Freddie Freeman wins Game 1 with 1st walk-off grand slam in World Series history

LOS ANGELES — We don’t imagine what we simply noticed.

One of the crucial well-known highlights in World Collection historical past was simply performed on repeat, with a brand new hero and a brand new historic twist in a Recreation 1 for the ages.

Thirty-six years after a gimpy Kirk Gibson limped to the plate to smack a Recreation 1 walk-off homer, Freddie Freeman got here to the plate on a badly injured proper ankle with the bases loaded within the backside of the tenth and belted the primary walk-off grand slam in World Collection historical past to ship the Dodgers to an electrifying 6-3 victory over the Yankees on Friday night time at a sold-out Dodger Stadium.

“That is pretty much as good because it will get proper there,” Freeman stated.

Amen to that. To dwell as much as a working week’s value of hype is not any small feat. However the Dodgers and Yankees — the No. 1 seeds within the Nationwide and American Leagues who’re clashing within the Fall Basic for the primary time in 43 years — performed a Recreation 1 very a lot well worth the wait.

And ultimately, the Dodgers got here out with a magical opening act by which Freeman gave off these Gibby goosebumps — virtually to the minute (Gibson’s homer had landed at 8:38 p.m. native time, Freeman’s cleared the wall at 8:39).

“Man,” stated supervisor Dave Roberts after the Dodgers abandoned the dugout to greet Freeman at residence plate, “it was an important sport earlier than that, however the best way it completed, I simply could not be extra excited for our guys.”

In all best-of-seven sequence, groups profitable Recreation 1 have gone on to take the sequence 125 of 191 instances (65%). That features 23 of 29 instances (79%) within the World Collection since 1995. In all sequence beneath the present 2-3-2 format, groups profitable Recreation 1 at residence have gone on to take the sequence 68 of 101 instances (67%).

“We performed that group rather well for the entire complete sport,” Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo stated. “On the finish of the day, we are the two greatest groups out right here, so we’ll come right here with our heads held up excessive, with confidence, and exit right here and compete once more.”

Even earlier than Freeman took Nestor Cortes deep a la Gibson off the A’s Dennis Eckersley, this Collection setup summoned the ghosts of Octobers previous.

Although it had been a very long time since these baseball behemoths final met on this stage, the Dodgers and Yankees, going through one another for the twelfth time, are the most typical World Collection opponents. These are the golf equipment that staged the primary Subway Collection, again when the Bronx Bombers defeated “Dem Bums” from Brooklyn mere months earlier than the U.S. entered World Warfare II. These are the franchises that battled one another whereas the Bronx was burning and Reggie Jackson was taking over the “Mr. October” moniker. These are the groups that final coexisted within the Fall Basic in 1981, when the Dodgers’ rotation was led by a rookie phenom named Fernando Valenzuela.

Historical past pulsates within the postseason, all of the extra when iconic golf equipment conflict. And Valenzuela’s demise earlier this week solely added to the emotional heft of what’s going down right here. Previous to the primary pitch, the Dodgers had two of their World Collection MVPs — Steve Yeager (1981) and Orel Hershiser (1988) — honor Valenzuela’s reminiscence by putting a ball on the mound, under the place his No. 34 had been painted.

Then, it was time for the 2024 Dodgers and Yankees to make Fall Basic reminiscences of their very own.

They proved as much as the duty.

Towards loaded lineups, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and Dodgers commerce acquisition Jack Flaherty — each of whom grew up rooting for the groups they now go well with up for — managed to mount a uncommon beginning pitchers’ duel within the midst of an particularly bullpen-oriented October.

All Cole allowed in six-plus scoreless innings was a Will Smith sacrifice fly after a Kiké Hernández triple within the fifth. Flaherty’s lone mistake in 5 1/3 innings was to a man who has been punishing pitcher errors all postseason, as ALCS MVP Giancarlo Stanton took him deep with a two-run, 412-foot homer within the sixth to provide the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

That lead held when Cole calmly retired Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman in succession after a leadoff double from NLCS MVP Tommy Edman within the sixth. And once more when the Yankees’ bullpen escaped a two-on, one-out jam within the seventh.

However within the eighth, the Dodgers capitalized on a pricey defensive miscue. Ohtani rocketed a Tommy Kahnle changeup for a double off the highest of the right-center subject wall. Juan Soto’s one-hop throw again to the infield bounced off Gleyber Torres’ glove, and Ohtani was in a position to advance to 3rd.

“Troublesome bounce,” Torres stated. “I am simply attempting to cowl the cutoff and realized the ball was again to Soto actually fast, and simply tried to get again to the bottom and make a tag.”

Betts then drove Ohtani in on a sac fly to middle subject, and the rating was tied at 2.

Moments after his error, Torres sparked probably the most attention-grabbing “defensive play” of the night, when his lengthy fly ball to left-center within the high of the ninth discovered the glove of a fan positioned on the wall within the pavilion seats. As a result of the fan had clearly reached over the wall to make the snag, it was dominated — and upheld on replay evaluation — a ground-rule double slightly than a go-ahead homer. In a gutsy transfer, the Dodgers deliberately walked Soto to face Aaron Choose with two aboard, and Blake Treinen got here on to get Choose to harmlessly come out to finish the inning.

This grew to become the third consecutive World Collection Recreation 1 to go to further innings, and, due to Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s single and two stolen bases, the Yankees had runners on the corners with one out within the tenth. When Anthony Volpe grounded to brief, Edman made a pleasant diving cease on the ball however had hassle with the switch and couldn’t full a possible double play. Chisholm motored residence.

So the Yankees took a 3-2 lead into the underside of the tenth. Ohtani got here to the plate with two on and one out. The Yankees turned to the lefty Cortes, who hadn’t pitched since Sept. 18 due to elbow hassle.

“Simply favored the matchup,” Yanks supervisor Aaron Boone defined. “The truth is [Cortes] has been throwing the ball rather well the previous few weeks as he is gotten prepared for this.”

Cortes received Ohtani to hit a excessive pop fly to foul territory, and Verdugo made a sensational play reaching and falling over the sidewall to get the out.

Then the Yankees deliberately walked Betts to carry Freeman to the plate for a left-on-left matchup.

Freeman had sat out Recreation 6 of the NLCS due to the ankle sprain. He’s not as dangerous off as Gibson was when he was relegated to the Dodger bench with a pulled left hamstring and swollen proper knee in ’88, however he actually wanted these 4 days off between rounds.

“This final week has been actually good for me,” Freeman stated. “The primary time I ran was once I ran out to provide excessive fives to my teammates once we received launched. Tried to stave off operating as a lot as I may this week, handled it as a lot as I may.”

And when he related with Cortes’ first-pitch fastball on the within edge, Freeman felt higher than ever.

“It felt like nothing,” he stated, “simply type of floating.”

The ballpark erupted, Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” blared, and a World Collection steeped in historical past and stocked with superstars had the primary of what might be many majestic moments.