World Series Game 1: Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam becomes instantly legendary
by Cary Osborne
In the past, a straitjacket has been mentioned as a way to keep Freddie Freeman out of the Dodger lineup.
But this year, self-admittedly, has been one of the most challenging seasons in the career of the first baseman on the road to Cooperstown.
He missed eight games to care for his son Maximus, who was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Another three with a hairline fracture in his finger. And the final three of the regular season when he sprained his ankle badly trying to avoid a tag at first base — a brutal injury at an inopportune time.
“When that happened at the end of the regular season, I said, ‘Oh no,’” said Dodger left fielder Teoscar Hernández. “Freddie is one of the souls of this team.”
Freeman stood in the batter’s box at Dodger Stadium in the bottom of the 10th inning on Friday, that front right ankle still not fully healed. The bases were loaded, there were two outs and the Dodgers trailed the New York Yankees by a run in Game 1 of the World Series.
But Freeman felt right.
Three days ago, he was hitting on the field at Dodger Stadium. He had just implemented a different mechanic with his front foot. And line drives repeatedly came off his bat.
It was a light-bulb moment.
Freeman didn’t play in the Dodgers’ NLCS Game 6 victory against the Mets on Oct. 20 that sent his team to the World Series. The ankle was hampering his at-bats, and the Dodgers chose to move Max Muncy to first base and sat Freeman.
So he worked.
And that thing that clicked three days ago, clicked in his fifth at-bat on Friday.
Yankees left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes threw a fastball on the inner half and Freeman stepped with the front foot and dropped the barrel of the bat with his hands. The perfect alignment of body and bat to the ball with force created backspin and sent the ball shooting into the Right Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium.
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It was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history and delivered the Dodgers a 6–3 win.
“Those are the kind of things, when you’re 5 years old with your two older brothers and you’re playing wiffle ball in the backyard, those are the scenarios you dream about, two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game,” Freeman said. “For it to actually happen and get a home run and walk it off to give us a 1–0 lead, that’s as good as it gets right there.”
Hernández had one of the best views. He was in the on-deck circle and threw his hands in the air as soon as the bat met the baseball. He knew it.
“I don’t even know how to describe it.” Hernández said. “Seeing Freddie, he’s just amazing. There’s nothing like it.”
Freeman said he knew in Game 1’s pregame ceremony that his ankle was in a good spot. When his name was announced for the traditional Game 1 introductions, there was pep in his step as he gave his teammates high-fives.
Then he went out and legged out a triple in the first inning.
“Stop,” manager Dave Roberts joked he was thinking in the moment.
Freeman had a chance to change the game in the sixth inning with the Dodgers trailing 2–1, but instead hit a long out to right field, leaving Tommy Edman stranded on third base.
After Mookie Betts tied the score at 2–2 with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, the Yankees took back the lead in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Freeman was due up sixth after Betts and Shohei Ohtani.
Sixth.
“As the inning started, you’re just trying to think about getting Shohei to the plate,” Roberts said.
A Gavin Lux walk and a Tommy Edman single made that so, but Ohtani flew out on the first pitch of his at-bat. Opting to go with the lefty-lefty matchup, the Yankees walked Betts.
And look who’s coming up — Freeman.
Thirty-six years ago, in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, a hobbled Kirk Gibson stepped into the batter’s box and hit a pinch-hit walk-off home run into the Right Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium — one of the most legendary home runs in Dodgers and World Series history.
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Freeman joked that the difference with his homer is he played the whole game.
But he recognized the parallel — gritty player, playing hurt, in the biggest game of the year on baseball’s grandest stage. And to be the first to hit a grand slam to end a World Series game in the 120th World Series further resonated with him.
The home run now lives forever.
“I love the history of this game, to be a part of it, it’s special,” Freeman said. “I’ve been playing this game a long time, and to come up in those moments, you dream about those moments even when you’re 35 and been in the league for 15 years, you want to be a part of those.”
World Series Game 1: Freddie Freeman’s instant legendary home run delivers a Dodger win was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.