Freddie Freeman will write a Hollywood sequel

Thirty-six years and 10 days after hitting the most iconic World Series home run in franchise history, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally released a sequel.

This movie ticked all the boxes of any great Hollywood sequel: “More.” Grander. Higher budget. And, of course, more dramatic.

Entering the plate with two outs, the bases loaded and his team trailing 3-2, Freddie Freeman etched his name into the long October history of the Dodgers by hitting a walk-off grand slam to give Los Angeles the win over New York with a score of 6-3. York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series.

Freeman, who is still recovering from a sprained ankle, did not have as pronounced a limp as Freeman. Kirk Gibson did it in 1988. when he stepped up to the plate at the game’s defining moment. But the end result was just as pronounced and just as exciting as its predecessor. It was the first grand slam in World Series history, and it came while his team was one step away from falling 0–1 on the hole and losing its home lead.

Instead, with one swing that no one who saw it will ever forget, Freeman flipped the script.

Here are six takeaways from the wild first game.

Leading up to the most anticipated World Series in years (decades?), much of the talk has centered around Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and Giancarlo Stanton. Freeman, a former MVP himself, was listed lower on the casting list, largely because he was playing through an ankle sprain suffered just before the start of the postseason that clearly hampered him in October. He had missed two of the Dodgers’ final three games in the National League Championship Series and was 7-for-32 (.219) with no additional hits through Friday in the playoffs.

He recorded his extra-base hit with a triple in the first inning but was hitless after that, leading to his hit in the 10th. With a first base open and two outs, the Yankees intentionally walked Betts to load the bases and set up Freeman against left-hander Nestor Cortez. Freeman jumped onto the first pitch he could find, hurled it 423 feet into the right field bleachers, and was forever sealed in October amber.

“Just floating,” Freeman said of what it was like to trot around the bases. “Things like this: When you’re 5 years old with your two big brothers and you’re playing catch in the backyard, these are the scenarios you dream about: two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game.

“For this to actually happen, we hit a home run and walked out to give us a 1-0 lead, it’s a pretty good thing if it comes out right here.”

It was a magical moment for a player who should have a strong case for being in the Hall of Fame one day. If and when that day comes, Friday’s heroism will be mentioned in its first paragraph.

So much of the talk has focused on how the days of workhorse starting pitchers going deep into postseason games are over, and that the bullpen for each of these clubs will truly be where every game is made.

In his Yankees World Series debut, Cole reminded that aces are not a dying breed.

The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner started the seventh inning giving up one run on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts. At one point, he retired 11 batters in a row and continued to tick off his pitches, saving his best for the most dangerous part of the night in the bottom of the sixth.

After Tommy Edman led off the inning with a double, manager Aaron Boone decided to leave Cole to face the formidable top of the Dodgers for the third time. Cole struck out and forced Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts out, then got Freddie Freeman to fly out and escape the threat unscathed.

Even though Cole was only on 70 pitches after Edman’s double, many managers would have turned to the bullpen at such a high leverage point. In Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals, Boone pulled Cole for just 80 pitches after he gave up a leadoff single in the sixth inning with the Yankees leading by one.

But on Friday, with Cole on cruise control most of the night, Boone trusted his ace to get him out of traffic. Cole rewarded his manager for his faith and took some of the heat off New York’s bullpen in the process.

October means one thing and one thing only: Giancarlo Stanton will win.

The much-maligned (at least in the back pages of most New York publications) slugger completed his almost annual metamorphosis with a right-handed swing at Barry Bonds in the Fall Classic. He has now scored in four games in a row, each more sublime than the last.

Stanton now only player in postseason history have multiple hitting streaks of four or more games in a row (during the 2020 playoffs, he had five straight games with a home run). All of his last five hits have gone off the wall, something he did once before during the playoffs (he the only player do this more than once).

Soto is a talented generational forward with a payday coming this offseason. north of half a billion dollars. But despite his status as a Gold Glove finalist, his defense cost the Yankees on Friday.

In the fifth inning, Soto misjudged a ball from Kiké Hernandez and turned what was likely just a double into a triple, leading to the Dodgers’ first run on Will Smith’s sacrifice fly. Although it would have taken a great throw to catch Hernandez on the bag, Soto’s throw to the plate bounced twice before reaching catcher Austin Wells.

In the eighth, Ohtani hit a double with a wall to right field. Soto’s throw to second, which walked Gleyber Torres, ricocheted into the free middle of the infield and allowed Ohtani to advance to third. He later scored Mookie Betts on a sacrifice fly.

Torres was charged with a play error and certainly could have tried harder to block the ball, but a shot that missed the target on the fly contributed to the critical error. The Yankees would happily trade substandard defense for the hitting masterclass Soto regularly displays, but little moments like these are costly in tight games like Friday’s and could continue to hinder the Yankees down the stretch.

The Yankees could, in the words of a radio announcer, “run the bases like drunks” sometimes. But perhaps that means they run with the confidence that only alcohol can give.

On Friday, of course, they ran freely and easily. Jazz Chisholm Jr. terrorized Los Angeles in the bottom of the inning, stealing three bags from the sixth, including two in the 10th, to get into position and score the go-ahead fielder’s choice on a grounder from Anthony Volpe. Volpe also stole second in the inning, giving the Yankees four on the night.

Before Freeman’s heroics, it looked like the Yankees’ gutsy play would be the deciding factor. Perhaps this aggressive approach will continue into the rest of the series and give the Dodgers an additional element to think about.

The Dodgers torment opposing pitchers by rarely extending the zone at the plate, and did so almost perfectly against the Yankees’ pitchers – especially their bullpen arms – on Friday.

Cole struck out four hitters on the night, and five Yankees relievers failed to strike out anyone after his departure. Cole managed just nine swinging strikes on 49 strikes (18% rating). Things were even worse in the bullpen, with Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle, Luke Weaver, Jake Cousins ​​and Cortez all having just one swinging hit on 48 combined pitches.

If the Dodgers continue their disciplined approach and remove the swing-and-miss element from New York’s bullpen, they will still have an advantage late in games. In a tough bullpen battle, the first round ended in the Dodgers’ favor in dramatic, decisive and unforgettable fashion.