LA Dodger fans face heartbreaking ending to magical year
LOS ANGELES (AP) - It will now be at least 30 years between World Series titles for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the city that loves them will be feeling blue for a long time.
Ready to paint the town in the team colors awaiting their first World Series victory since 1988 Wednesday, the people of LA were stuck singing a sad song after a 5-1 loss in Game 7 to the Houston Astros.
Fans did their best to stay optimistic but the Dodgers made it hard, falling behind 5-0 in the opening innings and never getting close.
"I smell a comeback!" one person shouted during the fifth inning at Tom's Urban, a sports bar in downtown LA.
But the comeback never came.
Joanne Lopez-Rojas, 71, said she was going to "cry and stop on the way home and have a drink."
She and her husband Delfino Lopez-Rojas, 71, are retired restaurant owners from Ventura who watched the game at Tom's Urban.
Joanne had her face painted. One side was white with colorful flowers painted in celebration of the Day of the Dead - the Mexican holiday where people celebrate loved ones who have died - but her right cheek had the Dodgers logo: the linked blue letters LA.
Now both cheeks were likely to be streaked with tears.
It was a far cry from Wednesday afternoon, when the city was buzzing with excitement and bursting with joy at the thought of a Game 7 in town.
Public relations professional Ross Goldberg of Westlake Village flew his 22-year-old son, Josh, out from the East Coast, where he recently graduated from Georgetown University, to see the game.
In the city's Solano Canyon neighborhood, which leads into Dodger Stadium, houses had shed their Halloween decorations overnight in favor of Dodgers signs, flags and other memorabilia for Tuesday's game.
"Tonight is the biggest game in the history of baseball in Los Angeles," said Goldberg. "It's not just a matter of waiting 29 years. You don't know if this will ever happen again."
On Wednesday night, the city desperately hoped it would, someday, happen again.
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Associated Press Writers John Rogers, Andrew Dalton and Krysta Fauria contributed to this story.