The highlights of their stay came after the Dodgers advanced through the earlier rounds. … It was just a weird, weird experience.” “But at that time, you’d been in the same room for 20-something, 30 days. “The baseball was great obviously, and the whole thing was unique, sometimes really fun,” Prior said. It was technically an advantage for being the league’s top overall seed, but also a burden that quickly mounted after weeks in the bubble. Unlike other teams in that postseason - which was staged at neutral sites across the country after the first round - the Dodgers never left Globe Life Field once they got there. Then they mounted a historic comeback in the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, becoming just the 14th team to overturn a three-games-to-one series deficit. “But,” Prior said, “it was almost a longer season mentally and emotionally, because of everything going on outside of baseball.”ĭespite that, the Dodgers rolled through a division series with a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres. It had been a shorter season, after Major League Baseball reduced its schedule from 162 games to 60. The ballpark presented its own unique circumstances, with games played in front of empty seats and then limited crowds. An outdoor tent space and running track were few of the communal spaces they had. Normal amenities like the gym and golf course were off limits. This time, however, they would have to do it in a bubble, with team members and their families isolated from the outside world at the height of the pandemic.Īt their hotel, the Four Seasons in the nearby Las Colinas community, orange tape cordoned them off from regular guests. The club had made deep playoff runs before, including World Series losses in 20. Three years later it remains a disappointing subplot to their otherwise triumphant memories, the arduous path to an elusive title culminating with an awkward, lackluster and abrupt end.įrom the moment they arrived in Arlington that October, coming off a National League West title and first-round sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers were bracing for an unknown experience. “There wasn’t really a whole lot of celebrating.” “It was like a total lockdown,” Muncy said. What the Dodgers got instead was far less glamorous, with a global pandemic forcing the Fall Classic inside a bubble and strict social distancing rules that became even more severe after Justin Turner’s positive COVID-19 test in the middle of the team’s clinching Game 6 win. The exaltation of the efforts it took to get there. “You always envision what it’s gonna be like when you win.”Ī big part of those fantasies focused on the celebration. “You put so much time into it,” said outfielder Chris Taylor, one of many players and staff to encounter previous close calls and postseason disappointments. “We never really got to celebrate.”įor years leading up to that victorious night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, the club dreamed of how winning a World Series would feel. Fox's pregame team of Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, and Frank Thomas return with host Kevin Burkhardt, while Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci complete the broadcast team as field reporters.“It was just like it happened, and then it was over,” third baseman Max Muncy added. Led by 2021 NL MVP Bryce Harper, the Phillies have made a surprisingly dominant run through the playoffs as the lowest wild card seed.ĭodgers announcer Joe Davis joins Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz in the broadcast booth for the 2022 World Series. The Phillies last made the World Series in 2009, where they lost to the New York Yankees, and their last championship came in 2008. The Astros have yet to lose a game in the playoffs after finishing with the best regular season record in the AL. The Astros have reached their fourth World Series in the last six years, and will try to earn their first championship since 2017, which was the same season that got the team embroiled in a cheating scandal that led to the firing of former manager A.J. You can also use the MLB app and MLB.TV to watch the World Series while you're on the go, but you'll need to log in with a pay-TV provider. Fox is airing every matchup in the best-of-seven series. The 2022 World Series features the Houston Astros going up against the Philadelphia Phillies.
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