Early slam sets tone as Yankees muscle up to stave off elimination

NEW YORK — Anthony Volpe‘s wildest baseball dreams as a New Jersey lad didn’t end with his beloved Yankees getting swept in the World Series. They ended with a moment like this. Bases loaded. Season on the line. And the kid who poured his heart into the pinstripes coming up clutch.

Volpe’s go-ahead grand slam off Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson in the third inning of Game 4 on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium was precisely the spark his Yanks needed to pull themselves off the mat in this matchup. It sparked a runaway 11-4 victory for the New Yorkers, who, while still trailing three games to one, have ace Gerrit Cole going at home in Game 5 on Wednesday and therefore still have a chance to make this a legit series.

“Gerrit is the best pitcher in the game, so we really believe in him. We really believe in what he’s capable of doing,” Gleyber Torres said on the field after the game. “But another point, we have to do the job like we did tonight so we don’t put all the pressure on him. Just get tomorrow like we don’t have another day and just play well.”

Faced with the prospect of becoming the first Yankees team to be swept in the World Series since 1976, the Bronx Bombers instead provided a needed reminder of why this Fall Classic featuring No. 1 seeds and iconic franchises attracted so many eyes and so much flowery coverage in the first place. The Volpe jolt, an effective evening for the bullpen and some late-inning insurance that included long balls from Austin Wells and Torres saved them and kept the Dodgers’ champagne on ice.

Of the 40 previous teams to fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series, the Yankees are only the 10th to even avoid a sweep. Of the previous nine to do so, four managed to force a Game 6 and two forced a Game 7, although neither example occurred in the World Series. One was the 2020 Astros, who lost Game 7 to the Rays in the ALCS, and one was the 2004 Red Sox, who famously came back to the beat the Yankees in the ALCS.

Unbelievably and inconceivably, the scoring in Game 4 began with a Freddie Freeman home run.

Well, maybe that is believable and conceivable at this point, but there’s still no overstating how bonkers Freeman’s output on this series stage has been.

When Freeman connected with a Luis Gil slider in the first and punched it to the short porch in right for the two-run shot that made it 2-0, it was his fourth homer in as many games this series. He joined the Astros’ George Springer (2017) as the only players to go deep four games in a row within a single World Series, and he extended his personal World Series homer streak to a record-setting six games, dating back to 2021 with the Braves.

In that moment, with the Yankee Stadium crowd again silenced by Freeman’s first-inning fireworks, it appeared an apt time to start etching his name on the MVP trophy and to prepare the Dodgers’ postgame party. The Yankees, after all, had not led in a game since right before Freeman’s walk-off salami in Game 1, and they stranded two runners in the bottom of the first in this one to prolong their pain.

But the first sign of life from the Yanks came in the second, when Volpe drew a walk off Ben Casparius and stole second before Wells doubled to the center-field wall. Volpe should have scored easily on the play but mistakenly hung close to second to ensure the ball was not caught. He advanced only to third. Regardless, Alex Verdugo got him home on a groundout to make it 2-1.

Volpe more than made up for his baserunning gaffe the next inning. With Hudson on the hill, Aaron Judge was hit by a pitch. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled to put runners on the corners, then swiped second. Giancarlo Stanton walked. The bases were loaded for Volpe, who idolized Derek Jeter growing up and now had his own opportunity to make like Captain Clutch. And on Hudson’s first pitch, Volpe delivered a no-doubt-about-it grand slam over the left-field wall to light up the Bronx and give the Yankees a 5-2 edge.

“I was trying to get on time for a heater and be easy. Those are my keys to keep it simple,” Volpe said on the field postgame. “Just see the ball, be easy and be on time for the heater. … I didn’t know I got it. And then I blacked out right when it went out.”

But as we saw in Game 1, the Dodgers don’t die easily. Catcher Will Smith smacked a leadoff homer off Gil in the fifth, then Tommy Edman drew a walk. The Yankees went to their ‘pen, with ground-ball lefty Tim Hill summoned. The Dodgers put runners on the corners with one out and Freeman up to bat. Hill got the ground ball he wanted, but second baseman Torres’ toss to Volpe at the second-base bag to try to start a potential double play was a little high, and though Volpe’s subsequent throw to first was initially ruled to have beaten Freeman to the bag for the inning-ending DP, a replay review overturned it, so Edman safely scored from third to make it a one-run game at 5-4.

That’s how it remained until Wells sent a Landon Knack fastball over the right-field wall for a sixth-inning solo shot. And in the eighth, against Brent Honeywell, the Yankees got a lot more insurance when, with two runners in scoring position, Verdugo grounded to second, where Gavin Lux’s throw home was not in time to retire the streaking, sliding Volpe. Torres then stepped up and smacked a three-run shot to right-center, and, after a Juan Soto double, the slumping Judge got the lift he needed when he lined an RBI single to left.

So on a day when the Dodgers tried to mix and match their way to a title with an all-relief effort, the Yankees adjusted to the assemblage of arms, got big outs from their own relievers (none bigger than Mark Leiter Jr. striking out Shohei Ohtani and Luke Weaver K’ing Mookie Betts with a runner at second in the seventh) and kept their season alive.