Freeman's grand slam ends G1: 'As good as it gets'

LOS ANGELES — Thirty-six years ago around these parts, Kirk Gibson hobbled out of a trainer’s room, willed one of the most improbable walk-off home runs in baseball history and celebrated the occasion by lifting his right fist into the air. On Friday night, Freddie Freeman raised his bat.

With the bases loaded, two outs and his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing by a run in the 10th inning of one of the most highly anticipated World Series in recent memory, Freeman turned on an inside fastball from Nestor Cortes and watched it fly, sending the Dodgers to a stirring 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1.

Bedlam surrounded him. A sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,394 went into a frenzy. Teammates spilled out of the dugout in uncontrollable glee. And for Freeman — limited all month by a severely sprained right ankle, grinding through the tail end of a bizarre, at-times disheartening season — it was almost as if time stood still. He raised his bat to the sky then began a numbing trot around the bases.

“I felt like nothing,” Freeman said. “Just kind of floating.”

Freeman became the first player in World Series history to hit a walk-off grand slam, a statistic he couldn’t believe. He is the third player in Dodgers history to produce a walk-off home run in the World Series, the last of whom was his teammate, Max Muncy, in 2018.

Most notable, though, was his ties to Gibson, the only other player to send the Dodgers to a walk-off win in the opening game of the World Series. Gibson’s feat, against Oakland Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley, propelled the Dodgers to a title in 1988. The team rallied around his courage. The Dodgers haven’t won a full-season championship since, but they are three wins away from rallying around Freeman for another.

“When you’re 5 years old with your two older brothers and you’re playing whiffle ball in the backyard, those are the scenarios you dream about — two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game,” Freeman said. “For it to actually happen, and get a home run and walk it off to give us a 1-0 lead, that’s as good as it gets right there.”

Often on Friday night, it looked as if the Dodgers wouldn’t break through. They scored only once against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the first six innings, doing little to support a highly effective Jack Flaherty despite being presented with a multitude of opportunities.

After Giancarlo Stanton delivered a two-run homer for the Yankees in the sixth, his sixth of this postseason, the Dodgers got a leadoff double from Tommy Edman, bringing up their celebrated top of the lineup. But Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman were retired in order. The Dodgers had two runners in scoring position with one out in the seventh, but Will Smith and Gavin Lux couldn’t come through.

Ohtani ultimately tied the score in the eighth, doubling off the wall in right field, sprinting to third base when Juan Soto‘s throw got away and scoring on Betts’ sacrifice fly. When Jazz Chisholm Jr. manufactured the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th — lining a single, stealing two bases and scoring on a fielder’s choice groundout — the Dodgers came back again.

Lux drew a one-out walk, and Edman followed with a single, bringing up Ohtani and triggering a bizarre decision from Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Cortes, a veteran left-handed starting pitcher who had been recovering from a flexor strain and hadn’t appeared in a game since Sept. 18, was summoned from the bullpen to face Ohtani. On Cortes’ first pitch, Ohtani lofted a fly ball to foul territory in left field. Alex Verdugo made a spectacular lunging catch, but he also rolled over the fence and out of play, prompting both runners to automatically advance. With first base open, the Yankees elected to intentionally walk Betts and set up the left-on-left matchup with Freeman.

Freeman faced Cortes three times earlier this year, when the Dodgers visited Yankee Stadium on June 8. As soon as he saw plate umpire Carlos Torres raise four fingers to signal Betts’ free pass, Freeman started to go through his process. He remembered how Cortes’ fastball had ride to it, and he wanted to look for it on the inner half, partly to stay away from chasing the cutter and slider away. He told himself to stay on top of the pitch.

“I wanted to be on time,” Freeman said, “and I was.”

The ball left Freeman’s bat at 109.2 mph and went 409 feet into the right-field pavilion. A no-doubter.

“I know everybody’s focused on Ohtani, Ohtani, Ohtani,” Cortes said. “We get him out, but Freeman is also a really good hitter. I just couldn’t get the job done today.”

When the World Series concludes, Freeman’s Under Armour cleats will be donated to the Hall of Fame. At 8:38 p.m. PT Friday, they were with him as he vigorously high-fived first-base coach Clayton McCullough, flexed toward the left-field fans on his way to third, got swallowed by bobbing teammates at home plate and sprinted to the backstop to celebrate with his father, Fred Freeman, who was seated nearby.

“I was shocked,” Fred said of his son coming over. “I was so excited and proud of him.”

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, motivated by all of those days Fred tossed his son batting practice.

“My swing is because of him. My approach is because of him,” Freeman said. “I am who I am because of him.”

The past three months have been a whirlwind for Freeman. His young son, Max, had a scary bout with Guillain-Barré syndrome before making a miraculous recovery, prompting Freeman to be away from the team for 10 days. Freeman then suffered a nondisplaced fracture in his right middle finger. On Sept. 26, the night the Dodgers clinched their 11th division title in 12 years, Freeman rolled his right ankle on a play at first base.

Every day that followed has been a fight.

“He’s doing something that is basically heroic to put himself in a position to even be available,” Dodgers utility man Enrique Hernandez said.

“Freddie’s a competitor, a fighter,” Betts added. “He’s a part of this group, and this group loves each other. Him, like the rest of us, will do whatever it takes to play. It couldn’t happen to a better human being. Freddie goes through so much. He doesn’t complain. He shows up ready to go no matter what.”

Freeman’s ankle reacted poorly when the National League Championship Series shifted to Citi Field in New York last week, so much so that he was out of the lineup for the pennant-clinching Game 6. The Dodgers winning that Sunday, though, ensured Freeman would receive six full days of rest before Game 1 of the World Series. Freeman stayed away from running, instead doing light defensive work, taking batting practice and undergoing lots of treatment.

Along the way, he found a cue that involved, in the words of Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc, “staying planted to the ground so he could rotate and transfer.” Freeman took batting practice Tuesday and continually hit line drives to the area of shortstop. He felt he was in a good place.

When lineups were introduced Friday, it marked the first time he had actually run onto the field to shake hands with teammates who lined up along the third-base line. When he took his first at-bat, he produced a liner down the left-field line that caromed off the fence, rolled past Verdugo and resulted in his first career postseason triple.

Nine innings later, he shocked the world — just like Gibson.

With one exception.

“I played the whole game,” Freeman said.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Jesse Rogers and Jorge Castillo contributed to this report.