...Tommy Lasorda with Grand Slam-...
...webmaster Marco Stoovelaar during...
...Spring Training 1998 in Dodger Town...
...in Vero Beach, Florida (USA)...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar
Photo made by Barbara Peeters) |
This year, the Dodgers celebrate their 60th anniversary in Los Angeles.
After the 1957 season, the club moved from Brooklyn, New York to California, as did their rivals, New York Giants, who became the San Francisco Giants.
Before the game, the National Anthem was performed by Grammy Award-winning country music singer/songwriter Brad Paisley.
Also before the game, famous homerun-hitter Hank Aaron handed out the Hank Aaron Award to J.D. Martinez (Boston Red Sox) and Christian Yelich (Milwaukee Brewers) for the American League and National League respectively.
The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Dodger-legend, Tommy Lasorda, who threw the ball to longtime player Steve Garvey.
Lasorda was drive to home plate in a bullpen buggy, where he was welcomed by Earvin 'Magic' Johnson.
The wellknown former basketball-player (Los Angeles Lakers, 1979-1991, 1996) is one of the owners of the Dodgers since 2012.
Legendary Tommy Lasorda, who turned 91 in September, who is now active in his 69th season with the Dodgers, which is the longest tenure by anyone within the organization.
Lasorda, who was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1997, played for the Dodgers in 1954-1955, but is best known as its Manager from 1976 through 1996.
In 1973, Lasorda became the 3B Coach in the staff of Walter Alston, another legendary Manager in Dodger-history, who led the team in 1954-1976.
Lasorda led the Dodgers to the World Series-title in 1981 and 1988 and was named Manager of the Year twice.
In 2000, Lasorda came out of retirement to be the Manager of Team USA during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (Australia), leading the team to the Gold Medal.
Since 2004, Lasorda is a Special Advisor to the Chairman for the Dodgers, which includes scouting, evaluating and instructing minor league-players, but also being an ambassador and representative for the organization.
Steve Garvey was the longtime first baseman of the Dodgers with whom he won the World Series in 1981.
He played for the team in 1969-1982 and belonged to a famous infield that played together for more than eight years.
The others were second baseman Davey Lopes, short stop Bill Russell and third baseman Ron Cey.
Also playing for the successful teams in those years were catcher Steve Yeager and outfielders Rick Monday, Dusty Baker and Reggie Smith.
Lasorda was the Manager.
Garvey also played for San Diego Padres in 1983-1987.
He was MVP of the National League in 1974 and played in ten All Star Games.
Garvey is the recordholder for most consecutive games played in the National League (1,207).
...Yasiel Puig playing for the Cuban National Team...
...during the 2011 World Port Tournament...
...in Rotterdam (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Boston got it first baserunner in the top of the third inning off of starter (and rookie) Walker Buehler, who had a strong outing for the Dodgers and threw seven scoreless innings.
Jackie Bradley, Jr. led off with a single, but was caught stealing.
Hereafter, Christian Vazquez also singled, moved to second base via a sacrifice bunt, but was left behind.
Los Angeles had left a runner behind on first base in the first inning, but then opened the score in the bottom of the third off of starter Rick Porcello.
With two outs, Joc Pederson homered to put the Dodgers ahead.
Hereafter, Justin Turner doubled, but stranded on second base.
In the following innings, this would remain the lone run.
Several new pitchers and pinch-hitters were inserted, the Boston-outfielders frequently changed position, there were some nice defensive plays, but no runs were scored.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Manny Machado drilled the ball into deep leftfield for the Dodgers.
Thinking it was a homerun, Machado starting running late and ended up on first base with a single, which might have been a double.
Who knows what would have happened thereafter.
Machado stranded on first base.
With Los Angeles still leading only 1-0, Kenley Jansen took the mound for the home team in the top of the eighth inning taking over from Buehler to close the game.
He got two quick outs, but then Jackie Bradley, Jr. made good contact and hit a homerun to make it an 1-1 tie!
After Boston was retired in order in the top of the ninth, Los Angeles got its lead-off hitter on base when Cody Bellinger singled.
He faced David Price, who was Boston's starting pitcher in Game 2.
With one out, Price got to a 3-2 count on Yasmani Grandal.
Moments later, Bellinger took off from first base too early and was eliminated in a rundown.
Hereafter, both Grandal and Chris Taylor walked.
A pop-fly ended the inning.
Who knows what would have happened when Bellinger was not eliminated.
Bases loaded?
Who knows.
Now, the score was 1-1 and the game went into extra innings!
And an entire 9-inning game would follow!
...Kenta Maeda pitching for Japan during the...
...2013 World Baseball Classic in Japan...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the top of the 10th inning, J.D. Martinez walked for Boston with one out.
His pinch-runner Ian Kinsler moved to third base on a single by Brock Holt.
Pinch-hitter Eduardo Nuñez then flied out to centerfielder Cody Bellinger, who made a strong throw to catcher Austin Barnes, who tagged out Kinsler to complete an inning-ending double play!
In the top of the 13th inning, Boston took a 2-1 lead.
Brock Holt led off with a walk.
Hereafter, Eduardo Nuñez got injured when he fell over catcher Austin Barnes while being the hitter.
Holt stole second base on a ball in the ground, Barnes fielded the ball and Nuñez tried to get out of the way, but fell over the catcher, injuring his back.
At that moment, Boston already had used all position players and had only two pitchers left over.
Later, short stop Xander Bogaerts also suffered a knee-injury.
In case one of them, or both, had to leave the field, Boston had to put in a pitcher.
That didn't happen, as both Nuñez and Bogaerts completed the game.
After the game resumed, Nuñez singled, then injured himself again while sliding into first base.
Holt advanced to third base on the single, then scored when pitcher Scott Alexander followed with a throwing error.
With two outs, the bases got loaded, but Bogaerts then grounded out.
In the bottom of the 13th, Max Muncy led off with a walk for the Dodgers.
With one out, Muncy moved to second base after a pop-fly was caught in foul territory.
That was caught by third baseman Nuñez, who ended up falling in the stands.
With two outs, Yasiel Puig reached on an infield-hit, which was followed by a throwing error from second baseman Ian Kinsler, enabling Muncy to score the tying run.
...Home Plate Umpire Ted Barrett during the...
...2017 World Baseball Classic in South Korea...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the top of the 15th, Boston got its first two hitters off of new pitcher Kenta Maeda.
A force out and two strikeouts followed.
In the top of the 16th, Maeda struckout the side, giving him five strikeouts in a row.
In the bottom of the 15th, the Dodgers came very close to the win.
Lead-off hitter Max Muncy drove the ball into deep rightfield for a homerun, but it ended up on the wrong side of the foul pole!
In the top of the 18th, off of new pitcher Alex Wood, Sandy Leon walked for Boston, but he was forced out.
A double play ended the inning.
In the bottom of the 18th, Max Muncy again was the lead-off hitter and this time, he hit a walk-off, homerun on the 561st pitch in the game!
The Dodgers celebrated, as watched by more than 53,000 spectators, who stayed in the stadium until the end.
For the Dodgers, it was the fourth time that it ended a World Series-game with a walk-off homerun.
The last time was 30 years ago in 1988, when it was the famous pinch-hit homerun by injured Kirk Gibson in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 1.
In 1947, in Game 4, Cookie Lavagetto hit the first walk-off homerun for the Dodgers, who then played in Brooklyn, New York.
Legendary Jackie Robinson hit the next walk-off homerun in Game 6 of the 1956 Series.
A long afternoon and evening ended with a record-total lot of players seeing action in the game in which more than 28 dozen balls were used.
It not only was a long game for players, coaches, managers and spectators, but of course also for the umpires, official scorers and some other game officials, who are mostly forgotten in games likes this.
But here, Grand Slam * Stats & News names them.
Ted Barrett (HP, crew chief), Chad Fairchild (1B), Jeff Nelson (2B), Jim Reynolds (3B), Fieldin Culbreth (LF) and Kerwin Danley (RF) were the umpires.
Tim Timmons, who was one of the umpires in the first and second game, was the Replay Official (and will be for the remainder of the Series).
Culbreth was the Replay Official for Game 1 and 2.
Chris Conroy, who was one of the umpires in the American League Division Series, is the Replay Assistant during this Series.
Jerry White and Ed Munson were the Official Scorers, while Todd Leitz was the Public Address Announcer.
Oh, and Dodger Stadium-organist Dieter Ruehle continued playing all kinds of music for more than seven hours!
Ruehle plays some characteristic music during Dodger-games.
Some of his tunes begin with a wellknown melody from movies or songs, then turns it into a cheering tune.
For the above mentioned persons, the game ended, but the members of the media had to conduct interviews and make stories for newspapers, websites, radio and television.
It was a long and historic evening in Los Angeles!
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Dodgers win record-setting thriller in 18th inning
LOS ANGELES, California (USA) -
Los Angeles Dodgers won 3-2 in the bottom of the 18th inning on early Saturday-morning (October 27) against Boston Red Sox in a record-setting Game 3 of the 114th World Series.
Boston had won the first two games at home on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The longest game in innings in World Series-history was 14.
That was originally set in Game 2 of the World Series in 1916.
In that year, the Dodgers and Red Sox also played against each and that was the only (!) time the two teams faced each other in a World Series before this year.
In that game, the Dodgers, then playing in Brooklyn and nicknamed Robins (after Manager Wilbert Robinson), opened the score in the first inning on an inside-the-park-homerun by Hy Myers.
Boston came alongside in the third inning on a grounder by legendary Babe Ruth, who pitched the final 13 innings.
Boston won in the 14th inning on a pinch-hit single by Del Gainer.
The record was tied in 2005 by the White Sox and Astros (see above) and in 2015 (Game 1) when Kansas City Royals and New York Mets also played 14 innings.
