The Los Angeles Dodgers won Game 1 of the 2020 World Series 8-3 against the Tampa Bay Rays, powered by a Cody Bellinger home run and a one-run start from Clayton Kershaw on the mound.

Santa Clarita native and Hart High School graduate Tyler Glasnow was the Rays’ starting pitcher for Game 1 and Glasnow had an exceptional game going through three innings with five strikeouts and only one hit, but after a walk to Max Muncy he gave up a two-run homer to Cody Bellinger for a 2-0 Dodger lead.

Kershaw gave up the lone run of his six-inning appearance on a solo home run to right field from Kevin Kiermaier to close the gap to 2-1.

The Rays kept Glasnow on the mound into the fifth, and as his pitch count reached the 100s his control began to fade somewhat. He opened the inning with back-to-back walks to Mookie Betts and Corey Seager, who managed to steal their way to third and second base, respectively.

That’s when things really started to unravel for the Rays as Max Muncy singled and Betts slid into home and managed to avoid the tag to make it 3-1 Dodgers.

Will Smith took his turn next and swatted a line drive RBI single that brought home Seager for another score and a 4-1 lead.

Finally, Rays manager Kevin Cash made the call to pull Glasnow and hand the ball to reliever Ryan Yarbrough, who opened his appearance with a popout from Bellinger.

Yarbrough then gave up two runs on back-to-back RBI singles from Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez, who pinch-hit for Joc Pederson, to extend the Dodger lead to 6-1, before he managed to close out the inning.

While Kershaw continued to deal in a scoreless sixth inning, the Rays were forced to go deeper into their bullpen and brought out Josh Fleming in the bottom of the inning, but the Dodgers bats were still hot.

Betts opened the Dodgers at-bats with a solo home run to right field to expand their lead to 7-1.

A pair of back-to-back doubles from Justin Turner and Muncy brought in the Dodgers final run of the game to make it 8-1.

Kershaw finally exited the game in the seventh and was taken over for by Dylan Floro who started his appearance with a strikeout but then gave up a single and a double to put runners at second and third. 

The scoring opportunity prompted some tactical plays from the managers as the Rays called on Ji-Man Choi to pinch-hit, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts responded by replacing Floro with Victor Gonzalez and the Rays then replaced Choi with Mike Brosseau.

The Rays managed to outmaneuver the Dodgers as Brosseau singled on a line drive into right field to bring in Manuel Margot for the score, 8-2. Kiermaier, who had the solo home run earlier, singled this time for another Rays score to make it 8-3.

That’s when Gonzalez came up with a huge play to stop the rally, Mike Zunino hit a line drive at Gonzalez who managed to instantly react and put his glove in the right spot to come up with the catch for the fly out and turned the play to second base for a double play to close the inning.

Reflexes on 💯. pic.twitter.com/tcJqV6XwAy

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 21, 2020

The Rays wouldn’t summon up any more offense the rest of the way as Pedro Baez and Joe Kelly finished things off on the mound in the eighth and ninth for the 8-3 win.

The Dodgers and Rays face off again in Game 2 of the World Series Wednesday night at 5:08.

KHTS Sports is your place for 2020 Santa Clarita high school sports and Los Angeles Dodgers coverage. Find all the latest news and updates on your hometown schools here as they compete in the Foothill League, Heritage League, Western State Conference and GSAC.

THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS ARE BROUGHT TO YOU LOCALLY BY: