Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of stories where Dodger broadcasters reflect on their favorite call from 2025.
by Mark Langill
The Event:
Freddie Freeman hits a walk off home run in the bottom of the 18th inning in Game 3 of the 2025 World Series.
On the Call:
Joe Davis
The Call:
“It’s 11:50 in Los Angeles … Freeman sends a fly ball to center field … Varsho’s going back … before the clock strikes midnight, Freddie Freeman has ended it! It’s a repeat hero with the last word on a Game 3 classic.”
The first 2025 World Series home game at Dodger Stadium actually felt like two.
After splitting the first two games of the Fall Classic at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, the Dodgers suddenly had home-field advantage.
But beating the American League champions became an even bigger challenge when the sprint turned into an 18-inning marathon, just like Game 3 of the 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. A walk-off home run in 2018 by Max Muncy gave the Dodgers their only win against Boston in the five-game World Series.
Could the Dodgers win another 18-inning World Series game? If they couldn’t score in the 18th inning, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched a complete-game 5–1 victory in Game 2 at Toronto, was prepared to enter the game in the 19th inning on one day’s rest.
Rookie pitcher Will Klein, a late addition to the World Series roster, became an unlikely hero and instant October legend with four scoreless innings. Davis joked that the bearded Klein was clean-shaven when the game began.
“You’re afraid you’re going to run out of things to say when the game goes on for so long,” Davis said. “But it’s the World Series, and you have to be ready for anything.”
Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman is the only player in World Series history with a pair of walk-off home runs.
Davis, the Dodgers’ regular-season lead voice who called the World Series for Fox Sports, provided the soundtrack for each, albeit under drastically different circumstances in 2024 and 2025.
Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 against the New York Yankees’ Nestor Cortes in the 2024 Fall Classic at Dodger Stadium occurred when Los Angeles trailed 3–2 with two outs in the 10th inning.
It was the crescendo of the first Dodgers-Yankees World Series matchup in 43 years when Freeman stepped into the batter’s box. The first offering from the left-handed Cortes was a fastball. Freeman turned the noise level to fever pitch when he connected and raised his bat high into the air.
As Freeman began to circle the bases after the 6–3 victory, Davis immediately circled back to 1988 and connected the dots between Freeman and Kirk Gibson.
The National League MVP didn’t start Game 1 against Oakland because of knee and hamstring injuries. Gibson appeared as a pinch-hitter in the ninth and delivered a two-out, two-run home run off future Hall of Fame reliever Dennis Eckersley to give Los Angeles a 5–4 victory. The home runs hit by Gibson and Freeman landed in similar spots in the Right Field Pavilion.
“Gibby, meet Freddie!” Davis exclaimed.
In 2025, Davis again rose to the challenge of finding just the right phraseology to explain the signature moment. But in the nearly seven hours on the air, Davis felt like he was going to run out of words, just as the Dodgers and Blue Jays were running out of pitchers.
As Game 3 crawled to the bottom of the 18th inning, fans had the look of exasperation, like freeway commuters stuck in rush-hour traffic. With so many false alarms, it was impossible to duplicate the anticipation and noise level when Freeman stepped to the plate in the ninth inning against the Yankees.
One year later, Davis had his eye on the clock when Freeman was batting in the 18th inning against the Blue Jays.
When Davis noted the time, it was reminiscent of another iconic moment in Dodger baseball when Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Cubs on Sept. 9, 1965. Before the final pitch that would strike out Chicago’s Harvey Kuenn, broadcaster Vin Scully said, “It is 9:46 p.m. …”
If Davis was checking his watch, he suddenly had all the time in the world when Freeman hit the home run on a full-count pitch. His victim was another left-hander, Toronto’s Brendon Little.
After his initial call, Davis and his broadcasting partner, Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, remained silent for the next 68 seconds as the television showed the various scenes of celebrations both on the field and in the stands. A weary crowd suddenly had a reason to cheer, and there was no hurry to leave.
Looking back several weeks later, Davis reflected on the marathon.
“We’d seen it before when Max Muncy hit a home run to end an 18-inning World Series game against the Red Sox in 2018,” Davis said. “When Freddie came to the plate in the 18th inning, you knew to be ready for anything because we had seen what Freddie had done before with the walk-off against the Yankees. And with one swing, the game was suddenly over.”
Behind the Mic: Joe Davis calls another Freeman World Series walk-off homer was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.