The most-hyped World Series in recent memory more than lived up to the billing in Game 1. The Los Angeles Dodgers have a 1-0 series lead over the New York Yankees thanks to two late-inning comebacks and Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the tenth inning Friday night (LA 6, NY 3). Game 2 is Saturday night.
The Yankees took a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning and a 3-2 lead into the tenth inning, but the bullpen was unable to make either lead stand up. Los Angeles capitalized on several defensive mistakes and a questionable pitching decision in the tenth. The Dodgers are three wins away from their first World Series title since 2020, and their first in a 162-game season since 1988.
Here are five takeaways from Game 1, plus a quick look ahead to Game 2.
1. Freeman's ankle sure looks healthy
Freddie Freeman has not been Freddie Freeman this postseason. He rolled his ankle running through first base on Sept. 26 and has been hobbled all October. He entered the World Series with a .219/.242/.219 batting line this postseason and limited hard-hit ability, plus he's been limited on the bases and in the field. The ankle injury is serious enough that Freeman did not play NLDS Game 4 (an elimination game) or NLCS Game 6 (potential pennant-clincher).
The Dodgers won the NLCS on Sunday and that gave Freeman four days to get off his feet and let the ankle heal. It certainly looked like it helped. Freeman tripled in his first at-bat of Game 1 -- it was a double that Alex Verdugo misplayed into a triple -- and then clubbed a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the tenth. To the action footage:
"This last week has been really good for me," Freeman said after the game. "The first time I ran was when I ran out to give high fives to my teammates when we got introduced. Tried to stave off running as much as I could this week, treated it as much as I could. So I felt pretty good going into today. I don't feel it right now, so that's a good thing."
Nestor Cortes missed his spot with a first pitch fastball and Freeman made him pay. As recently as the NLCS, Freeman was not driving that pitch. His exit velocity was down and he was mostly limited to serving singles in front of outfielders and limping station to station. That home run swing wasn't there in the NLDS and NLCS. Now it's back. That's huge for the Dodgers.
Also, the decision to bring in Cortes was curious at best and baffling at worst. Cortes had not pitched since Sept. 18 because of a flexor strain and he was not on the ALDS or ALCS rosters, then Yankees manager Aaron Boone brought him into face three Hall of Famers -- Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freeman -- with the game on the line in the tenth inning. I mean, what?
"Just liked the matchup," Boone said about using Cortes after Game 1. "Reality is he's been throwing the ball really well the last few weeks as he's gotten ready for this."
Tim Hill is New York's go-to lefty reliever and he's had an excellent postseason. Plus, he's actually pitched these last few weeks. Cortes' first appearance in five weeks was in that situation. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered and Freeman would've walked it off anyway, but, in real-time, it felt like Cortes was the wrong reliever there. Boone made a mistake, Cortes made a bad pitch, and now the Dodgers have a 1-0 series lead.
2. The Yankees kept giving away third base
Three times in Game 1 the Yankees gave away third base with poor defense, and twice it came back to bite them. In the first inning, Freeman's double became a triple when Verdugo misplayed the ricochet off the sidewall in left field. In the fifth, Juan Soto turned Enrique Hernández's double into a triple with a poor route in right field. Hernández then scored the game's first run on Will Smith's sacrifice fly.
The most costly defensive mistake came in the eighth inning. Ohtani clobbered a Tommy Kahnle changeup off the wall in right-center field for a double, but the throw back to the infield got away from Gleyber Torres at second base, and Ohtani took third. Torres has to keep this ball in front of him and first baseman Anthony Rizzo also needs to back up the play once Ohtani is beyond first base.
Betts brought Ohtani home with a sacrifice fly to knot the game up 2-2. The Yankees are a sloppy and undisciplined team, have been all season, and three times they gave the Dodgers an extra 90 feet in Game 1. Twice it burned them and cost them runs. The Yankees opened the door with poor defense and the Dodgers walked through. Credit to them for taking advantage.
Against the Royals (ALDS) and Guardians (ALCS), you can maybe get away with giving up an extra 90 feet now and then. Not against a team as good as the Dodgers though. Play mistake-filled baseball against this club and you're going to be on the losing side more often than not. The Yankees learned that the hard way in Game 1.
3. Playoff Stanton struck again
Giancarlo Stanton wants a World Series ring, and he's doing everything he can to drag the Yankees across the finish line. The ALCS MVP hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. The Dodgers let Jack Flaherty go through the middle of the lineup a third time, then Soto singled and Stanton hit an absolute moonshot. Look at this blast:
Flaherty got Stanton to swing over top of a curveball in a similar spot earlier in the at-bat. He tried it again, but left that one up just enough, and Stanton golfed it out. It is sort of remarkable how Stanton will look silly on a pitch, get it again, then hit out of the ballpark. He's on everything right now. Make a mistake, and it's in the seats.
Each of Stanton's last five hits have been home runs, and he's homered in four consecutive games. He is the only player in baseball history with multiple four-game homer streaks in the postseason (he had a five-game homer streak in 2020). Stanton has the fourth-most postseason homers in Yankees history, and the list is especially silly when you include plate appearances:
- Bernie Williams: 22 HR in 545 PA
- Derek Jeter: 20 HR in 734 PA
- Mickey Mantle: 18 HR in 273 PA
- Giancarlo Stanton: 17 HR in 154 PA
Aaron Judge went 1 for 5 with three strikeouts in Game 1 and is hitting .167/.304/.361 in the postseason. He has largely been a non-factor. Stanton and Soto have carried the offense through 10 games for the Yankees. Stanton hit another big home run in Game 1, though the bullpen could not make it stand up.
4. Cole gave the Yankees what they needed
For the first time in 338 career starts (regular season and postseason), Gerrit Cole allowed two triples in Game 1. And neither was his fault, really. Verdugo and Soto misplayed doubles into triples, and the Soto misplay led to the game's first run. Otherwise, Cole was sharp in Game 1, holding the high-powered Dodgers to just that one run in six innings plus one batter.
Cole allowed four hits, struck out four, and threw 88 pitches. In the regular season, Cole undoubtedly would have continued for another batter or three. But, in the postseason, teams will almost always go with a fresh reliever over a tiring starter, especially in the seventh inning of a one-run game.
Cole is the single biggest advantage the Yankees have over the Dodgers in the World Series. He was not his 2023 Cy Young self after returning from nerve inflammation in his elbow in June, but he was still very good, especially in his final 10 regular-season starts. The Dodgers have a patchwork rotation because of their injuries. Cole is the best starter in the World Series. Easily too.
To beat the Dodgers, the Yankees need Cole to go out and be the best pitcher in the World Series, and he was terrific in Game 1. He pitched into the seventh inning and he stranded runners at third base in the first and sixth innings. Ultimately, the bullpen and offense let Cole down, but he did his job.
5. A fan interfered, and it wasn't controversial
Jeffrey Maier this was not. Twenty-eight years (!) after Derek Jeter was awarded a home run in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS when Maier reached over the wall and caught a ball Tony Tarasco was camped under, Torres was given a double on a very similar play in Game 1. He hit a rocket and a fan reached over the wall and caught it.
Clearly, the fan reached over the wall. That ball was not going to be a home run though. It was going to be a double. Teoscar Hernández was not going to catch it, and a double it was called on the field and after replay. Nothing controversial, right? It's rare that we get a fan reaching over the wall and everyone is in agreement about the outcome.
Anyway, Torres was put at second base and not awarded a home run like Jeter in 1996. Judge eventually popped up on the infield to end the inning and strand pinch-runner Oswaldo Cabrera at second base. A non-controversial fan interference call that ultimately didn't matter on the scoreboard. Not often you see that.
6. Up next
Game 2, obviously. The Dodgers have a 1-0 lead in the World Series and only need to play .500 ball -- three wins in six games -- the rest of the way to capture the eighth championship in franchise history, and the seventh since moving to Los Angeles in 1958. Historically, teams with a 1-0 lead in a best-of-seven have gone on to win the series 64% of the time. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Carlos Rodón are the scheduled starters for Saturday's Game 2.