Dodgers’ (6-3) Opener, Won On Freddie Freeman’s Game Ending, 2 Out Grand Slam Home Run

The Dodgers rode Freddie Freeman’s 2 out, bottom 10, grand slam home run to a (6-3) win over (imagine having under or for that matter, the Yankees on the runs line–) the Yankees in the 2024 W.S. opener.

L.A. now (3-2) as L.A. , vs the Yankees in W.S. openers (5-7 counting their (2-5) record in such as Brooklyn), trailed by that “ditto/above” (o.k. (3-2)score, entering the bottom of the tenth, after Jazz Chisholm essentially “stole” the go ahead run for the Yankees– T10.

Facing the Yankees’ 5th of 6 pitchers and eventual losing pitcher, Cousins, the Dodgers’ Will Smith who if you “will,” earlier “slapped” a sac fly yielding (1-0) L.A. , but could not repeat such, in the same man on third/1 out “sitch,” with L.A. down (2-1) B7 flew out to Soto in right. (Soto’s throwing error and perhaps failure to catch Ohtani’s B8 double was “part and parcel” of L.A. finally scoring when they did not even need a hit to do so).

The L.A. 7th inning failure cited above was after L.A. manager, Roberts outraged me (no second guess, I was emphatic that you do not “sac” in that situation) having K. Hernandez sacrifice, as he Smith popped out and L.A. failed to tie, what was a “twists and turns” baseball classic, almost certainly, yielding big ratings for the Fox Network.

Back to bottom 10 as Cousins “sinned,” walking Lux, who had failed 2nd and third 2 outs in that B7.

Next Tommy Edman, the NLCS MVP, singled off defensive replacement Cabrera’s glove with Lux getting only to second, after falling not far from it, likely on his way to making it to third.

Boone summoned left handed pitcher Cortes, a decision with which I had/have no problem, to face lefty hitting Ohtani and after Verdugo in left, ran toward the line and caught Ohtani’s fly ball, a la Sandy Amoros for Brooklyn vs Yogi (Berra) and the Yankees on the one occasion the Brooklyn Dodgers “titled,” some 69 years in the “rearview.”

However, unlike Amoros, Verdugo fell over the rail (that moved each runner up a base) and it also did not manifest in a happy ending for the Yankees, who intentionally walked Mookie Betts, before Freeman, with Fox cameras again “staying on the batter,” not where the ball was going, hit a “no doubt” game winning home run.

Amoros saved the decisive 7th, this was game 1. Freeman’s obviously super clutch blast does evoke memories of Kirk Gibson hitting an also 2 outs/ 2RHR, B9 that lifted L.A. (5-4) in the ’88 W.S. opener en route to their lone full season crown, since Sandy (Koufax) shutout the Twins in game 7, of the 1965 World Series.

Kirk Gibson, pictured above.