Freeman wins Game 1 with 1st walk-off slam in WS history

LOS ANGELES — It might be the most famous highlight in World Series history. And it was just played on repeat.

Thirty-six years after a gimpy Kirk Gibson limped to the plate to smack a Game 1 walk-off homer, Freddie Freeman came to bat with a badly injured right ankle, the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th and a chance to summon October magic of his own. With one, no-doubt swing, Freeman rocketed the ball into the right-field pavilion seats for the first-ever World Series walk-off grand slam that gave the Dodgers an epic 6-3 victory in a Game 1 thriller Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

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. And in the end, the Dodgers came out with a magical opening act in which Freeman gave off those Gibby goosebumps.

In best-of-seven postseason 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%).

With the death earlier this week of Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela hanging heavy in the air, a pair of the club’s World Series MVPs — Steve Yeager (1981) and Orel Hershiser (1988) — placed a ball on the mound in his memory prior to the ceremonial first pitch, just below the No. 34 that had been painted there. The Dodgers also wore jersey patches to commemorate the man who once brought “Fernandomania” to baseball.

Perhaps the best tribute came from Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty, who not only showed up to the park wearing a Valenzuela jersey but then turned in a terrific start. Quickly quieting concerns about the velocity dip he had shown in his last start in the NLCS against the Mets, Flaherty had his fastball and his breaking pitches working, matching wits with Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in a rare starting pitching duel in what has been a bullpen-oriented October.

Cole blinked first. In the bottom of the fifth, Kiké Hernández sent a fly ball to the right-field corner. As had been the case in the first inning, when left fielder Alex Verdugo could not corral a ball off Freeman’s bat that caromed around the wall and allowed Freeman to streak to third, right fielder Juan Soto misplayed this one, and suddenly Hernández was safely at third with the Dodgers’ second triple of the game.

This time, they got the runner home, via a Will Smith sacrifice fly that made it 1-0.

But the very next inning, Flaherty became the latest victim of a man in the midst of a mammoth, magic month. With Soto having singled and one out, Flaherty tried to put Giancarlo Stanton away with a 1-2 knuckle-curve. Stanton turned on it and lifted it high and deep into the seats near the left-field foul pole for the two-run, 412-foot homer that quieted the blue-clad fans and gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Stanton’s smash was launched at 116.6 mph — the hardest-hit ball in the World Series since Statcast began tracking exit velocities in 2015. And after Stanton had won ALCS MVP on the might of four hits — all homers — this was his fifth consecutive hit that went over a wall.

That was enough to knock Flaherty out of the game. But Cole stayed in, and the way he calmly retired Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman in succession after a leadoff double from NLCS MVP Tommy Edman in the sixth had him in position for the win. The Yankees would also escape trouble in the seventh, when the Dodgers had runners at second and third with one out before Clay Holmes got Will Smith to pop out and Tommy Kahnle got Gavin Lux to ground out to squash another rally.

But in the eighth, the Yankees made another costly defensive miscue, and the Dodgers capitalized. Ohtani rocketed a Kahnle changeup for a double off the top of the right-center field wall, and when Soto’s one-hop throw back to the infield bounced off Gleyber Torres’ glove, Ohtani was able to advance to third. Betts then drove him in on a sac fly to center, and the score was tied at 2.

Moments after his error, Torres sparked the most interesting “defensive play” of the evening. His long fly ball to left-center with two out against Michael Kopech found the glove of a fan seated in the first row of the pavilion seats. But 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 the gutsiest move of the night, the Dodgers intentionally walked Soto to face Judge with two aboard, and Blake Treinen came on to get Judge to harmlessly pop out to end the inning.

With Yankees reliever Luke Weaver taking care of the middle third of the Dodgers’ lineup in the ninth, this became the third consecutive World Series Game 1 to go to extra innings. And in the 10th, Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s one-out single off Treinen and subsequent stolen base had the Yankees knocking on the door. Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked, and then Chisholm swiped third uncontested to put runners on the corners. Anthony Volpe’s ground ball could have gotten Treinen and the Dodgers out of it, but Edman’s trouble with the transfer allowed him only to get the out at second, as Chisholm motored home.

But the Dodgers mounted one last threat in the bottom of the 10th with Lux’s one-out walk off Jake Cousins and Edman’s infield single. That brought Ohtani to the plate with two on. The Yankees turned to Nestor Cortes, who hadn’t pitched since Sept. 18 because of elbow trouble and was placed on the World Series roster precisely to help solve the Ohtani predicament. 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.

Cortes then intentionally walked Betts to bring Freeman to the plate. Freeman had sat out Game 6 of the NLCS because of the ankle sprain, which was suffered on Sept. 26 and made him questionable for each round of this postseason. But the extended time off between rounds seemed to serve Freeman well. And when Cortes served him a first-pitch fastball on the inside edge, Freeman pounded his way into the history books.