On Friday night, Freddie Freeman became a World Series hero. With the Los Angeles Dodgers trailing the New York Yankees 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th inning, the Yankees elected to intentionally walk Mookie Betts and bring Freeman to the dish with the bases loaded.
Freeman got a pitch to hit from Yankees reliever Nestor Cortes Jr., pitching in his first game since September 18th, and he crushed it deep into right field for a walk-off grand slam that lifted the Dodgers to a 6-3 win in Game 1 and a 1-0 series lead.
Freeman’s heroics will live on in Dodgers lore forever, and so will the epic photos from the incredible moment late on Friday night in Los Angeles.
Freeman has been battling a bad ankle that has made just getting on the field very difficult for him during these playoffs. He has missed multiple games due to the injury, and has been subbed out on the base paths late in games a handful of times as well.
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Earlier in Game 1, Freeman legged out a triple after a misplayed ball dribbled around in the outfield. He finished with a very strong stat line in this one, going 2-for-5 with four RBI’s and a run on the home run to win it at the end.
The Dodgers were able to fend off a solid start from Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and pick up a win, which puts them at a big advantage moving forward in this series. Jack Flaherty had a great night pitching in his hometown, throwing 5.1 innings and giving up just two runs.
Game 2 will be Saturday in Los Angeles, and the Dodgers will be looking to build more momentum while the Yankees try to bounce back and take home field advantage back to the East Coast. In order to do so, they will have to crack the code of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched an amazing game in Game 5 against the Padres in the NLDS and threw seven shutout innings against the Yankees back in June.