'As good as it gets': Freeman wins G1 with 1st walk-off slam in WS history

LOS ANGELES -- We don’t believe what we just saw.

One of the most famous highlights in World Series history was just played on repeat, with a new hero and a new historic twist in a Game 1 for the ages.

Thirty-six years after a gimpy Kirk Gibson limped to the plate to smack a Game 1 walk-off homer, Freddie Freeman came to the plate on a badly injured right ankle with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th and belted the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history to send the Dodgers to an electrifying 6-3 victory over the Yankees on Friday night at a sold-out Dodger Stadium.

“That's as good as it gets right there,” Freeman said.

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Amen to that. To live up to a working week’s worth of hype is no small feat. But the Dodgers and Yankees -- the No. 1 seeds in the National and American Leagues who are clashing in the Fall Classic for the first time in 43 years -- played a Game 1 very much worth the wait.

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And in the end, the Dodgers came out with a magical opening act in which Freeman gave off those Gibby goosebumps -- almost to the minute (Gibson’s homer had landed at 8:38 p.m. local time, Freeman’s cleared the wall at 8:39).

“Man,” said manager Dave Roberts after the Dodgers deserted the dugout to greet Freeman at home plate, “it was a great game before that, but the way it finished, I just couldn't be more excited for our guys.”

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In all best-of-seven series, teams winning Game 1 have gone on to take the series 125 of 191 times (65%). That includes 23 of 29 times (79%) in the World Series since 1995. In all series under the current 2-3-2 format, teams winning Game 1 at home have gone on to take the series 68 of 101 times (67%).

“We played that team really well for the whole entire game,” Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo said. “At the end of the day, we're the two best teams out here, so we're going to come here with our heads held up high, with confidence, and go out here and compete again."

Even before Freeman took Nestor Cortes deep a la Gibson off the A’s Dennis Eckersley, this Series setup summoned the ghosts of Octobers past.

Though it had been a long time since these baseball behemoths last met on this stage, the Dodgers and Yankees, facing each other for the 12th time, are the most common World Series opponents. These are the clubs that staged the first Subway Series, back when the Bronx Bombers defeated “Dem Bums” from Brooklyn mere months before the U.S. entered World War II. These are the franchises that battled each other while the Bronx was burning and Reggie Jackson was taking on the “Mr. October” moniker. These are the teams that last coexisted in the Fall Classic in 1981, when the Dodgers’ rotation was led by a rookie phenom named Fernando Valenzuela.

History pulsates in the postseason, all the more when iconic clubs clash. And Valenzuela’s death earlier this week only added to the emotional heft of what is taking place here. Prior to the first pitch, the Dodgers had two of their World Series MVPs -- Steve Yeager (1981) and Orel Hershiser (1988) -- honor Valenzuela’s memory by placing a ball on the mound, below where his No. 34 had been painted.

Then, it was time for the 2024 Dodgers and Yankees to make Fall Classic memories of their own.

They proved up to the task.

Against loaded lineups, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and Dodgers trade acquisition Jack Flaherty -- both of whom grew up rooting for the teams they now suit up for -- managed to mount a rare starting pitchers’ duel in the midst of an especially bullpen-oriented October.

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

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

But in the eighth, the Dodgers capitalized on a costly defensive miscue. Ohtani rocketed a Tommy Kahnle changeup for a double off the top of the right-center field wall. Juan Soto’s one-hop throw back to the infield bounced off Gleyber Torres’ glove, and Ohtani was able to advance to third.

“Difficult bounce,” Torres said. “I'm just trying to cover the cutoff and realized the ball was back to Soto really quick, and just tried to get back to the base and make a tag.”

Betts then drove Ohtani in on a sac fly to center field, and the score was tied at 2.

Moments after his error, Torres sparked the most interesting “defensive play” of the evening, when his long fly ball to left-center in the top of the ninth found the glove of a fan positioned at the wall in the pavilion seats. Because the fan had clearly reached over the wall to make the snag, it was ruled -- and upheld on replay review -- a ground-rule double rather than a go-ahead homer. In a gutsy move, the Dodgers intentionally walked Soto to face Aaron Judge with two aboard, and Blake Treinen came on to get Judge to harmlessly pop out to end the inning.

This became the third consecutive World Series Game 1 to go to extra innings, and, thanks to Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s single and two stolen bases, the Yankees had runners on the corners with one out in the 10th. When Anthony Volpe grounded to short, Edman made a nice diving stop on the ball but had trouble with the transfer and couldn’t complete a potential double play. Chisholm motored home.

So the Yankees took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the 10th. Ohtani came to the plate with two on and one out. The Yankees turned to the lefty Cortes, who hadn’t pitched since Sept. 18 because of elbow trouble.

“Just liked the matchup,” Yanks manager Aaron Boone explained. “The reality is [Cortes] has been throwing the ball really well the last few weeks as he's gotten ready for this.”

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

Then the Yankees intentionally walked Betts to bring Freeman to the plate for a left-on-left matchup.

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Freeman had sat out Game 6 of the NLCS because of the ankle sprain. He’s not as bad off as Gibson was when he was relegated to the Dodger bench with a pulled left hamstring and swollen right knee in ’88, but he really needed those four days off between rounds.

“This last week has been really good for me,” Freeman said. “The first time I ran was when I ran out to give high fives to my teammates when we got introduced. Tried to stave off running as much as I could this week, treated it as much as I could.”

And when he connected with Cortes’ first-pitch fastball on the inside edge, Freeman felt better than ever.

“It felt like nothing,” he said, “just kind of floating.”

The ballpark erupted, Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” blared, and a World Series steeped in history and stocked with superstars had the first of what could be many majestic moments.