Corey Seager doesn’t miss a beat in return to Dodgers
In 2014, that bygone era when Kyle was the best known of all the Seagers, his kid brother Corey played for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. Corey had been honored with a spot in the Futures Game, and the Dodgers granted him permission to stick around to watch Kyle play in the All-Star game.
The time has come for Kyle to return the favor. Corey is by far America’s favorite Seager these days, as Kyle cheekily acknowledged by choosing “Corey’s Brother” when players got to pick a nickname to wear on their jerseys this season.
Kyle plays for the Seattle Mariners, a team that never has appeared in the World Series. When the series moves to Houston this weekend, Kyle plans to be in attendance to cheer on Corey in his first World Series.
“He’s super excited,” Corey Seager said. “I’m excited too. It’s the first time he’s ever seen me play professionally.”
The kid brother did the family proud Tuesday. In his World Series debut, Seager had two hits in three at-bats, helping the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over the Astros.
“Just your first World Series game is incredible,” Seager said. “You grow up thinking about that, dreaming about that. It’s everything you could ever think of.”
It all could have been a bad dream. Seager strained his back in the last game of a division series, and the National League Championship Series went on without him. With the team in Chicago, Seager did his rehabilitation in Los Angeles by day, then retreated to a hotel room to watch in solitude as the Dodgers clinched.
In his first game in 15 days, facing former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel, Seager got two hits. No other player recorded two hits Tuesday, for either team. So much for losing his timing.
“When you get to see guys day in, day out, every single day for a long time, there are certain things that don’t impress you anymore,” Dodgers outfielder Enrique Hernandez said.
“There’s no mystery that Corey is one of the best hitters in the game. For him to go out there and do what he does is just Corey being Corey.”
Seager’s lone stumble came in the seventh inning, and even that turned out all right. Clayton Kershaw had induced what appeared to be an inning-ending double play, a ground ball that led Seager toward second base.
He could have picked up the ball and stepped on second base, or he could have picked up the ball and flipped to second baseman Logan Forsythe, but he struggled to corral the ball. By the time he shoveled it to Forsythe, the Dodgers could only get one out.
“I just couldn’t get it out of my glove,” Seager said. “Kersh is the best. It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is. He’s the best. I think he pretty much proved that tonight.”
Indeed, for a pitcher with “seventh-inning postseason struggle” almost affixed to his name, Kershaw shook off Seager’s misplay and got the next batter for the third out, with the potential tying run at bat.
“You have to feel pretty confident, at least getting one out before they can score a run,” Kershaw said. “And so, yeah, I guess that’s how I did it. It felt good to get through seven, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Kershaw pitched a three-hitter over seven innings, striking out 11. No pitcher since 1929 had struck out more in his World Series debut. The seventh inning, the Seager bobble, whatever.
“He’d been in control that whole game,” Brandon McCarthy said. “I would be willing to bet at that point he thinks he could get six, seven outs in an inning if he needed to.
“His stuff was so good that I would think most of that probably just fell away. You’re not even angry.”
The evening was a huge success for the Dodgers on just about every front, including the Seager one. He had batted second in every game he had started this season, but the Dodgers batted him sixth Tuesday, to ease him back into action.
Two hits later, he’ll be batting second again Wednesday.
“He probably doesn’t want us to get too fond,” general manager Farhan Zaidi said, “of having him in the six-hole.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series
Follow Bill Shaikin on Twitter @BillShaikin
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