The long-awaited Dodgers–Yankees showdown in the World Series could be over in an instant.
Freddie Freeman homered for the third straight game and Walker Buehler pitched another World Series gem as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series.
With their star Shohei Ohtani playing with a partially dislocated left shoulder, the Dodgers are on the verge of a sweep that was not expected in the forecasts in this duel between the teams that led their respective leagues this season and that have competed for the title. of baseball for the first time in 43 years.
Buehler and six relievers combined for the Dodgers, who are on the verge of their second championship in five years and eighth in franchise history.
“One more victory. “That’s all I care about right now,” Freeman said.
Only one team in postseason history has managed to turn around a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. That was the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series.
Dave Roberts, the current manager of the Dodgers, was part of that Boston team. As a pinch runner, he was the protagonist of a memorable stolen base in the ninth inning of the fourth game to avoid the sweep and ignite an epic comeback.
These Dodgers, according to Roberts, don’t need a history lesson.
“They know what happened 20 years ago, and what can happen,” said the pilot. “Everything is possible. These are players who are very hungry to win a championship, to win a parade. Nothing is going to get in the way of that, nothing.”
And they wasted no time on Monday when they took the stage at Yankee Stadium
Freeman hit a two-run homer in the first inning. Mookie Betts and Puerto Rican Kiké Hernández each contributed RBI singles. The arm of Dominican left fielder Teóscar Hernández shot a runner at the plate.
“When you have to play away from home, you have to attack early to silence the crowd and that’s what we were able to do in the first inning,” Freeman said.
The Yankees avoided a shutout thanks to Alex Verdugo’s two-run homer in the ninth inning.
With his hit against a wild Clark Schmidt in the first inning, Freeman tied the record that George Springer set with Houston, by hitting a home run for the fifth consecutive game in the World Series.
Freeman became the third player to homer in the first three games of a Fall Classic. Hank Bauer (1958) and Barry Bonds (2002) were the others.
The fourth game will be on Tuesday. Having used their three healthy starters, the Dodgers will run their fourth bullpen game this postseason. Dominican rookie Luis Gil will start for the Yankees.
“What we have to do is focus as a team on winning that game tomorrow,” Ohtani said. “There is nothing better than having that opportunity within reach.”
No one has managed to sweep a World Series since the San Francisco Giants dispatched the Detroit Tigers in the 2012 edition. Chasing a 28th championship, the Yankees are on the verge of being swept for just the fourth time in a World Series .
“Hopefully we can be the protagonists of an incredible story and amaze the world, but we have to win one first,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
In the first Fall Classic game in the Bronx since 2009, the year of the Yankees’ last title, the New York players had a brief afternoon meeting. Derek Jeter, the five-time World Series champion, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to enliven the 49,368 fans who packed the stadium.
But it didn’t take long for the Dodgers to make the first blow of the night.
Schmidt fed Ohtani with four pitches to start the game. One out later, Freeman hit a cutter on a 1-2 count, traveling 355 feet to land in the first level of the right-field stands for his 13th home run of the postseason.
Tommy Edman, the Dodgers’ ninth in the lineup, drew another four-pitch walk from Schmidt leading off the third and scored on Betts’ single. Kiké Hernández added an RBI single in the sixth. Schmidt walked four in 2 2/3 innings.
The Dodgers’ defense also excelled to abort a threatened reaction by the Yankees.
Betts slid to take a line drive from Jazz Chisholm Jr. after Giancarlo Stanton’s double with one out in the fourth for the first hit against Buehler. Teóscar Hernández’s precise throw from left, after a single by Anthony Volpe, brought out a slow Stanton at the plate.
“You anticipate the play a little bit knowing that he’s not one of the best running backs,” Hernandez said. “If they send it, much better to get the out.”
New York managed to score until Verdugo homered off Michael Kopech with two outs in the ninth. Kopech came down to the curtain by throwing out Gleyber Torres with a grounder to shortstop.
Buehler allowed two hits in five innings, striking out five. In a season marked by physical problems, there had not been a victory since May 18 against Cincinnati. He is now 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA in three World Series outings.
“It’s something strange, I grow in the playoffs. “Those are the games that really matter to me,” Buehler said. “It has been a horrible year. But in the playoffs, everything changes with the adrenaline. The fear I had with my elbow trying to make a certain pitch is gone.”
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