A clash of the Titans. A meeting of Goliaths. An old-fashioned heavyweight fight.
Leading up to this year’s World Series, no cliché was too exaggerated at this point. No superlative too grand to overstate the matchup.
Dodgers vs. Yankees. Shohei Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge. Baseball’s annual fall classic, in the spotlight like few others in recent memory.
And then, in Game 1 on Friday night, things started in the most dramatic way possible.
With one swing in the 10th inning, Freddie Freeman etched his name in Dodgers October history.
The team trailed by one run in the 10th inning, Freeman came to bat with the bases loaded and two outs. He got a fastball on the first pitch over the inner half of the plate. He then made a historic and remarkable swing, launching a walk-off grand slam deep into the right field pavilion. It was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.
Final score: Dodgers 6, Yankees 3.
A World Series of epic proportions, which started with a moment that will live long in the memory.
The 10th inning started ominously for the Dodgers, with the Yankees jumping in front on the back of Jazz Chisholm’s aggressive baserunning.
After putting a one-out single off the top of Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen, Chisholm broke for second with Anthony Rizzo at the plate and stole the base with relative ease. After the Dodgers intentionally walked Rizzo on a 3-and-0 count, Chisholm was on the move again an at bat later, getting a huge jump on Treinen’s slow pitch and stealing third without a throw.
With runners on the corners, Roberts opted to move into the infield against Anthony Volpe. The play backfired, with Volpe hitting a sharp grounder up the middle that wobbled shortstop Tommy Edman off his knees and got just one out at second base as Chisholm scored the go-ahead run.
It doesn’t matter.
In the bottom of the 10th, Gavin Lux got the rally going with a walk. Edman singled on a ground ball that Oswaldo Cabrera at second couldn’t cleanly field. Next, both runners advanced when left fielder Alex Verdugo sprinted to catch a fly ball from Ohtani, but went over the short wall into foul territory and was out of play.
That left the Yankees with a decision.
Let left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes, making his first appearance of the postseason after missing the first two rounds with an injury, throw to Mookie Betts. Or intentionally walking him with first base open, setting up a left-left matchup with Freeman.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone chose the latter. He didn’t have to wait long before he started to regret his decision.
Despite being limited for the entire postseason by a severely sprained right ankle and finishing the National League Championship Series in a one-in-15 slump, Freeman started feeling better this week — also benefiting from a four-day break for the World Series. as a breakthrough with his swing in the batting cage.
Focused on a new mental cue in the box – one in which he tried to imagine himself “stepping out” with his injured lead foot, more as a mental trigger than anything – Freeman timed a fastball on the first pitch over the inside half of the plate.
The ball found the barrel. A line ride of 179 km/hour flew through the night.
Freeman raised his bat in the air as 52,394 at Dodger Stadium erupted around him. The ball disappeared into the right field pavilion; not far from where Kirk Gibson, playing through his own leg injuries 36 years earlier, landed his iconic Game 1 two-run walk-off home run in the 1988 World Series.
“Everything was the same,” noted manager Dave Roberts. “Beyond the fist pumps.”
Read more: Complete coverage: Dodgers vs. New York Yankees in World Series
Instead, Freeman met first base coach Clayton McCullough with a low high five. He flexed his arms as he walked around the second one. By the time he reached the home stretch, his teammates stood with arms raised and mouths open, waiting for a celebration at the backboard.
“It felt like nothing, it just felt like floating,” Freeman said. “Those are the scenarios you dream about: two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game. For it to actually happen and get a home run and run it off to give us a 1-0 lead, that’s the best thing that could happen right there.
The series made everything else about Friday night feel like a footnote.
The early pitching duel between Jack Flaherty (5 ⅓ innings, two runs, six strikeouts) and Gerrit Cole (six innings, one run, four strikeouts).
The sixth inning, two-run homer by Giancarlo Stanton that gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
Even Ohtani’s double in the eighth inning – a line drive off the wall that ended with him on third after a cut throw got away from second baseman Gleyber Torres – allowed Betts to score the tying sacrifice fly.
In a series that seemed almost impossible to live up to the hype, Freeman delivered a moment that won’t soon be forgotten.
“For us to get that first win, especially like this, it’s pretty good,” Freeman said, forever subdued. “But we still have three more to go.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
