LOS ANGELES — After a 15-year wait, the Yankees returned to the World Series with the Classic.
And with the emotional roller coaster and dizzying destruction that only October can offer.
Playing in the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009, the Yankees squandered one-run leads in the eighth and 10th and let Game 1 slip through their fingers on a Freddie Freeman swing.
The Yankees were stunned by a walk-off grand slam that defeated Freeman Nestor Cortes in a Game 1 gut-punch to open the heavyweight World Series, 6-3.
The Yankees pulled ahead in the top of the 10th behind a Jazz Chisholm Jr. single, two steals and an RBI groundout by Anthony Wolfe, but any blowout was a slap in the face.
In the bottom of the inning, Jake Cousins singled out Gavin Lux before a diving Osvaldo Cabrera knocked in Tommy Edmon’s ground ball. The freshman Cortez came off a flex strain that did his job against Shohei Ohtani with the help of Alex Vertugo before the left fielder hit the foul wall and fell over it for a remarkable catch.
But that only set the stage for the result: Freeman sent Cortez’s first pitch of the night in Los Angeles.
This all-timer includes: a Gerrit Cole-Jack Flaherty classic pitchers’ duel; Juan Soto’s defensive lapses led to the Dodgers’ first run; A Giancarlo Stanton two-run moonshot, until it wasn’t, was all the Yankees needed to score. An Ohtani double led to the tying run; A Kleiber Torres deep drive turned a fan into Jeffrey Meyer, reaching out and gloved a ball that was ruled a double; Aaron Judge took his chance and let it go before a 10th inning uppercut.
Yes, it was delivered and delivered competitively in one of the most exciting Fall Classic plays in recent memory: two seemingly evenly matched star teams.
In such tight contests, small mistakes are magnified, and the Yankees let those small mistakes lead to a pair of runs.
Tommy Conley and Luke Weaver combined for sloppy defense to allow the tying run in the eighth. Against Conley, Ohtani crushed a double off the right-field wall that Soto handled to second base. The ball bounced off Torres’ glove and bounced into no-man’s land in the infield, allowing Ohtani to take third.
The extra 90 feet was crucial when Weaver stepped in and allowed a sacrifice bunt to Mookie Betts.
The Yankees were one out shy of taking the lead in the ninth when Torres smashed a deep fly ball to left-center. It took a chance and ended up in the glove of a fan who clearly reached into the sports field for a souvenir. Torres was awarded only second base, and Soto was intentionally held to bring Judge down. But Judge had a rough October, finishing 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.
The Yankees failed to break through five innings against Flaherty, given a one-run lead due to some poor play from the Yankees’ defense. But as is often the case this month, a Stanton swing offered hope.
DH, 0-2 against Flaherty, saw a knuckle curve but didn’t dive – it was below the strike zone but at least in the same area code. If Flaherty intended to bury the offering, Stanton buried it in an entirely different way.
Stanton bent his front left leg to jump in front of the green and golfed it, swinging his club into a 9-iron that sent a 412-foot launch to the moon. Like this hitter, there was no doubt: Stanton spent several seconds admiring his work from the batter’s box before beginning a slow trip around the bases for his sixth homer this postseason and his fourth straight game with the dinger.
For a long time, that seemed to be the only swing.
Kohli was more than just dominating through six one-run innings in which he allowed four hits, walked none and struck out four. He survived early tough contact and gave the Dodgers surprises, including a single that fouled Ohtani — a pitch that goalie threw 12 times all season.
The Dodgers’ run came against a rolling goal that had allowed just one hit through the first four innings. With one out in the top of the fifth, Kike Hernandez sent an 0-2 four-seamer into the outer corner down the right-field line. Soto goes for the catch ahead of Carrom, the ball is out of reach and Soto runs past it. Overrun Hernandez took third with an out triple.
Will Smith then lofted a fly ball down the right-field line that was not particularly hit. Soto ran hard and caught it on the run before throwing home a two-hop throw that was too late to catch Hernandez for the first run of the game.
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