by Cary Osborne
After Freddie Freeman hit his walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, he said it was the sort of situation one dreams about when playing Wiffle ball in the backyard.
But to hit a walk-off home run in the World Series twice?
“No, I don’t think you ever come up with a scenario twice,” Freeman said.
The Dodger defeated the Blue Jays 6–5 in Game 3 of the World Series in a fall classic at Dodger Stadium on Monday night.
https://medium.com/media/03c6205c1491b07465579cb6aac95f45/href
Freeman’s walk-off home run off Toronto’s ninth pitcher of the game, Brendon Little, ended a six-hour and 39-minute contest. It tied the Dodgers’ walk-off, 3–2 win in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series (ended by a Max Muncy home run in the 18th inning) for the longest game in World Series history.
The Blue Jays used 23 players in the game. The Dodgers used 21.
Their 22nd would have been Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who after throwing a complete game in Game 2 on Saturday, was due to come in if the game reached a 19th inning.
“It just speaks to guys will do anything to win a championship and they’re laying it out there,” said manager Dave Roberts.
The Dodgers tied the score 5–5 in the bottom of the seventh inning with a Shohei Ohtani solo home run. The score remained that way for 11 more innings until Freeman hit a blast over the wall in center field at 11:50 p.m. The game began with Tyler Glasnow’s first pitch at 5:11 p.m.
“That’s (the dream) you’re talking about as kids. And last year, it was always bases loaded, and two outs, bottom of the 9th. I know it happened in the 10th (last year in Game 1 of the World Series),” Freeman said. “But to have it happen again a year later, to hit another walk-off, it’s kind of amazing, crazy, and I’m just glad we won and we’re up 2–1, and we got our Shohei on the mound tomorrow.”
The Dodgers trotted out 10 different pitchers — nine after Glasnow exited in the fifth inning with the Dodgers trailing 4–2. Nine Dodger relief pitchers combined to allow one run over 13 1/3 innings. The hero was Will Klein — mostly an unknown who hadn’t been on the National League Wild Card, Division Series or Championship Series rosters.
Klein, who has 22 Major League regular season games of experience, came into Game 3 of the World Series with 36 pitches as his career high. He threw 72 over four scoreless innings.
Edgardo Henriquez, also not on the NLCS roster, turned in two scoreless innings.
“In the postseason, people talk about the superstars, but a lot of times it’s these unsung heroes that you just can’t expect,” Roberts said. “Tonight was will Klein’s night, and obviously, what Edgardo did was just as paramount.”
https://medium.com/media/1af540fd607ee37418e0dcfa7ab3ddd2/href
The brightest superstar did shine brightly, though.
Ohtani turned in one of the greatest single game performances in World Series history. He had nine plate appearances and reached all nine times — two home runs, two doubles, five walks (four intentional). That’s a World Series record, as are his five walks and four intentional walks.
“He’s a unicorn,” Freeman said. “There’s no more adjectives you can (use to) describe Shohei. It’s 4-for-4, five walks. He finally got pitched to in his last at-bat, and he still had the patience to not be trying to do too much and get on base. He’s just incredible. We’ve been talking about him since he got here in 2018. We’re still running out of words to describe a once-in-a-generation player.”
Ohtani is the Dodgers’ Game 4 starting pitcher.
“He’s spent,” Roberts said. “He was on base eight, nine times tonight, running the bases. He’s elated. But, yeah, he’s taking the mound tomorrow. He’ll be ready.”
2025 World Series: Freddie Freeman is the Fall Classic dream weaver was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.