Dodgers stun Yankees in Game 1 thanks to Freddie Freeman walk-off grand slam
The World Series is off to a thrilling start after the Dodgers won Game 1 in dramatic fashion and USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques breaks it all down.
Sports Pulse
After an all-timer in Game 1, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees are right back at it for the second game of the 2024 World Series on Saturday night.
Freddie Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history to win the opener for the Dodgers, who took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Fall Classic. Freeman’s historic 10th-inning blast capped off a thrilling game at Dodger Stadium that featured a little bit of everything, the first World Series meeting between the two historic franchises since 1981.
“That’s as good as it gets right there,” Freeman told reporters after the game.
Hoping to even the series, $162 million lefty Carlos Rodón takes the mound for the Yankees, while $325 million rookie right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts Game 2 for the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
Follow along for live updates from Saturday’s showdown:
Yoshinobu Yamamoto retired the final 11 batters he faced and got a standing ovation at Dodger Stadium when manager Dave Roberts removed him with one out in the seventh.
The only hit surrendered by the rookie right-hander was Juan Soto’s solo home run in the second – the Yankees’ last baserunner against Yamamoto.
Anthony Banda took over for Yamamoto and worked around a two-out walk to send us to the bottom of the seventh with the Dodgers up 4-1.
$325 million rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto has given up just one hit – Juan Soto’s solo home run in the third – with two walks and three strikeouts.
The Dodgers are up 4-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth.
LOS ANGELES – The harder Carlos Rodón threw the ball, the harder the Los Angeles Dodgers seemed to hit it. And now they have command of this World Series Game 2.
Teoscar Hernandez crushed a go-ahead two-run homer and Game 1 hero Freddie Freeman went deep for the second consecutive night as the Dodgers took a 4-1 lead after three innings of Game 2.
The three-run rally came entirely with two outs, as Mookie Betts extended the inning with his second single of the night. Hernandez then pounded a 98-mph fastball into the right center field pavilion for a 3-1 lead.
Freeman followed by depositing a 97-mph pitch a few sections over from Hernandez’s blast, the back-to-back homers giving L.A. a 4-1 advantage.
Rodón nearly found more trouble when postseason hero Tommy Edman – off yes, a 97-mph fastball – ripped a double. But Rodón escaped further damage.
And now the Yankees have some work to do lest they not fall in a 2-0 hole going back to New York.
– Gabe Lacques
LOS ANGELES – Juan Soto looked to the heavens, as it seemed the baseball he hit might stay up there a while. But come down it did – in the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen, tying World Series Game 2 at 1-1.
Soto’s fourth postseason home run, off Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, was golfed some 38 degrees in the air, but Soto’s strength ensured it would make it well past right fielder Mookie Betts to tie the game. And now, lefty Carlos Rodón is on even ground as he attacks the Dodgers lineup in the bottom of the third.
– Gabe Lacques
Leading off the bottom of the second, Tommy Edman hit a solo home run off Yankees starter Carlos Rodón to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in Game 2.
Acquired from the Cardinals at the trade deadline, Edman was named NLCS MVP with a home run and 11 RBI in Los Angeles’ six-game victory over the New York Mets. He entered Saturday’s game hitting .354 in the 2024 postseason
LOS ANGELES – Game 2 of the World Series is underway, offering a fresh start for the New York Yankees. But Aaron Judge’s slump has continued.
Judge struck out with a runner in scoring position in the top of the first inning, his fourth strikeout in six at-bats in these two games.
The Yankees did register a mild victory: They worked Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto for 21 pitches in the first inning. Meanwhile, Yankees lefty Carlos Rodón breezed through a 13-pitch first, working around a single from Mookie Betts to keep it scoreless after one.
– Gabe Lacques
First pitch on Saturday is scheduled for 8:08 p.m. ET.
- Location: Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California
- Date: Saturday, Oct. 26
- Yankees: Carlos Rodón (16-9, 3.96 ERA) – Signed for $162 million in the 2022-23 offseason, the left-hander has 4.40 ERA – but a 2.12 FIP – in three starts this postseason, striking out 22 in 14 ⅓ innings with only one walk.
- Dodgers: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7-2, 3.00 ERA) – The $325 million Japanese import has made three starts in the 2024 postseason, posting a 5.11 ERA in 12 ⅓ innings.
Yankees lineup today: World Series Game 2
- Gleyber Torres (R) 2B
- Juan Soto (L) RF
- Aaron Judge (R) CF
- Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L) 3B
- Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B
- Anthony Volpe (R) SS
- Austin Wells (L) C
- Alex Verdugo (L) LF
- Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
- Mookie Betts (R) RF
- Teoscar Hernández (R) LF
- Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
- Tommy Edman (S) CF
- Enrique Hernández (R) 2B
- Max Muncy (L) 3B
- Will Smith (R) C
- Miguel Rojas (R) SS
Saturday night’s Game 2 will be played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The World Series goes cross country to Yankee Stadium for Games 3, 4 and 5 – with the Dodgers set to host Games 6 and 7 if necessary.
MLB STADIUM RANKINGS: Baseball travelers’ favorite ballparks, ranked 1-30
- Home plate: Andy Fletcher
- First base: Doug Eddings
- Second base: Mark Ripperger
- Third base: Chad Fairchild
- Left field: Todd Tichenor (crew chief)
- Right field: Carlos Torres
- Reserve: Mark Carlson
Freddie Freeman’s grand slam: ‘The greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed’
LOS ANGELES — It was Kirk Gibson all over again.
It was Roy Hobbs in “The Natural.”
It was classic Hollywood.
“It might be,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed.”
Freddie Freeman, who could barely walk a week ago with his badly sprained ankle, who left the team this summer and didn’t know if he’d return with his 3-year-old son fighting for his life, stepped to the plate Friday night in front a screaming crowd of 52,394, and produced one of the most dramatic events in World Series history.
With one swing of the bat, Freeman created a memory that may never be forgotten in Dodgers lore, a two-out, walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning, leading the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series.
LOS ANGELES – As Freddie Freeman turned Dodger Stadium into Blue Heaven on Friday night, Nestor Cortes made the long, awkward walk toward what’s often been hell for those on the wrong side of history.
Here’s the thing about walk-off home runs, such as Freeman’s first-of-his kind game-ending grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series: There’s just no avoiding the physical act of trudging morosely through someone else’s party into your own dungeon of demons.
So after Freeman destroyed the first pitch Cortes threw him in the top of the 10th inning, sending it 409 feet into a delirious right field pavilion at Dodger Stadium, turning a one-run New York Yankees lead into a 6-3 Dodgers victory, Cortes was angry.
And then he turned pragmatic, sitting down immediately and watching a replay of the fateful pitch – a fastball in that should have been two or three inches up, too.
And then he embraced perspective, choosing not to ponder that his name was enshrined forever in baseball lore, a permanent link to Ralph Branca and Dennis Eckersley and Mariano Rivera and Mitch Williams, pitchers who may have excelled but gave it up at the worst possible times.
Walker Buehler will start Game 3 for Dodgers
Before Saturday’s Game 2, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced that Walker Buehler will start Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Monday night.
“We love Walker in big games. The road isn’t going to faze him,” Roberts told reporters. “It also allows him potentially to be available for a Game 7 too.”
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