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Mookie Betts is back in the World Series, facing the player the Red Sox traded him for

Mookie Betts is back in the World Series, facing the player the Red Sox traded him for

When the Red Sox traded Mookie Betts to the Dodgers in February 2020 for a package led by Alex Verdugo, they hoped the two outfielders would one day face each other in the World Series. This will happen in the worst possible way for Boston.

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Betts returns to the Fall Classic for the third time (and second with Los Angeles) after the Dodgers beat the Mets 10-5 in Game 6 of the NLCS on Sunday night to secure a best-of-seven date with the Mets have Yankees. Verdugo has already punched his ticket against New York, which defeated Cleveland in five games. More than four years after Betts and Verdugo were traded for each other in a deal that also sent David Price to Los Angeles and Jeter Downs and Connor Wong to Boston, they will take the field on baseball's biggest starting Friday, when Game 1 takes place -Stage sharing planned at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s kind of what people wanted, what we all wanted,” Betts said on the FOX postgame show. “It will be a battle between two good teams, many long flights across the country.”

Betts' slow postseason start gave way to an excellent NLCS for a strong Dodgers team. In six games, the former AL MVP hit .346 (9-for-26) with two home runs, four doubles, nine RBIs and an OPS of 1.182. His performance could have been considered MVP-worthy if not for teammate Tommy Edman, who took home the NLCS MVP award after hitting .407 in the series.

Betts will try to stay undefeated in World Series play. After helping the Red Sox beat the Dodgers in five games in 2018 and helping Los Angeles beat the Rays in six neutral-field games in 2020, he's looking for the trifecta. The 32-year-old will be joined by former Red Sox teammates Ryan Brasier and Kiké Hernández on Los Angeles' World Series roster.

The first World Series matchup between the Yankees and Dodgers will feature baseball's two biggest stars, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. It will be the twelfth time that the legendary franchises have met at the Fall Classic.

More from Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway vs. Hollywood. Subway vs. highway. Judge vs. Ohtani.

New York's neighbors-turned-cross-country rivals, the Yankees and Dodgers, are renewing their illustrious battle in the World Series for the first time in 43 years.

“When you play for the Dodgers and for the Yankees, it better feel different,” L.A. manager Dave Roberts said at Yankee Stadium last June. “If not, you’re better off doing something else professionally.”

Two of baseball's most successful teams will face each other at Dodger Stadium starting Friday: the Yankees will win their 41st American League pennant and the Dodgers will win their 25th National League championship. New York is seeking its 28th World Series title, but its first since 2009, while the Dodgers are seeking their eighth and second in a five-year span.

Yankees vs. Dodgers Pinstripes Pantone 294. The Bronx Bombers vs. the Descendants of the Dem Bums. The granite and limestone of the new Yankee Stadium on cool fall nights compared to Dodger Stadium in sunny Chavez Ravine, with the San Gabriel Mountains behind the pavilions.

“It’s kind of what people wanted, what we all wanted,” Dodgers star Mookie Betts said. “It will be a battle between two good teams, many long flights across the country.”

New York is 8-3 against the Dodgers in most World Series matchups, including 6-1 against Brooklyn and 2-2 since the Big Apple-Tinseltown rivalry.

Mickey Owen, Al Gionfriddo, Cookie Lavagetto, Sandy Amoros, Johnny Podres, Don Larsen, Sandy Koufax and Reggie Jackson created indelible images in the duel that began with one of the craziest twists of the 1941 World Series.

After trailing the series 2-1, Brooklyn led 4-3 with two outs in the ninth inning at Ebbets Field when Tommy Henrich missed Hugh Casey's third strike. The ball bounced away from Owen and was rolling toward the Dodgers' dugout as Henrich missed the third strike. Joe DiMaggio hit a single, Charlie Keller hit a two-run double and Joe Gordon added another two-run double later in the inning as the Yankees won 7-4 and won the title in five games.

Lavagetto's two-out, pinch-walk-off double in the ninth ended Bill Bevens' no-hit attempt in the fourth game of 1947, and two games later Gionfriddo DiMaggio robbed the game-winning three-run home run.

New York defeated the Dodgers again in 1949, 1952 and 1953, frustrating fans in Flatbush, but Brooklyn finally won the title in 1955 when Podres pitched a Game 7 shutout at Yankee Stadium and Gil Hodges drove in both runs. Amoros kept the lead when he caught Yogi Berra's two-hit drive in the sixth inning in the corner of left field and passed it to shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who threw to Hodges first and Gil McDougald doubled. These players were celebrated in Roger Kahn's 1972 book “The Boys of Summer.”

Larsen pitched the only perfect game of the 1956 World Series in Game 5 in the Bronx, Berra jumped into his arms after the final out, and the Yankees won Game 7 behind Johnny Kucks' three-hit shutout, which turned out to be the deciding one last World Series game at Ebbets Field.

Walter O'Malley was traded to the Dodgers in California after the 1957 season, and Koufax wore an interlocking “LA” on his cap instead of a “B” when he struck out a then-Series record 15 in the 1963 opener at Yankee Stadium. The rivalry did not resume until 1977 with the first of three duels in five years.

Jackson's three home runs led the Yankees to a decisive victory in Game 6 of 1977. The Yankees won another six-game series the following year, highlighted by third baseman Graig Nettles' diving stops against Reggie Smith, Steve Garvey and Davey Lopes.

Los Angeles lost its first two games in the Bronx in 1981, then won four in a row, capped by a 9-2 victory that had Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda dancing. The loss prompted Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, whose right-hand man was tied up in a hotel elevator after an alleged fight with Dodgers fans, to issue a written apology “to the people of New York and New York Yankees fans everywhere.”

Both teams feel the history of their predecessors.

“When you put on the jersey and the pinstripes, it just feels different,” Yankees slugger Juan Soto said.

Los Angeles took two out of three when they met in a much-touted series in June.

Roberts is reminded of history as he approaches Dodger Stadium.

“I can’t believe I drive up Vin Scully Way when I go to work,” he said. “It's overwhelming, but I try not to put my head there too much; I’m just trying to do my job.”

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