Dodgers Capture Championship

The Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday demolished the New York Yankees 9-2 in New York, becoming the second team in history to come back and win the World Series after losing the first two games.

The victory was sweet indeed for the Dodgers, because the Yankees had been the first team to achieve such a comeback when they rebounded to beat L.A. in 1978 after losing the first two games of the Fall Classic.

Yankee relief pitcher George Frazier now has the dubious distinction of being the only man to lose three games in a series.

With the score tied at one in fifth, Frazier relieved Tommy John, who was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fourth inning. Davey Lopes bunted over to second, after an earlier single, and scored the winning run when Ron Cey, who had been hit in the head by Rich Gossage's 94-mile-per-hour fastball on Sunday, stroked a two-out single. Dusty Baker followed with a base hit to right, and Pedro Guerrero tripled to left field to give the Dodgers a 4-1 lead.

The Dodgers continued their assault on Yankee pitching by scoring four more runs off relievers Ron Davis and Rick Reuschel. With one out in the inning, Burt Hooton and Lopes walked. Hooton scored on Russell's base hit, and Lopes tallied on pinch hitter Darrel Thomas's infield single. After Graig Nettle's error loaded the bases, Guerrero drove in two runs with a double.

The Yankees scored their runs in the third inning on Willie Randolph's home run, and in the sixth on Lou Piniella's single.

The Dodgers' first run came off Tommy John in the top of the fourth inning when Baker, who singled to right with one away and moved to second on Rick Monday's base hit, scored on Steve Yeager's grounder that squeaked just through the left side of the infield.

In another break from tradition, three Dodgers--Cey, Guerrero, and Yeager--were voted the co-Most Valuable Players (co-MVPs) in the series.