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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES – Thirty-six years ago today, Kirk Gibson walked out of the trainers’ room, hit one of the most improbable home runs in baseball history and celebrated by raising his right fist in the air. On Friday night, Freddie Freeman picked up the bat.
With the bases loaded, two outs and the 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 the inside fastball from Nestor Cortes and watched it fly, sending the Dodgers. to a 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1.
Bedlam surrounded him. A sellout Dodger Stadium of 52,394 was in an uproar. Teammates spilled out of the dugout with uncontrollable joy. And for Freeman – limited all month by a severely sprained right ankle, grinding through the tail end of a strange, in-time disheartening season – it’s almost like time stopped. He raised his bat to the sky and began a numbing trot around the bases.
“I thought it was nothing,” Freeman said. “Just kind of float.”
Freeman became the first player in World Series history to hit a grand slam, an unbelievable statistic. He became the third player in Dodgers history to hit a home run in the World Series, the last being his teammate, Max Muncy, in 2018.
Most notable, however, was his relationship with Gibson, the only other player to lead the Dodgers to victory in the opening game of the World Series. Gibson’s feat, against Oakland Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley, propelled the Dodgers to the title in 1988. The team rallied around the courage. The Dodgers haven’t won a full-season championship since, but they’re three wins away from rallying around Freeman for another.
“When you’re 5 years old with two older brothers and you’re playing whiffle ball in the backyard, that’s the scenario 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, it’s as good as it gets right there.”
Often on Friday nights, it looked like the Dodgers wouldn’t break through. They scored just once against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the first six innings, doing little to support the highly effective Jack Flaherty despite being given plenty 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 the top of the lineup. But Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman 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 finally 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 scored on Betts’ sacrifice fly. When Jazz Chisholm Jr. produced 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.
Lux drew a catch, and Edman followed with a single, bringing in Ohtani and drawing a strange decision from Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Cortes, a veteran left-handed starting pitcher who has recovered from a flexor strain and has not appeared in a game since September 18, was called from the bullpen to face Ohtani. On Cortes’ first pitch, Ohtani lofted a fly ball into foul territory in left field. Alex Verdugo made a spectacular lunging catch, but he also spun around the fence and out of the play, which automatically advanced two runners. With first base open, the Yankees elected to intentionally walk Betts and set up a left-in-left matchup with Freeman.
Freeman faced Cortes three times earlier this year, when the Dodgers opened Yankee Stadium on June 8. As soon as he saw plate umpire Carlos Torres raise four fingers to signal Betts’ free pass, Freeman began his process. He remembered how Cortes’ fastball had a ride to it, and wanted to find it in the main half, partly to stay away from chasing cutters and sliders away. He told himself to stay on top of the field.
“I want to be on time,” Freeman said, “and I am.”
The ball left Freeman’s bat at 109.2 mph and traveled 409 feet to the right-field pavilion. There is no doubt about that.
“I know everybody’s focused on Ohtani, Ohtani, Ohtani,” Cortes said. “We got him out, but Freeman is also a really good hitter. I just couldn’t get the job done today.”
When the World Series ends, Freeman’s Under Armor cleats will be donated to the Hall of Fame. At 8:38 p.m. PT Friday, he was with them as first base coach Clayton McCullough eagerly, bent over the left field fans on his way to third, was swallowed by his teammates in front and ran onto the field. backstop to celebrate with his father, Fred Freeman, who was sitting nearby.
“I was surprised,” Fred said of his son’s arrival. “I’m very excited and proud of him.”
It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, motivated by all the days that Fred had his son’s 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, suffered a terrifying bout with Guillain-Barré syndrome before miraculously recovering, keeping Freeman away from the team for 10 days. Freeman then suffered a nondisplaced fracture of his right middle finger. On September 26, the night the Dodgers captured their 11th division title in 12 years, Freeman rolled his right ankle while playing first base.
Every day that followed was a war.
“He did something truly heroic to provide for himself,” Dodgers utility man Enrique Hernandez said.
“Freddie was a competitor, a fighter,” Betts added. “He’s part of this group, and this group loves each other. He, like the rest of us, will do anything to play. It couldn’t happen to a better human being. Freddie has been through so much. He’s not complaining. He looks ready to go no matter what.” anyway.
Freeman’s ankle reacted badly when the National League Championship Series moved to Citi Field in New York last week, keeping him out of the lineup for Game 6 of the win. The Dodgers won that Sunday, but assured Freeman he would accept. six full days of rest before Game 1 of the World Series. Freeman did not run, instead doing light defensive work, batting practice and undergoing treatment.
Along the way, he found cues that involved, in the words of Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc, “staying planted on the ground so they can roll and move.” Freeman took batting practice Tuesday and consistently hit line drives into the shortstop area. He felt he was in a good place.
When the lineups were introduced there, it marked the first time that he had actually run to the field to shake hands with his 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 over Verdugo and resulted in his first career postseason triple.
Nine rounds 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.
