The Dodgers won the World Series Tuesday night after a 3-1 victory in which Tampa should have just left Blake Snell in the game, but they didn’t. They pulled their ace, who was absolutely dealing, because that’s what the analytics told them to do.

But the big story on Action News is Justin Turner, who was pulled in the middle of the game due to a positive COVID test, after he had batted three times already.

From ESPN:

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed the positive test after the game, telling Fox: “It’s a bittersweet night for us.”

Turner was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before coming out of the game to start the eighth inning. The team did not give a reason for his exit when he left.

…

The veteran infielder was not immediately with his teammates as they celebrated the franchise’s first World Series title since 1988. But the 35-year-old did return to the field with his wife about an hour after the game and took photos with the World Series trophy. He got a hug from longtime teammate Clayton Kershaw and sat front and center next to manager Dave Roberts for a team photo, occasionally lowering a mask he otherwise wore throughout the celebration.

Sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan that Turner had been asked to isolate after the positive test but that no one stopped him from going on the field to celebrate.

Sounds like Major League Baseball was running a tight ship out there.

Jeff Passan says the lab doing the testing found out during the game that Turner’s Monday test came back inconclusive. Then a sample from Tuesday arrived at the lab, they ran that test, and it was positive, so MLB called the Dodgers and had Turner pulled from the game.

The best part is that he just walked back onto the field to celebrate. Like, once they won the World Series, nothing mattered anymore. It’s the perfect story, having baseball bookend their 2020 season with COVID nonsense, one debacle involving the Marlins and one involving Justin Turner.

On a side note, here’s a great joke:

Heyoooo!

<rimshot>

And here’s a guy doing donuts but he runs over a firework and sets his car on fire:

Congrats to the Dodgers, who had a payroll that was $100 million higher than Tampa’s. #parity