World Series 2018: LA Dodgers take on Boston Red Sox
The World Series, an annual baseball championship series, is played between the champions of the National League and the American League. This year, the Series saw the LA Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox face each other for the championship title from October 24 to 29. The series was played in both Los Angeles and Boston. This year’s World Series was special because it was the first time a Korean pitcher started in a World Series game. Prior to this year’s World Series, Hyun-jin Ryu, nicknamed “The Korean Monster,” became a free agent, meaning that he could select a team of his choice to play for. Ryu was in high demand, and numerous other teams competed for his signature, offering to pay extremely high salaries for him to move away from Los Angeles. Despite the lucrative offers, he insisted on remaining with the LA Dodgers and signed an one-year contract extension worth 17.9 million dollars tying him to the club until 2019. There are few Korean baseball players who are contracted under American teams, but Hyun-Jin Ryu stands out in particular for representing his country on the biggest stage of American baseball.
The third game took place on Saturday, October 27, and it broke the record for the longest baseball game in the world. The game was played for more than 7 hours and up to 18 innings. Both teams were exhausted towards the end of the game, but they displayed good sportsmanship throughout the match and played with all their energy. The two teams were very competitive, but it was the LA Dodgers who claimed the victory in this match– their first in this year’s competition.
Although the LA Dodgers went on to lose by a score of 4:1, fans clearly saw that every player competed with all their effort. While Ryu had less game time compared to the other American pitchers, but he still managed to throw approximately 70 balls. Baseball fans around the world, especially those from Korea, will be watching Ryu closely throughout the upcoming season after his performance in the 2018 World Series.
