Eight mind-boggling stats on display in World Series Game 3

NEW YORK – The Dodgers continued their dominance in the World Series on Monday night, winning 4-2 over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium to take a 3-0 lead.

In all best-of-seven postseason series, teams taking a 3-0 lead have gone on to win the series 39 of 40 times (98%), including 31 sweeps. Just two teams down 3-0 have even forced a Game 7: the 2020 Astros, who lost to the Rays in the ALCS, and the 2004 Red Sox, who beat the Yankees in the ALCS. The last team to force a Game 5 when down 3-0 in a World Series was the Reds in 1970 against the Orioles.

• 5 questions for World Series Game 4 with Dodgers on verge of sweep

• How the Yankees can make history and overcome 3-0 WS deficit

The World Series hasn’t ended in a sweep since 2012, by the Giants over the Tigers. The Dodgers have one best-of-seven sweep: the 1963 World Series over the Yankees.

Before we learn if 2024 will join that list, here’s a look at eight stats and facts from Game 3.

? Freddie Freeman entered having homered in each game of the series and wasted no time adding Game 3 to the list, going yard in the first. He became just the third player to homer in Games 1, 2 and 3 of a World Series, joining 2002 Barry Bonds (Giants) and 1958 Hank Bauer (Yankees). Nobody has done so in the first four. The only player to homer in four straight games within a single World Series is George Springer, in 2017 Games 4-7.

? Freeman has now homered in five consecutive World Series games dating back to 2021 with the Braves. That’s tied for the longest streak in the Fall Classic, with Springer. Freeman has homered in his last three games this postseason, tying 1985 Bill Madlock for the longest streak in Dodgers postseason history.

? The Game 3 performance gave Freeman five World Series homers in nine games. That’s tied with Chase Utley for the second-most in a player’s first nine career World Series games, behind only Springer, with six.

? Walker Buehler sparkled, with five scoreless innings and just two hits allowed. It was the 13th scoreless World Series start in Dodgers history and first since Buehler himself in Game 3 in 2018. He joins Sandy Koufax as the only Dodgers with multiple scoreless World Series starts.

? In that 2018 start, Buehler also allowed just two hits. He’s the fourth pitcher with multiple scoreless World Series outings of at least five innings and two or fewer hits allowed, joining Madison Bumgarner, Warren Spahn and George Earnshaw.

? Let’s take it a step further. Buehler also pitched Game 3 of the World Series in 2020, allowing one run on three hits over six innings. He’s the only pitcher in World Series history with three outings of at least five innings and four or fewer baserunners allowed – and they're the first three World Series outings of his career.

? Part of what kept Buehler scoreless was an assist to home by Teoscar Hernández in the fourth. At 93.9 mph, it was the third-fastest tracked World Series outfield assist under Statcast (2015), behind 94.9 mph by Hunter Renfroe of the Rays in 2020 and 94.6 mph by the Rangers’ Adolis García last year. It was also the third-fastest tracked outfield assist of Hernández’s career, including the playoffs, behind a 94.8 mph assist in 2016 and 94.0 mph in 2022.

? As noted above, there has not been a sweep in 11 consecutive World Series, with the last sweep coming by the Giants in the 2012 World Series over the Tigers. Eleven consecutive World Series without a sweep is the second-longest such stretch in World Series history, behind a 12-year streak from 1977-1988.