The Los Angeles Dodgers’ trade of the year seems to have been a success. The “fireballer” acquired from the Chicago White Sox has become the Dodgers’ patron saint.

The Dodgers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 7-6 on Sunday (July 17) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, in the 2024 Major League Baseball World Series.

The Dodgers scored two runs in the top of the first inning, including a solo home run by Gavin Lux, who led off the inning with a walk-off single, but gave up a run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 2-2. They added one more run in the bottom of the fifth.

But in the top of the sixth,

Mookie Betts hit a solo home run, Miguel Rojas had an RBI single, and Kevin Kiermaier hit a three-run homer. Two runs in the bottom of the sixth cut the deficit to one, but Evan Phillips pitched a scoreless seventh, Joe Kelly pitched a scoreless eighth, and Michael Kopeck pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the win.

Kopeck, a right-handed fireballer the Dodgers acquired from the White Sox in a trade, 파워볼사이트 추천 mixed a slider and cutter with a fastball that topped out at 10.26 miles per hour to preserve the one-run victory.

The first batter, Victor Scott II, took six pitches. All were four-seamers, and he touched 102.6 miles per hour on the fifth pitch. He struck out on the sixth pitch, a 99.7 mph fastball.

Against the second batter, Meishin Wynn, he threw a slider in the first inning and it was a ball. He fouled off a 99.5 mph four-seam fastball on the second pitch. In a one-strike, one-pitch at-bat, he threw a slider on the third pitch for a grounder to the third baseman.

Last out of the game. Kopeck closed out the game by striking out Wilson Contreras with a slider, a 100.6 mph four-seam fastball, a slider and a cutter.

Kopeck has been perfect out of the bullpen since joining the Dodgers, allowing one hit and no walks in eight games. On Dodgers social media, fans have hailed Kopeck’s performance, calling him “the closer we’ve been looking for” and “my savior.”