Joc Pederson was back at it in the 2020 Fall Classic. This time his Dodgers would prevail.
It was an unsual set of circumstances for the year's World Series. Due to Covid, the Fall Classic was played at one ballpark, and Pederson himself would not be there port to stern for some of the six games between his Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays, making just their second October Finale appearance, were trying to do better than they had against Carlos Ruiz and the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008. But in order to do that, they not only had to find a way to contain Joc Pederson, but also try to hit against Clayton Kershaw. The first task did not appear to be too difficult, as "Joctober" hit just .190 in the 2020 season, despite seven home runs in 43 games played. Kershaw was another story. But even the great pitchers need some offence to win.
Pederson batted eighth for this game, LA the "home" team. But, this was the first World Series since 1985 to use the designated hitter all Fall Classic long. Advantage Los Angeles? Well, Pederson fanned both times up, but it was Clayton Kershaw who was masterful. The Dodgers, as they had in 2017, rode their ace to an opening game win.
In the second game, it was Chris Taylor in left, and Cody Bellinger in centre for the Dodgers. The game itself did not go well for Los Angeles. After six and a half innings, Tampa led 6-3, and Pete Fairbanks took over for Nick Anderson (Who'd relieved starter Blake Snell) on the hill. The scheduled first hitter was second basemen Enrique "Kiké" Hernández.
Enter Joc Pederson. Fairbanks, a right-hander, was a pitcher who threw very hard. Pederson drew a straight line behind the plate before digging in. The first pitch was a 99-mile per hour fastball. Pederson swung and sent a fly ball. But it was hit to shallow to be dangerous. Kevin Kiermaier, the centre fielder, had no trouble putting the squeeze on it.
The Dodgers did not score, but a double switch resulted in Taylor going to second base for the top of the eighth, and Pederson back in left field. Alex Wood returned for his second inning of work for Los Angeles. After getting two quick outs on a total of five pitches, Willy Adames came up. Behind 1-2, he lined one to right, that Pederson couldn't get to. And by the time Joc came up with it, Willy was on second. Kevin Kiermaier grounded out to end the Rays' half of the eighth.
Los Angeles got one run back in their half of the inning, so it was a 6-4 ballgame. But the play on Adames' two-bagger would be the last thing Pederson would do on this night. He did not bat in the eighth. In the ninth, Tampa put one man on with a walk. Then, with two outs, Randy Arozarena hit a ball down the third base line. But it did not make it to left field. Justin Turner got to it. But his throw to first was too late. Los Angeles managed to get out of that situation without allowing a run. With one away in the LA portion of the inning, Austin Barnes batted for Pederson. Barnes was retired on a long fly to left. Taylor fanned, and the 2020 Fall Classic was all tied up at one game each.
So while neither team travelled, the third game was on the "road" for Los Angeles. They went back to work. In the top of the first, Justin Turner put them up, 1-0, with a home run.
It was 3-0 for the Dodgers in the fourth inning, when Pederson, who batted eighth, had a crucial at-bat. Cody Bellinger singled, but Chris Taylor fanned on three pitches. So Joc was back up. He'd grounded out in the third. A grounder here and the Dodger half of the inning would come to a sudden end. Charlie Morton threw to first to keep Bellinger close. But when he threw to home, Morton could do nothing to stop Cody from getting to third. The first pith to Pederson was a 79 miles per hour slider. Joc hit it to right. Ji-Man Choi, at first past, leaped for it, but it was just over his outstretched glove. Manuel Margot, the right fielder, got to it in the corner. It was a fine play that held Pederson, who slipped, to just a single. However, the Dodgers now had runners on the corners.
Austin Barnes then did a play that is not commonly used anymore in baseball. He bunted, even though there was one out. It cashed in Cody Bellinger, and also moved Joe Pederson to second. But now, there were two outs. The squeeze play made it 4-0 for the "visiting" team. However, Los Angeles was not finished with Charlie Morton. Mookie Betts hit a grounder on his payoff pitch to centre, which scored Pederson.
Joc was only 1-2, but clearly, his hit in that fourth inning was big. It got the man to third and made what Barnes did possible. His batting average in the 2020 Fall Classic was just .200 (1-5), and he only batted one more time on the night, popping out in the top of the sixth. The Dodgers tacked on a sixth run. Although the Rays had gotten on the board by then, and add one in the ninth, it was pretty much smooth sailing for the Dodgers after the fourth. Kiké Hernández pinch hit for Pederson in the eighth, and finished the game at second base. Taylor filled in the void in left.
So, LA was up two games to one after three games. But, Joc was not contributing like he was in 2017. Game four was huge, as a Dodger win would surely wrap it up. No, Kershaw would not pitch. Julio Urías did. No, Pederson did not start in left, Chris Taylor did.
Well, Urías pitched well (Nine strikeouts), but his start was short. He was pulled after 4 2/3 innings, but Los Angeles was ahead 3-2. Although the Dodgers scored another run in the sixth, the Rays grabbed control of the game in their half of the inning. Brandon Lowe's huge three-run home run suddenly gave Tampa the lead, 5-4.
Los Angeles was quick to respond, though. In the top of the seventh, with two out, and runners on second and third, Cody Bellinger was up. But Tampa Bay walked him intentionally.
Enter Joc Pederson.
Although only 1-6, Joc could make up for all that in a big way here. The first pitch was a strike. The second, though, was in the dirt before it even reached the plate, and catcher Mike Zunino made a fine play to keep it fair, although it roller a little bit towards first in foul territory. Two more balls followed, and Pederson had the count in his favour. And ball four would give him his first RBI of this World Series. Tampa had shifted their infield over, so there was not much to go for in right. The 3-1 was 96 miles per hour fastball, but Joc lined it to right. Second basemen Brandon Lowe was playing almost in shallow right, got his glove on it. But not all of the ball. Two runs scored, and the lead was LA's again.
This was not the end of the night for Joc. He stayed in the game at left. Taylor moved to centre. Kevin Kiermaier tied the game with a solo home run in the Rays' half of the inning. Back came LA in the top of the eighth. The game was certainly a see-saw affair.
Tampa tried to tie it when they batted in the inning. With one on and two out, Willy Adames smacked a short fly to left that neither shortstop Corey Seager or Pederson could get to. Brusdar Graterol then retired Hunter Renfroe on a fly to right.
In their half of the ninth, Los Angeles hit the ball well. Will Smith gave it a bit of a ride to left for the first out. Cody Bellinger was retired when he sent one to centre. Pederson came back up, and singled to right on the first pitch. He was 2-2. That batting average was up to .375 now (3-8). Taylor hit it well, but it was merely a long, loud out to right. So LA failed to score, and were only up 7-6.
Even so, the Dodgers were merely three outs away from an insurmountable lead of 3-1 in this Fall Classic. They turned the ball over to closer Kenley Jansen. The bottom of the ninth started out well for the Dodgers, as pinch hitter Yoshi Tsutsugo fanned.
But Kevin Kiermaier singled. Left-handed hitting Joey Wendle was up, and LA played him to pull, putting three infielders on the right side. But on a 2-1 pitch from Jansen, Wendle sent one to the gap in left, where Pederson had to go bit to his left to make the catch. One more out.
Kenley got ahead of Randy Arozarena 1-2 when the batter fouled off a pitch. But Arozarena held on a drew a walk. It didn't seem to matter. The next batter, lefty Brett Phillips, took one on a corner for strike two. Replays showed the pitch might have just missed. The 1-2 delivery was sent to centre for a single. But it should have merely tied the game. Taylor bobbled it, and Arozarena headed home, where he should have been a dead duck. However, the throw got away from catcher Will Smith, and Tampa Bay had an unreal win, walk-off style.
Well, that was certainly heartbreak for the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, look how close they'd come to winning it when Joc Pederson only bats twice! Why not start him in game five? That's what manager Dave Roberts did.
Granted, Clayton Kershaw took the hill for LA. But he wasn't going to win unless he got some offence. That came before Tampa could bat. The Dodgers scored two runs in the top of the first (LA being the "road" team in this contest), and Kershaw took came of 'em in the first with no one scoring. Our boy led off the second inning for the Dodgers. Fox had played the song, "Stand By Me" by Ben. E. King. Well, Los Angeles was standing by their ace on the mound for this big one. But their manager would be standing by his decision on his starting left fielder.
Come the second frame, the decision to play Pederson would be tested. And, as if to justify that faith, Joc Pederson crushed a high,1-2 offering from pitcher Tyler Glasnow into the Tampa Bay bullpen, some 430 feet in length. Joctober was living up to his nickname. Joc crossed the plate, and screamed “They don’t want that smoke!” Granted, it was only a solo homer, but still it was 3-0 for the Dodgers. Some nice run support for their big ace to work with.
As Pederson said later, it's not as if he had Glasnow's number. "He [Glasnow] throws the ball very hard. [I] [w]as just just looking for, honestly, to put the ball in play. He got me in game one, so it was nice to return the favour."
Kershaw would not be denied. The Rays got two runs off him, but that was it.
Still, it was a close game, 3-2, when Pederson came back up in the fourth. On the first pitch, he looked to bunt, but the slider caught the inside corner for a strike. Joc fouled off the next pitch, and was behind 0-2. But Tyler Glasnow was on borrowed time on the hill, as his next pitch would be number seventy. In any event, Pederson flied out on it.
The Dodgers were doubling up on the Rays, 4-2, by the time our boy hit again. There were two outs and nobody one in the top of the sixth. Pederson batted in a lefty-lefty situation. Joc coaxed a walk from Aaron Loup, who'd relived Glasnow. Ball four was Loup's last pitch, as Diego Castillo relieved him. Los Angels, too, was looking to make a pitching move at any time. Kershaw was at exactly 100 pitches through five innings. Dustin May had begun to loosen up in the Dodgers' bullpen as Pederson was digging in. It was still anyone's game, and the manager's would play a role in it's outcome from here on in.
Auston Barnes, who'd drawn a walk himself earlier, tried to give Kershaw some more insurance. He got a hold of it, and gave it quite a ride to the gap in left. But Kevin Kiermaier was there, to retire the side. Both team's bullpen's took over from there (Kershaw was removed with two away in the bottom of the sixth).
But there was also the Pederson glove factor. Joey Wendle batted in the bottom of the seventh, with one down. He had quit an at-bat against Dustin May, who'd relived Clayton Kershaw with two down in the sixth. On the ninth of his encounter with May, Wendle rocketed one to left, heading towards the gap. It looked like it might drop in for extra bases. But there was Joe Pederson to make a terrific, running catch. Dustin May had himself a 1-2-3 inning, and didn't allow a hit until one out in the next frame, but credit must go to his left fielder.
The Dodgers themselves got not one hit in the last four frames. Pederson was himself replace in the bottom of the eighth. Still, LA won, 4-2, despite only collecting six hits. Joc was 1-2 with a walk, and saw his batting average go to .400 (4-10).
The big news was Los Angeles was one win away from it's first World Championship in 32 years. Despite his game five heroics, Joctober would be sitting on the bench on the first pitch on this "home" game. No, Pederson was not going to be the designated hitter. AJ Pollock would start in left for the Dodgers, with Will Smith DH'ing.
But with LA clinging to a 2-1 lead in front of a modest, Covid-limited crowd of 11,437, they looked for some more offence in the seventh inning. Will Smith had been 0-2, but he doubled. Cody Bellinger popped out. Chris Taylor fanned. Maybe someone else was needed to get the job done?
Well, Pollock had lined out and popped out in his two plate appearances. Joc Pederson grabbed a bat and hit for him. Reliever Pete Fairbanks was trying to keep Tampa Bay within a run of Los Angeles. Pitching coach Kyle Snyder came out to the mound to talk it over with Fairbanks. Would the Rays' put Joctober on?
A breaking ball looked liked a strike all the way, until it dipped at the last moment. 1-0. The next pitch was a fastball, 99 miles an hour. But it, too, missed the strike zone. So with the count 2-0, the Rays decided to walk Pederson. Austin Barnes battled Fairbanks to 2-2, but then got under one and sent it to right, when second basemen Brandon Lowe got to it to retire the side.
Pederson was replaced, and the Dodgers went on to a 3-1 win. The bad news was, Joc did not qualify for the lead in either batting average or on-base percentage. He needed only three more plate appearances, which he surely would have gotten had Joctober not been pulled early from some contests. Did it matter at the end of the day? The long drought in LA was over, Kershaw was dominant, Corey Seager won the Willie Mays World Series MVP Award and unlikely hero emerged.
For his part, Joctober batted .400, which was what Seager had hit, so Pederson was right there with the player in the 2020 Fall Classic. In the offseason, Pederson would sign with the Chicago Cubs, so after three World Series appearances (They also reached the summit in 2018), he'd be with a new team in 2021. It would never quite be the same in Los Angeles without him and his World Series heroics.
That, however, wasn't about to take away from that special feeling Joc had when he received his World Series ring before a June 2021 game at Dodger Stadium. Although Pederson had moved on to the Chicago Cubs, he was back to get his ring before a game in Los Angeles. But this was a special moment for the former Dodger. He got an extra ring for his ultimate fan, his older brother (Amply named) Champ.
Joc moved on to Chicago, and then Atlanta before the season ended. And, "Joctober" added a second World Series ring to his name. But there is no better feeling than the first time you win it!
References
"Dodgers vs Rays World Series Game 5 Highlights & Postgame Interviews | October 25, 2020",
YouTube, uploaded by Dodger Highlights (Courtesy of Fox, Major League Baseball), 26 Oct. 2020,
https://youtu.be/nh8TvKeclXM?t=777, Accessed 04 May 2020. (Q and A appears @ 12:57 of video)
Harris, Blake. “Joc Pederson Receives World Championship Ring.”
True Blue LA, Vox Media, 25 June 2021,
https://www.truebluela.com/2021/6/25/22550013/joc-pederson-receives-world-championship-ring-los-angeles-dodgers-chicago-cubs. 04 May 2023.
“The Official Site of Major League Baseball.”
MLB.com, MLB Advanced Media,
https://www.mlb.com/. 04 May 2023.
YouTube, Google,
https://www.youtube.com/. 04 May 2023.
