The unique 2020 Major League Baseball season has come to an end and we now turn and look to an unpredictable playoff run. A newly added rule was made midway through the season that allowed more teams to make the playoffs, this new rule made teams work harder to get a spot in what could be one of the weirdest MLB seasons ever. 16 out of 32 teams come together in the race to win the World Series trophy, we see some familiar faces but also new teams that can be potential underdogs. 

This year the favored team to win the WS from both divisions are the Los Angeles Dodgers coming out of the National League with a 43-17 record, and the Tampa Bay Rays coming out of the American League with a 40-20 record. But with the pressure on them being the favorites do they have the talent to take them all the way. The teams that made the cut starting in the AL were: Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and the NL: Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals , Miami Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, and lastly Milwaukee Brewers.

Starting Tuesday, October 20th, the first game of the 2020 World Series will be played between the Los Angeles Dodgers from the National League and the Tampa Bay Rays from the American League. As sports fans imagine, the team with the best record should make it to the World Series no matter the outcome and to nobody’s surprise, the Dodgers and Rays did just that. However, both teams didn’t have it easy in the  American League Championship Series (ALCS) and the National League Championship Series (NLCS). The Rays defeated the Houston Astros who most teams wanted out of the playoffs because of last year’s cheating scandal. The Rays took an impressive 3-0 lead to start off the series but then things suddenly started to click for the Astros as they came back from the impossible and took it to a game seven, unfortunately allowing haters to still hate and being sent home. During the other side of the league everything was flipped, the Dodgers opponent, the Atlanta Braves took a 2-0 lead early in the series but ended up falling to the Dodgers in another game seven. It will be an exciting series as both teams are even in just about every category, but what will need to happen for either team to win the World series?

For the first time since the 2008 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Tampa Bay Rays have made it this far and boy are they an exciting team to watch. The energy this team gives off no matter if they are winning or losing is immaculate and going into this series as underdogs will just boost everything to even more of an extent. This will also be the Rays first time playing in the new Texas Rangers stadium as it was announced the neutral location for both the teams. And also for the first time they will be playing in front of fans so things will be a lot different but what do they have to do to be pronounced Champions of the MLB. Throughout the playoffs MLB fans have learned that rookie Randy Arozarena is something special, during the ALCS against the Astros he led the rays to a series win with an unbelievable statline by hitting .321, four HR, and six RBI’s in just that series alone.  With this, he was crowned ALCS MVP and in order for the Rays to hold that trophy he needs to stay hot. He isn’t the only key piece to this team in order to win. Pitchers Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Charlie Morton were very inconsistent against the Astros,which almost allowed them to blow the second ever 3-0 lead in baseball history, must  put up strong numbers against this great hitting team. Regular season stars Austin Meadows and Brandon Lowe must step up offensively as their bats are important because people know they can rake with runners on but have been rather disappointing throughout the playoffs. The bullpen which revolves around Nick Anderson and Diego Castillio must continue to hold leads like they have been doing. If all this falls into place, Kevin Cash and his Tampa Bay Rays will be holding their franchises first ever trophy.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, a team who have dominated game in and game out have made it to yet another World Series and are finally looking to win as they’ve come short three times in the past four years. Although they have been a rich, dominant team for years now, the last time they have hoisted that trophy was back when dinosaurs were still roaming this earth. During the NLCS they did the impossible and came back from a 3-1 lead which from what we learned in the past is never a safe lead. Shortstop Corey Seager led the team to a game seven victory over the Atlanta Braves and we tip our caps to him as he respectively won the NLCS MVP with a statline of NLCS record of five HR and 11 RBI and to add on to that a really strong .310 batting average. Like Arozarena, he must stay hot in order for the Dodgers to finally break the World Series drought. Pitchers Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw have done a solid job throughout the playoffs so there really isn’t much you can ask from them going into this World Series other than to keep it up.

Without those two on the mound, the Dodgers pitching struggles to keep leads deep into games as we saw in game 7 but thankfully Cody Bellinger has a clutch gene to get them where they need to be. Rookie star Dustin May must get the jitters out as he has proved his dominance towards strong hitters during the regular season but just hasn’t been himself in the playoffs and that one key thing the Dodgers need in the bullpen in order to succeed. Closer Kenley Jansen has been known for his postseason struggles as he has been very poor even though he is the most experienced player on the team, but we’ve looked past his struggles as he’s been solid during his role as a closer and must keep that up against this bashing team. Lastly, Justin Turner, Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger, and Max Muncy must put the team on their backs as they are the ones people will turn and look for the most. They are veterans in the World Series and need to use that towards their advantage and execute a perfect gameplan between the four to throw those bullpen struggles to the side and hold that long awaited WS trophy. 

It is just about the end to an amazing, impactful, but weird baseball season as many people believed that there was never gonna be a season to start but we are very thankful for what we were able to watch during 2020. It was a short season but not a single player played bad in the regular season so this WS trophy was up in the air as any team in 60 games could come out on top and unexpectedly those two teams were the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays, this is the final stretch, enjoy it while you can.