Game 1:
Brusdar Graterol pitched another postseason gem to give the Dodgers Game 1 of the 2022 World Series. He went 7 3 0 0 2 8 in dominating Seattle, with only Kyle Lewis' 5th HR of the postseason off Liam Hendriks spoiling the team shutout. Max Muncy took Tooki Touissant deep for a 2-run blast in the 2nd to put LA in front to stay.
Game 2:
Seattle evened up the World Series with a drama-filled 4-3 win over the Dodgers. What was a 1-1 pitcher's duel between Mariners ace Marco Gonzalez and the Dodgers' Julio Urias finally broke serve in the 7th when Daulton Varsho's sac fly scored Wilmer Difo to give the M's a 2-1 lead. And after Difo singled in Kyle Lewis in the 8th to make it 3-1, they were looking good until Cody Bellinger hit postseason HR #7, a 2-run shot off Wyatt Mills, to tie the game up at 3 after 8. But Eugenio Suarez, who came on in a double switch when Gonzales was lifted, singled and came around to score on a Jarred Kelenic base hit off Kenley Jansen to give Seattle the lead back in the 9th and this time they held on with Mills to send the series back to Seattle even.
Game 3:
The first-ever World Series game played in the Pacific Northwest saw the home fans leave happy as the Mariners came from behind in both Game 3 and the series to take a 2-1 lead with the 5-2 victory. Justin Dunn and Walker Buehler were locked in another pitchers' duel in the 6th when Cody Bellinger and Gavin Lux went deep back-to-back to make it 2-0 Los Angeles. For Bellinger it was #8, tying the single postseason record with Carlos Beltran, Barry Bonds, Nelson Cruz and teammate Will Smith in 2020. But the Mariners rallied off Buehler in the bottom of the 7th to take the lead on a JP Crawford triple and a Daulton Varsho RBI single, and then Evan White popped a 2-run HR off Kenley Jansen in the 8th to give Seattle a cushion and Wyatt Mills finished it off from there. Dunn went 7 7 2 2 1 8 while Buehler was 6.2 5 2 2 1 11 in the well-pitched game.
Game 4:
We've got a good series on our hands here as the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw evened things up with a 7-1 over Seattle. It didn't look that way early as the Mariners and Justus Sheffield were clinging to a 1-0 lead in the 6th when Cody Bellinger tied it with his record-setting 9th HR of the postseason, and then Max Muncy followed with a 2-run blast to make it 3-1 and the Dodgers took it from there. Kershaw wasn't dominant (5.2 8 1 1 1 3) but he was good enough.
Game 5:
Touki Toussaint did it again as he led the Mariners with 6 shutout innings in a huge 3-0 win in Game 5. Toussaint was his usual hard to hit and hard to catch, going 6 4 0 0 4 8. In fact the two relievers who followed him walked 5 more batters between them and the Dodgers had the bases loaded in the 7th and 8th innings but couldn't push across a run. Meanwhile the unlikely offensive hero for Seattle was a guy who wasn't even supposed to play. After Sam Hilliard had to leave in the top of the 1st with an arm injury, Jake Fraley came on and promptly singled in a run in the bottom of the inning to put Seattle ahead to stay, and later he homered off reliever Michael Feliz. Wilmer Difo added a solo shot for the other Mariner run as the series goes back to Los Angeles with the Dodgers needing to win both.
Game 6:
The 2022 World Series is going the distance as the Dodgers made the most of their 2 hits on the night with one of them being a 2-run homer by Corey Seager off Marco Gonzales in the 3rd for all the scoring in a 2-0 win that forces a Game 7. Like in Game 5 when Jake Fraley came on as an injury replacement to be the hero, tonight it was Dodgers P Jack Little who was forced to enter in the 4th inning when starter Julio Urias's elbow started barking. Little, ranked the #23 prospect in baseball and who had a 2.05 ERA in 30.2 innings this year in the regular season for the Dodgers, showed he was ready for prime time with 3.2 innings of 1-hit, 0-walk ball, striking out 5 in the process and earning the win. Liam Hendriks nailed down a 2-inning save as Justin Dunn and Walker Buehler will go head-to-head tomorrow in Game 7.
Game 7:
Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers, World Champions for the second time in three years. This time they really did it the hard way, having to go to limit in each series, winning in 5 against St Louis in the NLDS, 7 against Atlanta in the NLCS, and of course 7 here in the WS. It was a strange game and things looked good early for Seattle when Daulton Varsho homered off Walker Buehler to open the game. But after Seattle failed to get a runner from third with 0 outs in the top of the 2nd, the Dodgers exploded in the bottom of the inning off Justin Dunn and ended up with 9 runs on a series of RBI singles, a 2-run double from Corey Seager, and finally a grand slam from Gavin Lux to cap it off. But the Mariners struck right back in the top of the 3rd for 3 runs on a 2-run HR from Jake Fraley and a solo blast from Jarred Kelenic and it was 9-4 in the 3rd and it looked like a Rays-Jays game had broken out. But amazingly there was no scoring after that as Mitchell White came on for Buehler and like Jack Little yesterday, dominated in long relief going 6.1 2 0 0 1 7 before giving way to Caleb Ferguson for the final two outs. It was a case of so close yet so far for the Mariners, who only need one win in Los Angeles to take the series but got none.
And now it's on to the offseason!