Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning on of Game 1 of the World Series on Friday to give his team a 1-0 series lead over the the New York Yankees.
Freeman came to the plate after Mookie Betts was intentionally walked to load the bases. And against Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes, who hadn’t pitched in weeks, Freeman cranked the first pitch he saw into deep right field to win the game.
It marked a climactic ending to one of the most highly-anticipated MLB games in recent years.
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Both starters, Gerrit Cole of the Yankees and Jack Flaherty of the Dodgers, pitched four scoreless innings to start the game. Flaherty put on some baserunners, and Cole had so deep fly balls to the track, but it was all zeroes through the first four frames.
Cole was the first to crack, giving up an RBI on a sac fly to Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who scored Kike Hernandez to put LA up 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth.
Then came Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees veteran slugger, who has taken the lead in MLB’s all-time list of most home runs per at-bat this postseason, hit his fifth homer of the playoffs. A towering two-run shot that arched majestically into left field put New York up 2-1 in the sixth.
From there, both team’s bullpens kept the bats at bay until Shohei Ohtani came up with a booming one-out double in the eighth inning. Then he snuck over to third base when the throw back in got away from the Yankees infielders.
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So, the Yankees turned to their de-facto closer Luke Weaver to come in for a potential five-out save. Weaver, a 31-year-old journeyman who was unexpectedly thrust into New York’s closer role ahead of the playoffs, became one of MLB’s biggest stories of the postseason, recording four of five saves and pitching two innings for the win in Game 5 of the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series.
But with Ohtani already at third, Weaver gave up a fly ball to Mookie Betts, allowing Ohtani to score and tie the game at two.
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In the top of the ninth, a fan caught a Gleyber Torres fly ball to left center, to put Torres at second base on fan interference. Then Dodgers manager Dave Roberts opted to intentionally walk Juan Soto to bring Aaron Judge to the plate with two on and two out.
And Judge, who has struggled in the playoffs so far, came up empty in what was arguably the biggest at-bat of his career to that point, with a routine pop-up.
Then, Weaver came back on for the Yankees in the ninth and finished off a 1-2-3 inning to send the game to extras.
Jazz Chisholm got on base, stole second, stole third, then came home on an Anthony Volpe ground ball to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.
Then came the bottom of the 10th and Freeman’s home run.
It was the first World Series game between the storied franchises since Oct. 28, 1981, when the Dodgers won 9-2 to clinch the series at Yankee Stadium. It was the first postseason game between them in Los Angeles October 25 of that year, when the Dodgers won 2-1, which shifted the momentum of that series.
The two teams will meet again at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night for Game 2. The game can be seen on FOX.
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