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The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series championship in five seasons, overcoming a five-run deficit with the help of three Yankees defensive miscues and rallying on sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts in the eighth inning to beat New York 7-6 in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, 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.
But 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.
After Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly put the Yankees back ahead 6-5, the Dodgers loaded the bases against loser 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.
“We’re obviously resilient, but there’s so much love in the clubhouse that won this game today,” Betts said. “That’s what it was. It was love, it was grit. I mean, it was just a beautiful thing. I’m just proud of us and I’m happy for us.”
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 won 98 games and finished with the best regular-season record.
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.
“There’s just a lot of ways we can win baseball games,” Buehler said. “Obviously the superstars we have on our team and the discipline, it just kind of all adds up.”
Shohei 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 shoulder during a stolen base attempt in Game 2.
Freddie 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 & 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.
Roberts won his second championship in nine seasons as manager as the Dodgers, 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 winning 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 one RBI in the Series heading into what will be intensely followed bidding on the open market.
Judge finished 4 for 18 with three RBIs.
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 wall to deny Freeman an extra-base hit, dropped Tommy Edman’s fly to center. Shortstop Anthony 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. Cole didn’t cover first, pointing at Rizzo to run to the bag as Betts outraced the first baseman.
Freeman followed with a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández hit a tying two-run double. Max Muncy walked before Kiké Hernández grounded into a force-out on Cole’s 48th pitch of the inning.
“We just take advantage of every mistake they made in that inning,” Teoscar Hernández said. “We put some good at-bats together. We put the ball in play.”
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.
Kiké Hernández singled off Tommy Kahnle leading off. Edman followed with an infield hit and Smith walked on four pitches. Lux’s sacrifice fly off Luke Weaver tied the score. Ohtani reached on catcher’s interference and Betts followed with another sacrifice fly to give the Dodgers their first lead.
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.
© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
12 Comments
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oldman_13
Congratulations to the Dodgers. And thanks to the Yankees for gifting the Dodgers this game 5 and also the World Series with their costly, costly errors which allowed the Dodgers to come roaring back to tie the game and eventually win it all. Shohei was a non-factor this series, but his teammates stepped up big time especially Freeman.
kohakuebisu
Budweiser is terrible beer, but loads of blokes screaming and jumping up and down and spraying each other with it makes me want to drink it. And then realise once again how terrible a beer it is.
Its a quite subdued compared to a Japanese beer-kake, maybe its the champagne, but looks fun all the same. Well done Dodgers!
Hiro
Time to party all day. Congratz on getting the world series ring. May you get many more in the future. The goal of getting a ring finally has been accomplished. Time to have a new goal. Let's break the record of winning more world series!
iron man
I am not a diamond fan, I prefer the boards, but I reckon they finally invested in proven talent, and got the job done, Now where are the Tigers???
kohakuebisu
After the trouble with his interpreter early in the season, you have to admire the mental strength of Ohtani. It hasn't affected him at all on the field.
David Brent
Japanese baseball is so boring compared to MLB. So few outbursts of real emotion in Japan, no fights, the benches never clear, it's just so robotic and tedious.
Geeter Mckluskie
Pro ball, perhaps. Japanese high school baseball is more exciting than both...and has far fewer errors and bone-head mistakes than was seen in the 5th inning, such as an outfielder dropping a routine fly ball, a pitcher not covering 1st base on a ground ball to 1st, a short-stop throwing an easy force play at 3rd in the dirt and a pitcher throwing 4 straight balls with the game ties 5-5 and runners on 1st and 3rd. What a comedy of errors and nerves...perhaps not boring...but certainly crap ball. I've never seen that many errors in an entire Koshien game let alone in a single inning!
iron man
D.Brent, a question, during the recent Dodgers v Yankees World series how many bullpen clearouts, punch-ups deliberate body pitches (dangerous plays in my simple lingo) occurred???? Only game I ever watched was a Tigers game, 2019 I think, nobody tripping opponents, no shoulder charges, no head contacts. what a difference to other male sports examples NFL, Soccer, R.U.
Mocheake
I've never seen the Yankees make so many miscues in one inning in 50 years of watching them, and in an elimination game in the World Series no less! Congrats to the Dodgers on their eighth Series win. The greatest franchise in sports will just have to wait for that 28th championship
piskian
I don't understand baseball,but why is it called The World Series?
It's only West Vs East coast American teams,right?
I know they released the song,"Feed the World",then shortly after,"We Are The World",but surely other countries teams should be included?
Chico3
Yup! DODGERS WON THE SERIES! Excellent job! Congratulations!
@piskian - Actually, it was originally called the The World Champship Series. However, by around the 1930s, the name was shortened to The World Series.
Chico3
For me, actually, the farm leagues feel better to watch. Less stressful, while at the same time, the players are playing their hearts out to make it to the majors. There's also something for the family to enjoy and the tickets are much more affordable.