Freeman 3 Games 3 Home Runs
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Joshua Garcia
Los Angeles enters the South Bronx a mere game away from the 8th Championship in Franchise history. For ‘Tinseltown’, everything is signified by the final product, and three quarters of the way there is no means to an end, as labeled so gracefully by City Legend, Kobe Bryant. The five-time NBA champion Bryant, following a commanding lead in the 2009 NBA finals retorted to the media “Job’s not finished”, and the Dodgers and their manager Dave Roberts have been uttering and living the iconic mantra throughout these playoffs and World Series.
No Hollywood script could’ve been written better than the baseball seen in Game 1 between the Yankees and Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. Not often do the stars on the field, court, or ice outshine those in the front rows in Los Angeles, but the two teams put on an extra-innings affair, that has to rank at the top of World Series moments in recent memory.
Following a back and forth pitchers duel between Yankees starter Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty, down one run in the 8th inning, none other than Shohei Ohtani ripped a ball off the right-center field fence, hustling all the way into third base before scoring on a Mookie Betts fly ball to knot Game 1 at 2-2 heading into the 9th.
In the top of the 10th inning the Yankees made their move to try and capture a win in Game 1. After a heads up base running decision by New York’s infielder Jazz Chisholm, the Yankees had a late lead only 90 feet away from crossing the plate. Anthony Volpe then scorched a ball toward the gap at shortstop, a diving Tommy Edman attempted to turn the inning-ending double play to keep the game tied, but could not dig the ball out of his glove, 3-2, the Yankees took the lead.
Los Angeles continuously pushed through injuries and adversity during the regular season to secure the best record in baseball and its accompanying home-field advantage in the playoffs, and boy did it pay off in Game 1. Needing a run to force the game further into extras was what the Dodgers needed, but they didn’t get that lone run, first baseman Freddie Freeman then delivered more than anyone in the ballpark expected.
Southern California born and raised, Freddie Freeman stepped to the plate with the team he grew up watching down to their final outs in Game 1 of the most important series in the past 43 years of the famed franchise. Freddie Freeman may have not been born yet when Kirk Gibson hit his famous home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, but he sure did his best to match what many consider the best single moment since the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.
On the first pitch of the at-bat, Nestor Cortes fired a 93-mph fast ball right where Freddie Freeman would have picked the ball to be if he could have. Launching a vicious cut, Freeman knew it was gone when he swung, clearing the loaded bases and sealing a 6-3 Game 1 victory as the ball landed in the right-center field pavilion in a frenzied crowd that could be heard all the way to Jackie Robinson’s hometown of Pasadena.
“Gibbie meet Freddie!” was Dodgers’ play-by-play announcer Joe Davis’ call to the first game-ending Grand Slam in World Series history by Freddie Freeman. The museum-worthy call is a nod to how eerily similar the home runs from Kirk Gibson and Freddie Freeman were to their teams. Beside the fact both players took the field with severe injuries that have hampered them throughout the postseason, both were to the same spot in Dodger Stadium, and both happened at 8:37 pm in Game 1. For those born in the late 80s and 90s, it was literally like living the highlights seen for a lifetime.
Game 2 was always going to tough to live up to the movie that was Game 1, but it’s Dodgers Yankees and once again, and there was no shortage of fire power. Tommy Edman lifted a long shot to left field in the 2nd inning to open the scoring, and not far behind him, Juan Soto found a pitch he liked and took it to right, tying the game at 1 in the 3rd frame.
Los Angeles, almost annoyed that New York had dared to tie the second contest of the highly-anticipated World Series, put together it’s own offensive by cracking two more homers of their own. Going back-to-back in the bottom of the 3rd, Teóscar Hernandez and you know who, Freddie Freeman crushed a pair of bombs to put the Dodgers quickly back on top 4-1.
Following a tremendous start by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, posting a 1 hit, 1 run, 6 1/3 inning performance, the Los Angeles pen who may be the MVP if not for Freddie Freeman took over as they have done throughout the series. For 2 2/3 innings the Dodger pen denied the New York rally to a comeback, and only a too little too late RBI single by Giancarlo Stanton, who is the only Yankee happy to be in Los Angeles, would represent the Yankee offense in a 4-2 LA win. The Dodgers would take a 2-0 series lead back to the South Bronx.
Walker Buehler, coming off a tumultuous season, maybe the most trying of his young career, took the mound in the Bronx for Game 3 with a chance to rewrite his entire 2024 with the Dodgers. With the crisp Uptown New York City fall air behind him, Buehler dazzled on the hill, taking a no-hit bid into the 4th inning.
Every bit of the momentum the Yankees assumed would be injected into their lineup returning to the Bronx, disappointed more than Fat Joe trying to recreate a knock-off version of Ice Cube’s Westcoast classics that had even the Yankee players in the dugout rocking before Game 2 in LA. With Fat Joe’s horrific rap performance set aside, Walker Buehler stunned the Yankee crowd to the tune of surrendering only 2 hits in five innings of work while keeping the ‘Bronx Bombers’ scoreless.
While the Dodgers’ de facto ace was dealing on the bump, the infamous Los Angeles lineup went to work in the hitter-friendly park in New York. Fans in the City than never sleeps maybe need to grab a nap, because the far scarier Freddie is Freeman, not Kruger. And for New York, there is no waking up from this reality.
Freddie Freeman continued to haunt the Yankees with yet another big blast, giving the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning. Freeman has now homered in 5 straight World Series games going back to his run with the Atlanta Braves. He becomes only the third person in World Series history and first since Barry Bonds to homer in games 1, 2, and 3, nobody has ever homered in the first four.
Mookie Betts, a seasoned two-time champion, decided to join the party and do what he has done to the Yankees most of his career, punish them. Driving a ball into right field, Betts scored Tommy Edman to give Los Angeles what felt like an insurmountable lead at 3-0, given the high-level pitching of Walker Buehler and the Dodger bullpen.
Following Walker Buehler’s excellent start, the Dodger bullpen outdid themselves yet again, allowing a mere three hits in a combined four innings of work by six Dodger relievers. For all that has been said about Dave Roberts’ decision making, this was a philharmonic orchestra of a show put on by the manager of the Dodgers with his relief arms.
Time after time bullpen staples like Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, and Anthony Banda put out any fire the Yankee lineup thought it could start to rally the team back into some life at the big ballpark in the Bronx. Even a meaningless home run from former Dodger Alex Verdugo, did little to wake up the listless ballpark or the Yankee clubhouse. Los Angeles would pick up their third win in as many games and take a 3-0 lead with a chance to celebrate in the Bronx Tuesday Night.
The Yankees will throw Luis Gil, to attempt to save their season, while the Dodgers may go with a bullpen game, even while considering the 4 innings of use in Game 3. For the Dodgers it’s all on the line, the first full-season championship since 1988, the chance to forever rid the “Mickey Mouse” talk that 2020 didn’t count, and the chance to take the crown from the other local franchises, in a town that thrives off championships. In the words of the great Vin Scully, “It’s time for Dodger Baseball.”
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