LOS ANGELES – For all the frills and hype and bigger-picture significance attached to the 120th edition of the World Series, the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers still need to deliver the goods for this clash to meaningfully resonate.
The historic rivals not only lived up to the advanced billing Friday night in a riveting, leverage-filled, bar-setting opener that had something for everyone from old-school baseball lifer to new-age data nerd, they delivered a classic.
Gerrit Cole and Jack Flaherty duelling it out into the sixth. A majestic, high-arching homer from Giancarlo Stanton the pitch after a fastball near his face. Shohei Ohtani ripping a ball off the right-field wall a foot shy of a game-tying homer but scoring moments later thanks to Mookie Betts. A near Jeffrey Maier-like fan-interference moment in the ninth on a Gleyber Torres drive rightfully ruled a double. Two Jazz Chisholm Jr. stolen bases setting up what surely looked like the winning run.
And then, at the end, a swing by Freddie Freeman, on his sprained right ankle, directly into Dodgers lore alongside Kirk Gibson, sending a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning deep into the sky as 52,394 at Chavez Ravine roared, chanting his name well after an exhilarating 6-3 victory.
The day felt like a week and the series is just beginning. The Dodgers start Yoshinobu Yamamoto against Carlos Rodon on Saturday seeking to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seen before the series shifts to New York.
“I love the history of this game, to be a part of it, it’s special,” said Freeman. “I’ve been playing this game a long time and to come up in those moments, you dream about those moments even when you’re 35 and been in the league for 15 years. You want to be a part of those.
“It’s the kind of energy the crowd brought tonight. Game 1 of the World Series. Everyone’s been talking about this all week. For us to get that first win, especially like that, that’s pretty good. But we’ve got three more to go.”
The Yankees very nearly were saying the same thing after taking a 4-3 lead on Anthony Volpe’s fielder’s choice in the top of the 10th, which scored Chisholm after he’d stolen both second and third off Blake Treinen.
But Gavin Lux worked a one-out walk before Tommy Edman, who knocked down Volpe’s grounder but bobbled the transfer erasing a shot at a double-play, followed with an infield single to bring up Ohtani.
Nestor Cortes then came in for Jake Cousins and he got Ohtani on a flyout that Alex Verdugo chased down into the stands, but which advanced the runners. Yankees manager Aaron Boone then intentionally walked Betts to load the bases, but Freeman ambushed the lefty’s first pitch, and evoked memories of Gibson’s pinch-hit, walk-off two-run shot in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
“I played the whole game, though,” quipped Freeman.
That he did is remarkable given how compromised he’d looked in the National League Championship Series versus the Mets. Freeman played in only four of the six games, with teammate Max Muncy relaying that, “there have been multiple times where we’ve had to go to Freddie and say, ‘Hey, you need to sit this one out.’ And if you know Freddie, that’s not an easy conversation to have to have.”
But six days off between Game 5 of the NLCS and Game 1 of the World Series allowed him to get into a much better spot physically. A first-inning triple signalled that he was a much better version of himself this time out. And when opportunity arrived in the 10th, he answered the moment just the way Gibson did 36 years ago, minus the hobble around the bases.
“I’m probably one of two people in here that was alive when that happened,” said 37-year-old reliever Daniel Hudson, who had a prime view of Freeman’s homer from the bullpen. “It’s almost the same situation. The comparisons between the two are really freaking cool. Just to be a part of it was awesome. Once everything died down a little bit, you start thinking about it, then you see it on TV, the side-by-sides on social media. It was a really special moment for all the fans here, for everybody, especially for Freddie. I know that meant a lot to him to be able to come through in a big spot like that.”
Teoscar Hernandez watched Freeman’s reaction and thought to himself “when you see Freddie show emotions, it’s a big one.” During his time with the Toronto Blue Jays, Hernandez saw Jose Bautista’s bat-flip homer in the 2015 ALDS against Texas countless times and with the Dodgers has seen Gibson’s drive over and over.
“I’m going to put Freddie No. 1 just because I was in the on-deck circle,” he said with a grin. “I have a World Series ring (from the 2017 Houston Astros, who traded him to Toronto that deadline), but I wasn’t part of that celebration. Being here and watching this and living it, it’s amazing. I don’t know how to describe it.”
He was far from alone.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the homer “might be the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve witnessed some great ones.”
Flaherty said “we all enjoy baseball, we enjoy the game, we’re all fans of it – that was just an incredible game from both sides. What Gerrit was able to do, the way he pitched was unbelievable. Their bullpen, our bullpen, our defence, it was just an unbelievable ballgame on both sides. Freddie put a good swing on a ball, and it was incredible.”
Especially since the Yankees pushed the Dodgers to the max.
They nearly took the lead in the top of the ninth when Gleyber Torres sent a Michael Kopech fastball to deep left-centre, where a fan reached over the wall to snag the drive. The umpires signalled fan interference making it a double, with a crew-chief review confirming the call.
“When I saw the fan reaching out into the field, as soon as he caught it, I turned right away and say, ‘No, no, no. That’s not a homer,’” said Hernandez. “The fan was way over the wall. I was positive that they wouldn’t (rule home run).”
That still left Torres at second, prompting the Dodgers to intentionally walk Juan Soto and bring in Treinen to face Aaron Judge, who’d struck out in his three previous at-bats. This time, he popped up a fastball to Edman at short to end the threat.
The Yankees had nursed a 2-1 lead provided by Stanton’s two-run homer in the top of the sixth through jams in the bottom of the sixth and seventh, but they finally got burned in the eighth.
Ohtani hammered a Tommy Kahnle changeup off the right-field wall a foot shy of a homer, settling for a double. Alertly, though, he took third when Torres was careless with the relay back from the outfield, and Betts made them pay with a laser to deep centre off Luke Weaver that brought him home.
The Dodgers broke through against Cole in the fifth when Kiké Hernandez tripled and scored on a Will Smith sacrifice fly but the lead didn’t last an inning as Stanton’s sixth homer of the post-season came after Flaherty got ahead 0-2, then threw an 88.8 m.ph. heater very up and very in before hanging a curveball that sailed 412 feet to left field.
That and the Yankees offence that followed is a byproduct of the way their lineup keeps opposing pitchers under duress.
“You have good at-bats, you get guys on base, stressful pitches, I think that’s the most important thing,” Judge said ahead of the opener. “Sometimes you may not score, but getting a lot of traffic on the bases, making the pitchers really work, think about you on the bases, think about the guy at the plate. If you get me up there, Giancarlo up there, Juan up there with a couple of guys on base, that’s a little different than pitching with nobody on base in the first or second inning. The amount of stressful pitches you can put on a pitching staff leads to a better chance for a big inning.”
The Dodgers do the same thing, of course, which is why the Yankees found themselves stuck in the 10th, walking Betts to face Freeman, trying to play their best odds in a bad spot.
“It’s kind of pick your poison with our lineup,” said Freeman. “It doesn’t matter really who you pitch to. We’ve got guys who can do that in every single spot in our order. Once I saw Aaron give the four, I just started going through my plan and my process what I was going to look for and where I was going to look for it. A lot of heaters that kind of ride. So I just wanted to be on top of it and be on time for it. I was looking closer to me so I could leave the cutter and slider alone away. I wanted to be on time for it, and I was.”
An iconic October moment followed, in a World Series opener that exceeded its promise.