NEW YORK – You gotta hand it to Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And not just because the Yankees certainly did.
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When New York let LA back into World Series Game 5, the Dodgers did what they’ve done all year — kept on going.
After taking advantage of three miscues 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 on Wednesday night.
"In spring training this is 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 against Ryan Brasier built a 5-0 Yankees lead.
In the dugout, the Dodgers remained focused.
“We were like just get 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 trail 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 ahead 6-5, the Dodgers loaded the bases against losing pitcher Tommy Kahnle in the eighth before the sacrifice flies off Luke Weaver.
Judge doubled off winner Blake Treinen with one out in the bottom half and Chisholm walked. Manager Dave Roberts walked to the mound with Treinen at 37 pitches.
“I looked in his eyes. I said how you feeling? How much more you got?" Roberts recalled. “He said: `I want it.' 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 big leagues with 98 wins.
With several thousand Dodgers fans remaining in a mostly empty stadium, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred presented the trophy on a platform quickly erected over second base.
Ohtani, the Dodgers’ record-setting $700 million signing and baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-steal player, went 2 for 19 with no RBIs and had one single after separating his left shoulder during a stolen base attempt in Game 2. Ohtani went through the clubhouse pouring champagne on teammates and having it sprayed on him
“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. “The success of the postseason is very similar.”
Freeman hit a two-run single to tie the Series record of 12 RBIs, set by Bobby Richardson over seven games in 1960, and was voted Series MVP. With the Dodgers one out from losing Friday’s opener, Freeman hit a game-ending grand slam reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s homer off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1988’s Game 1 that sparked Los Angeles to the title.
The Dodgers earned 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-game regular season and couldn’t have a parade because of the coronavirus pandemic.
These Dodgers of Ohtani, Freeman and Betts joined the 1955 Duke Snider and Roy Campanella Boys of Summer, the Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale era that spanned the three titles from 1959-65, the Tommy Lasorda-led groups 1981 and ’88, and the Betts and Clayton Kershaw champions of 2020.
Ending a season that started 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, matching Lasorda and trailing the four of Walter Alston. The Dodgers won for the fourth time in 12 Series meetings with the Yankees.
New York remained without a title since its record 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 went 5 for 16 with one RBI in the Series heading into what will be intensely followed bidding on the open market.
“I'll be open to listen to every single team," Soto said. "I don't have any doors closed or anything like that, so I'm going to be available to all 30 teams.”
Judge finished 4 for 18 with three RBIs.
“You can't give a good team like that extra outs,” Judge said. “It starts with me there in the line drive coming in, misplay that. So that doesn't happen then I think we got a different story tonight.”
Cole didn’t allow a hit until Kiké Hernández singled leading off the fifth. Judge, who an inning earlier made a leaping catch at the left-center wall to deny Freeman an extra-base hit, dropped Tommy Edman’s fly to center. Volpe then bounced a throw to third on Will Smith’s grounder, allowing the Dodgers to load the bases with no outs.
Cole struck out Lux and Ohtani, and Betts hit a grounder to Rizzo — a slow grounder by a Mookie turned the 1986 World Series, by the Mets' Mookie Wilson against Boston.
Cole didn’t cover first, pointing at Rizzo, who didn't charge because he was afraid the spinning ball might get past him. Betts outraced Rizzo to the bag.
“I took a bad angle to the ball,” Cole said. “I wasn't sure really off the bat how hard he hit it. ... By the time the ball got by me, I was not in a position to cover first.”
Freeman followed with a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández hit a tying two-run double.
“When you’re given extra outs and you capitalize in that kind of game, that’s huge," Freeman said. “For us to get it back to even, you could just feel the momentum just coming along.”
Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly off Brusdar Graterol put the Yankees ahead 6-5, but the Dodgers rallied one last time in the eighth after Kiké Hernández singled off Kahnle leading off, Edman followed with an infield hit, and Smith walked on four pitches.
“We faced every adversity possible and we overcame every single one,” Freeman said, who won his second title after 2021 with Atlanta, and rebounded from a sprained ankle to homer in each of the first four Series games.
Purchased by Guggenheim Baseball Management in 2012, the Dodgers hired Andrew Friedman from Tampa Bay to head their baseball operations two years later. He boosted the front office with a multitude of analytics and performance science staff, and ownership supplied the cash.
Los Angeles went on an unprecedented $1.25 billion spending spree last offseason on deals with Ohtani, pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and James Paxton, and outfielder Teoscar Hernández. Much of the money was future obligations that raised the Dodgers’ deferred compensation to $915.5 million owed from 2028-44.
Faced with injuries, the Dodgers acquired Flaherty, Edman and reliever Michael Kopech ahead of the trade deadline, and all became important cogs in the title run. The additions boosted payroll to $266 million, third behind the Mets and the Yankees, plus a projected $43 million luxury tax.
Los Angeles will celebrate with a parade Friday on what would have been the 64th birthday for Dodgers great Fernando Valenzuela, who died three days before the Series opener.
“It’s going to be emotional for all of us," Roberts said.
UP NEXT
Los Angeles opens its spring schedule on Feb. 20 against the Chicago Cubs at Camelback Ranch, and the Yankees start the next day against Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB