Dodgers return to LA as World Series champions after past error-prone Yankees in Game 5 – Trentonian

NEW YORK — You have to hand it to Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And not just because the Yankees sure did.

When New York put LA back in World Series Game 5, the Dodgers did what they’ve done all year — they kept going.

After taking advantage of three errors to erase a five-run, fifth-inning deficit during one of the most memorable midgame meltdowns in baseball history, the Dodgers used eighth-inning sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts to beat New York 7-6. Wednesday evening.

“In spring training, that’s what we said we were going to do and we did it,” Betts proclaimed, champagne stinging his eyes.

Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning for New York. Alex Verdugo’s RBI single chased Jack Flaherty in the second, and Giancarlo Stanton’s third-inning homer off Ryan Brasier built a 5-0 Yankees lead.

In the dugout, the Dodgers stayed focused.

“We were like take one, chip away, chip away,” Freeman said.

Errors by Judge in center and Anthony Volpe at shortstop, combined with pitcher Gerrit Cole failing to cover first on Betts’ grounder, helped Los Angeles score five unearned runs in the fifth.

Of the 234 teams to go by five or more runs in a Series game, the Dodgers became just the seventh to win.

“This is going to sting forever,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I’m heartbroken.”

After Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly put the Yankees back up 6-5, the Dodgers loaded the bases against reliever Tommy Kahnle in the eighth before Luke Weaver’s sacrifice fly.

Judge doubled home winner Blake Treinen with one out in the bottom half and Chisholm walked. Manager Dave Roberts went to the mound with Treinen on 37 pitches.

“I looked into his eyes. I said how do you feel? How much do you have left?” Roberts recalled. “He said, ‘I want to.’ I trust him.”

Treinen retired Stanton on a flyout and struck out Anthony Rizzo.

Walker Buehler, making his first relief appearance since his rookie season in 2018, pitched a perfect ninth for his first major league save.

When Buehler struck out Verdugo to end the game, the Dodgers poured onto the field to celebrate between the mound and first base, capping a season in which they led the major leagues with 98 wins.

With several thousand Dodgers fans remaining in a mostly empty stadium, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred presented the trophy on a quickly raised platform above second base.

Ohtani, who set the Dodgers’ $700 million record and became the first player in baseball with 50 homers and 50 steals, went 2-for-19 with no RBIs and had a single after dislocating his left shoulder in during a stolen base attempt in Game 2. Ohtani walked around the clubhouse, pouring champagne on teammates and splashing himself

“We were able to get through the regular season, I think, because of the strength of this team, this organization,” he said through a translator. “Postseason success is very similar.”

Freeman hit a two-run single to tie the Series record of 12 RBIs set by Bobby Richardson in seven games in 1960, and was voted Series MVP. With the Dodgers not losing the first game on Friday, Freeman hit a grand slam reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s homer off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 in 1988 that sparked Los Angeles to the title.

The Dodgers won their eighth championship and seventh since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles – their first in a non-shortened season since 1988. They won a neutral-site World Series against Tampa Bay in 2020 after a 60 regular season of matches and they couldn’t. we have a parade because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Those Dodgers of Ohtani, Freeman and Betts joined the Duke Snider and Roy Campanella Boys of Summer of 1955, the Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale era that spanned the three titles from 1959-65, the Tommy Lasorda-led 1981 and 1988 groups, and Betts and Clayton Kershaw 2020 champions.

Capping off a season that began with a gambling scandal involving Ohtani’s interpreter during the opening series in South Korea, Roberts won his second championship in nine years as Dodgers manager, tying on Lasorda and following the four by Walter Alston. The Dodgers won for the fourth time in 12 Series meetings with the Yankees.

New York has been without a title since 27th in 2009. The Yankees acquired Juan Soto from San Diego in December knowing he would be eligible for free agency after the 2024 series. The 26-year-old star took 5 for 16 with an RBI in the Series heading into what will be heavily watched open market bidding.

“I’ll be open to listening to every team,” Soto said. “I don’t have closed doors or anything like that, so I’ll be available for all 30 teams.”

Judge finished 4 for 18 with three RBIs.

“You can’t give a good team extra outs like that,” Judge said. “Start with me there in the line road coming, wrong that. So that doesn’t happen then I think we have a different story tonight.”

Cole didn’t allow a hit until Kiké Hernández singled in the top of the fifth. Judge, who an inning earlier made a leaping catch at the wall in left-center to deny Freeman an extra base hit, threw out Tommy Edman’s hit to center. Volpe then bounced a throw to third on Will Smith’s groundout, allowing the Dodgers to load the bases with no outs.

Cole struck out Lux and Ohtani, and Betts hit Rizzo with a grounder — a slow grounder of a Mookie turned 1986 World Series by the Mets’ Mookie Wilson against Boston.

Cole didn’t cover first, pointing to Rizzo, who didn’t charge because he was afraid the spinning ball might get past him. Betts outclassed Rizzo on the sack.

“I took a bad angle on the ball,” Cole said. “I wasn’t really sure at first how hard it hit her. … By the time the ball got past me, I wasn’t in a position to cover the first.”

Freeman followed with a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández hit a game-tying two-run double.

“When you get extra outs and you get that type of play, it’s huge,” Freeman said. “For us to tie it back, you could just feel the momentum coming.”

Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly off Brusdar Graterol put the Yankees up 6-5, but the Dodgers rallied one last time in the eighth after Kiké Hernández singled off Kahnle to lead off, Edman followed with an infield hit, and Smith walked on four pitches.

“We faced every possible adversity and overcame every single one,” said Freeman, who won his second title after 2021 with Atlanta and bounced back from a sprained ankle to homer in each of his first four games from the Series.

Acquired by Guggenheim Baseball Management in 2012, the Dodgers hired Tampa Bay’s Andrew Friedman to run their baseball operations two years later. He boosted the front office with a plethora of analytics and performance science personnel, and ownership provided the money.

Los Angeles spent an unprecedented $1.25 billion last season on contracts with Ohtani, pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and James Paxton and outfielder Teoscar Hernández. Much of the money was future obligations that brought the Dodgers’ deferred compensation to $915.5 million owed from 2028-2044.

Plagued by injuries, the Dodgers acquired Flaherty, Edman and reliever Michael Kopech before the trade deadline, and all became important cogs in the title run. The additions raised payroll to $266 million, third behind the Mets and Yankees, plus an estimated $43 million luxury tax.

Los Angeles will celebrate with a parade Friday on what would have been the 64th birthday of Dodgers great Fernando Valenzuela, who died three days before the series opener.

“It’s going to be exciting for all of us,” Roberts said.

Originally published: October 31, 2024 at 7:35 am EDT