Freeman completes 9th-inning comeback to stun Sox

Dodgers offense overcomes eight innings of frustration and rallies to win it in walk-off fashion, on a night Clayton Kershaw reached 3,000 strikeouts and Max Muncy injured his left knee.

For the vast majority of this matchup, the Dodgers looked set to hand Clayton Kershaw a rather bittersweet memory of his 3,000-strikeout game, potentially losing to the White Sox in what would be Kershaw’s first loss of 2025. That ultimately wasn’t the case, with Freddie Freeman delivering the walk-off single to cap a three-run ninth inning in a 5-4 win at Dodger Stadium.

A lot of this comeback rests on the back of Kershaw’s efforts. The left-hander managed to keep this game close long enough for this talented offense to climb back into it, with a little help from the White Sox’ three ninth-inning walks.

Other than a pair of solo shots in the first two frames, one from Will Smith and another from Andy Pages, this offense was held silent for the first eight innings. The Dodgers were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position until the ninth and failed to capitalize on a great deal of opportunities. It wasn’t as if White Sox pitching was mowing down this attack with great efficiency. Only on two occasions did the Dodgers go down in order, but they systematically failed to drive anyone across, well, that is, until the final frame.

With the bottom of the order coming up and trailing 4-2, the Dodgers got a gift as Michael Conforto led things off with a single, and then, inexplicably, Grant Taylor managed to walk the next two batters. What made that even more baffling was that both walks came on four pitches, and they brought up Shohei Ohtani with the tying run in scoring position. At that moment, you’re thinking this is it, the Dodgers will definitely come back, but then Ohtani hits into a force out at second. Now you have the struggling Mookie Betts up with a potential double-play, ending the game. Mookie, whose season OPS is below .700 after an 0 for 4 performance, managed to hit a sac-fly deep enough to score the tying run with ease. And that’s all this team needed.

Much like his predecessor, Steven Wilson, who was brought in to face Betts also imploded, and after getting Betts, he walked Will Smith and allowed the walk-off single to Freeman.

In one inning, the Dodgers completely rewrote the theme of this recap, taking advantage of the last opportunity they had to avoid defeat. And the moral of this story is well-known: if you keep playing with fire, eventually you’re going to get burned. The White Sox found that out the hard way, losing a game they were in control of almost from start to finish.

Before this crazy comeback, you had all eyes on Kershaw’s performance. Probably for the final time in his career, no matter how long it goes, hopefully very long, Kershaw was pushed in a way reminiscent of his peak form. Dave Roberts acknowledged as much before the game that he would give his starter far more leeway, and that came to pass, with him needing each one of his 100 pitches to get the three strikeouts required to get to 3,000.

Although generating strikeouts was a problem against a White Sox team that looked determined to avoid being on the footnotes of history, it wasn’t as if Kershaw’s stuff lacked sharpness. The Dodgers starter induced a season-high 15 whiffs, but time and time again failed to put the White Sox bats away with two strikes.

While for much of this one, it looked like that milestone wasn’t going to come, it eventually happened in his final pitch Kershaw threw, getting Vinny Capra on a called strike-three looking. But more importantly, to get there, the left-hander also managed to bear down and avoid a blow-up outing, a pivotal achievement as it ultimately led to this late comeback.

Amidst the positivity of the win and the milestone, there is a bit of bad news in this game. Max Muncy was replaced in the sixth inning with left-knee pain after a pretty strong collision on the basepaths with Michael A. Taylor trying to swipe third. Muncy will have an MRI exam on Thursday.

Wednesday particulars

Home runs: Will Smith (11), Andy Pages (17), Austin Slater (3)

WP —Will Klein (1-0): 1 IP, 2 strikeouts

LP — Grant Taylor (0-1): 1⅓ IP, 1 hit, 3 runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts

Up next

Although the trip to Colorado this weekend isn’t the longest, the White Sox get no favors on the schedule as they wrap up the series at Dodger Stadium with a night game Thursday (7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA). Dustin May starts for the Dodgers, against Aaron Civale.