October is an important month for many reasons. Of course, the main focus is Halloween, but many people also focus on football, watching the games throughout the week and having watch parties on Sundays. However, there is another important event that happens every October.
Millions of people tune in to watch what many fans refer to as “a fall classic”: the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series.
The first World Series game began in 1903, when the National League champions, Pittsburgh, went up against the American League Champions, Boston. Boston won this game with a score of 5-3.
In the MLB, the 30 teams are divided into divisions. There are three different divisions in one of the two leagues, the American League and the National League. Five teams play in each division.
The American League(AL) is divided into three divisions. The AL East features teams such as the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. The AL Central features the Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox. The AL West features the Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Athletics and Los Angeles Angels.
The National League(NL) is divided in the same way. The NL East features the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals. The NL Central features the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates. The NL West features the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
The postseason games involve six teams from each league. The chosen teams are the three division winners of each league and the Wild Card teams. The first round of the MLB postseason is a best-of-three series called the Wild Card Series. This year in the AL Wild Card Series, the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees won. In the NL Wild Card Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs won.
The next round of postseason games is called the Division Series. In the AL Division Series, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners won. In the NL Division Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers won.
The final round of the postseason games that leads to the World Series is called the Championship Series. The Toronto Blue Jays ended up beating the Seattle Mariners, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers.
Both the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers have had great postseasons.
When it comes to stats, the Blue Jays’ batting leader was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit six HRs (homeruns), 12 RBIs (runs batted in) and had a batting average of .442. In pitching, team leaders included Kevin Gausman with two wins and an ERA (earned run average) of 2.00, Trey Yesavage with 22 strikeouts, Jeff Hoffman with two saves and Louis Varland with two holds. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was named MVP for the AL “Championship Series.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ batting leaders included Shohei Ohtani with five HRs, Teoscar Hernandez with 12 RBIs and Enrique Hernandez with a batting average of .306. For pitching, team leaders included Blake Snell with three wins and 28 strikeouts, Tyler Glasnow with an ERA of 0.68, Roki Sasaki with three saves and Alex Vesia with four holds. Shohei Ohtani was named MVP for the NL “Championship Series.”
The World Series is a best-of-seven series, meaning that whichever team wins the most games wins the series.
The games have already begun on Oct. 24th. The Blue Jays won the first game of the World Series 11-4 against the Dodgers. The Dodgers went on to win games two and three. In game two, they won 5-1.
Game three was a long one, with both teams putting up a great fight for 18 innings (a normal baseball game is usually nine innings). Lasting approximately six hours and 39 minutes, Freddie Freeman from the Dodgers finally hit a walk-off home run, winning the game 6-5.
The Blue Jays won game four (6-2) and game five (6-1). The Dodgers won game six (3-1), forcing a seventh game.
On November 1, Game seven of the World Series went to the 11th inning. The game ended with a double play from Mookie Betts to Freddie Freeman. The Dodgers won the World Series with a score of 5-4, and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto won the World Series MVP award.
