Former Terp Pitcher Wins World Series With Dodgers
Adam Kolarek Faced—and Struck Out—Another Terp, Rays’ Standout Brandon Lowe
Photo by Cooper Neill/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Adam Kolarek, who played for the Terps from 2008-10, celebrates with his son, Hank, on the field after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 in Game Six Tuesday night to win the 2020 MLB World Series.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 3-1 victory in Game Six over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night, Adam Kolarek becomes just the fourth Maryland Terrapin all-time to win a World Series championship.
Kolarek becomes the first Maryland pitcher to win the World Series since Vic Keen with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1926, and the first Terp to win the World Series since Ron Swoboda with the New York Mets in 1969. Kolarek joins Keen, Swoboda and Charlie Keller as the only Terps to ever prevail in Major League Baseball's Fall Classic.
The left-handed reliever, who hails from Catonsville, Md., and competed with the Terps 2008-10, made one appearance in the World Series. He faced three batters in Game Four: a walk to the first batter he faced, but he forced a pop-up and earned a strikeout in his next two at-bats. The strikeout victim was fellow Terp and former teammate Brandon Lowe (2013-15).
Kolarek made four total 2020 postseason appearances on the mound for the Dodgers – three in the National League Championship Series vs. the Atlanta Braves, and one in the World Series. The high-leverage reliever was one of the top left-handed relief options for the Dodgers throughout the regular season and postseason.
Kolarek's 2020 regular-season campaign was his best as a pro, tossing 19 innings with a 0.95 ERA out of the bullpen for the first-place Dodgers. In 20 appearances, Kolarek held opponents to just two runs, 11 hits and a .164 batting average against. The Mets' 11th-round pick in the 2010 MLB draft spent eight years in the minors before breaking into the big leagues for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2017. Since then, he's become a versatile major league bullpen pitcher, making the seventh-most appearances out of the Dodgers 'pen this season.
With Kolarek and Lowe facing off in this year's World Series, Maryland became one of just two NCAA programs to have multiple players represented in the World Series (Cal State Fullerton). The 2020 World Series was just the second in which two Terps contended for the title in the same year (1917), and the first in which two Terps competed against each other to become World Series champions.
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