Game three goes according to plan

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 24, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

The Dodgers did everything they needed to do to open up a 2 – 1 series lead on Tampa with a resounding 6 – 2 victory.

Score Early – Check – Justin Turner 1st inning home run

Establish dominance – Check – Walker Buehler blew through the first 13 outs before allowing his first hit and eventual run. By that point the Dodgers already had a 5 – 0 lead.

Keep Scoring – Check – The Dodgers had a 5 – 0 lead before the Rays put up a solo run in the 5th. Combination of big ball (home run by Turner) and small ball (squeeze by Austin Barnes) and timely hitting (two run two hit by Muncy)

Led the well rested bullpen do their thing – Check – Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol faced the minimum

The Dodgers have cruised to two World Series victories so far as the Rays have had no offensive answer when the Dodger aces are on the mound. Their offense is relentless and have now scored eighteen runs in the three games against their starters and bullpen.

Walker Buehler was the pitcher of the game, but Austin Barnes has to get some credit. Barnes was the unexpected catcher for Buehler and from the ninth position in the order Barnes pulled off the first Dodger suicide squeeze in a World Series game that I can remember, while also launching his first World Series home run. Austin Barnes has struggled as few have ever done in the World Series with only four hits in forty-one plate appearances before hitting that home run which still left his World Series triple stat line at .119 / .156 / .214. Per @BillShaikin this was the first time since 1961 (Hector Lopez) that a player had a home run and suicide squeeze in the same game.

Tonight, Julio Urías looks to join Stephen Strasburg (2019), Francisco Rodríguez (2002) and Randy Johnson (2001) as the only pitchers in postseason history to earn 5 wins in a single postseason

He has won the most playoff games all-time by a player before his 25th birthday (6) pic.twitter.com/Jf4rnxRmpY

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 24, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

For game 4 the Dodgers turn to Julio Urias who has pitched four times so far this offseason and the Dodgers have won every game.

                                               
Series    Opp  Rslt Inngs    Dec  IP H ER BB SO
NLWC g1   MIL  W4-2   5-7 W(1-0) 3.0 3  0  0  5
NLDS g3   SDP W12-3   2-7 W(2-0) 5.0 1  0  1  6
NLCS g3   ATL W15-3  GS-5 W(3-0) 5.0 3  1  2  5
NLCS g7   ATL  W4-3  7-GF W(4-0) 3.0 0  0  0  0

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/24/2020.

This will be the first World Series start of Urias’s career and he’ll hope to follow in the footsteps of Kershaw and Buehler who both put up a game score of 71 in their respective starts. The last time three Dodgers put up a game score greaten than 70 in a World Series was the 1965 World Championship season.

                                                                    
Player                  Date Series Gm# Opp  Rslt  IP H ER BB SO GSc
Sandy Koufax      1963-10-02     WS   1 NYY W 5-2 9.0 6  2  3 15  79
Johnny Podres     1963-10-03     WS   2 NYY W 4-1 8.1 6  1  1  4  70
Don Drysdale      1963-10-05     WS   3 NYY W 1-0 9.0 3  0  1  9  89
Sandy Koufax      1963-10-06     WS   4 NYY W 2-1 9.0 6  1  0  8  79
Claude Osteen     1965-10-09     WS   3 MIN W 4-0 9.0 5  0  2  2  77
Don Drysdale      1965-10-10     WS   4 MIN W 7-2 9.0 5  2  2 11  78
Sandy Koufax      1965-10-11     WS   5 MIN W 7-0 9.0 4  0  1 10  88
Sandy Koufax      1965-10-14     WS   7 MIN W 2-0 9.0 3  0  3 10  88
Don Drysdale      1966-10-09     WS   4 BAL L 0-1 8.0 4  1  1  5  74
Don Sutton        1974-10-13     WS   2 OAK W 3-2 8.0 5  2  2  9  71
Burt Hooton       1977-10-12     WS   2 NYY W 6-1 9.0 5  1  1  8  80
Jerry Reuss       1981-10-25     WS   5 NYY W 2-1 9.0 5  1  3  6  76
Orel Hershiser    1988-10-16     WS   2 OAK W 6-0 9.0 3  0  2  8  87
Orel Hershiser    1988-10-20     WS   5 OAK W 5-2 9.0 4  2  4  9  76
Clayton Kershaw   2017-10-24     WS   1 HOU W 3-1 7.0 3  1  0 11  78
Walker Buehler    2018-10-26     WS   3 BOS W 3-2 7.0 2  0  0  7  80
Rich Hill         2018-10-27     WS   4 BOS L 6-9 6.1 1  1  3  7  71
Clayton Kershaw   2020-10-20     WS   1 TBR W 8-3 6.0 2  1  1  8  71
Walker Buehler    2020-10-23     WS   3 TBR W 6-2 6.0 3  1  1 10  71

Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 10/24/2020.

It is a tall task to ask Urias to put up a game score of 70 or better since he has only done that twice in career, but he has never looked as good as he has looked in the past month so you just never know.

Urias will be facing a bullpen game from the Rays which has the capability of shutting down the Dodgers but without an off day for game six, it will put their pitching staff behind the eight ball headed into game five against Kershaw.