The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions for the eighth time after clawing back from a five-run deficit to beat the New York Yankees 7-6 in a tight Game 5 clincher Wednesday night in the Bronx.
The Yankees seemed destined to send a series they once trailed 3-0 back to Los Angeles for a sixth game when Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the first inning off Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty with back-to-back home runs and a drive for a 3-0 lead as the exuberant sellout crowd of 49,263 was on fire. Alex Verdugo’s RBI single in the second inning chased Flaherty after just four outs, while Giancarlo Stanton’s solo shot to right in the third extended the margin to 5-0.
But the Dodgers scored five unearned runs to tie the game in the fifth after a series of terrible Yankees errors and RBI hits by Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández, all off Yankee starter Gerrit Cole, who called a no ‘ had brought. batter in the frame. Miscues by right center and Game 4 hero Anthony Volpe, compounded by Cole’s inability to cover first on Betts’ grounder, left the game on a knife’s edge.
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The Yankees took the lead 6-5 on a sacrifice fly by Stanton in the sixth, but the Dodgers took the lead for good in the eighth on a pair of sacrifice flies by Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts off Luke Weaver after loading the bases with zero out. against Tommy Kahnle.
New York made one final push in the bottom of the eighth when Judge reached second base on a one-out double off Blake Treinen and Chisholm walked on five pitches to set the table for Stanton. But Treinen lured the Yankees’ $325 million designated hitter into a popout to short right field before striking out Anthony Rizzo with a vicious 85-mph sweeper to end the threat.
“I looked into his eyes. I said, how are you feeling? How much do you have left?” Roberts talked about his mountain visit to Treinen after hiking with Chisholm. “He said, ‘I want it.’ I trust him.”
Game 3 winner Walker Buehler, making his first relief appearance in more than six years, struck out Verdugo with a swing for the final out after many of the Yankee faithful had already left the stadium, putting the finishing touches on the the Dodgers’ second title in the finals. five years and their seventh since controversially leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1958.
The 30-year-old Buehler became only the second pitcher in World Series history to record a win as a starter and record the save in the victory, following Madison Bumgarner, who did so in 2014 for the San Francisco Giants.
After Flaherty was retired in the second inning, the Dodgers used as many as seven relievers to keep the resurgent Yankee lineup at bay. The eight pitchers used were a World Series record for a win.
“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 all adds up.”
The Dodgers, whose 98 regular-season wins were the most in the Majors, became the first team in a World Series win to come back from a deficit of five or more runs. The previous milestone was held by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who overcame a four-point deficit to win Game 7 of the 1925 World Series.
Judge and Chisholm’s home runs were the Yankees’ first back-to-back home runs in a World Series since Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson in Game 5 of the 1978 Fall Classic, but the early burst wasn’t enough to extend their chase . of a 28th championship.
None of the 25 teams that faced a 3-0 deficit in the World Series have been able to extend it to a Game 6, let alone come back to win. The Yankees, back in the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009, are only the fourth team to avert a sweep and even force a fifth game. 1970 Cincinnati Redsthe New York Giants from 1937 and the 1910 Chicago Cubs.
“Like I told the guys, it definitely stings now,” New York manager Aaron Boone said after the loss. “But this will stick forever.”
Freeman, who homered in the first four games and whose record streak of six consecutive World Series games ended with a home run, hit a two-run single to tie Bobby Richardson’s Fall Classic record of 12 RBIs over seven games. in 1960. The 35-year-old first baseman was a clear choice for Most Valuable Player honors.
Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ record-setting $700 million net worth, finished his first World Series with a .105 batting average (2-for-19) with no RBIs after dislocating his shoulder on a stolen base attempt in Game 2.
The Dodgers and Yankees met in the World Series for the twelfth time, making it the most frequent meeting in Fall Classic history, but it was their first meeting in 43 years.