record. After beating the Dodgers with Boston in the 2018 Series, Betts was acquired by Los Angeles in a trade last February and signed a $365 million contract through 2032.
"We got a steal," Roberts said. "And I'm just so grateful that the deal was done because it's not only helping us this year, it's going to help us for the next wave of young players and really enhance what we have as a culture going forward. And it's going to affect players that haven't been drafted by the Dodgers yet."
The Rays and Cash have impressed Roberts with their relentlessness, evidenced by their ninth-inning rally to win Game 4.
"They play the game the right way. They're grinders," Roberts said. "He balances analytics with just watching his players. He trust his players. His players are very unselfish."
The Dodgers have won a record 24 NL pennants, half since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles after the 1957 season, but are sixth in World Series titles behind the New York Yankees (27), St. Louis Cardinals (11), Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia/Oakland Athletics (nine apiece), and New York/San Francisco Giants (eight).
Kershaw made his Dodgers debut in 2008 and has helped them win eight straight NL West titles and NL pennants in 2017, 2018 and this year. Jansen has been with Los Angeles since 2010; Turner, Joc Pederson and Pedro Baez since 2014; and Seager, Kike Hernandez and Alex Wood since 2015.
Los Angeles lost to Houston in a seven-game Series in 2017, and then was eliminated by Boston in five games the next year.
Hershiser, the 1988 World Series MVP, said each time the postseason is lengthened it adds another level of uncertainty to the competition.
"It's going to be a culmination of a lot of things because there's so much buildup with the fan base and with the organization and with the players," said Hershiser, now a broadcaster for the Dodgers' Spectrum SportsNet LA network. "Even if it was won in '17, it would've been a long time. I think it's very hard as far as the playoffs are concerned. In no way was the '88 Dodger team supposed to win against the mighty Mets and against the Bash Brother Oakland A's. So sometimes maybe the best team on paper and talent on the field doesn't always win."
