ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
LOS ANGELES — Thirty-six years ago around these parts, Kirk Gibson hobbled out of a trainer’s room, willed one of the most improbable walk-off home runs in baseball history and celebrated the occasion by lifting his right fist into the air. On Friday night, Freddie Freeman raised his bat.
With the bases loaded, two outs and his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing by a run in the 10th inning of one of the most highly anticipated World Series in recent memory, Freeman turned on an inside fastball from Nestor Cortes and watched it fly, sending the Dodgers to a stirring 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1.
Bedlam surrounded him. A sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,394 went into a frenzy. Teammates spilled out of the dugout in uncontrollable glee. And for Freeman — limited all month by a severely sprained right ankle, grinding through the tail end of a bizarre, at-times disheartening season — it was almost as if time stood still. He raised his bat to the sky, then began a numbing trot around the bases.
“I felt like nothing,” Freeman said. “Just kind of floating.”
Freeman became the first player in World Series history to hit a walk-off grand slam, a statistic he couldn’t believe. He is the third player in Dodgers history to produce a walk-off home run in the World Series, the last of whom was his teammate, Max Muncy, in 2018.
Most notable, though, was his ties to Gibson, the only other player to send the Dodgers to a walk-off win in the opening game of the World Series. Gibson’s feat, against Oakland Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley, propelled the Dodgers to a title in 1988. The team rallied around his courage. The Dodgers haven’t won a full-season championship since — but they’re three wins away from rallying around Freeman for another.
“When you’re 5 years old with your two older brothers and you’re playing whiffle 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.”
Often on Friday night, it looked as if the Dodgers wouldn’t break through. They scored only once against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the first six innings, doing little to support a highly effective Jack Flaherty despite being presented with a multitude of opportunities.
After Giancarlo Stanton delivered a two-run homer for the Yankees in the top of the sixth, his sixth of this postseason, the Dodgers got a leadoff double from Tommy Edman, bringing up their celebrated top of the lineup. But Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman were retired in order. The Dodgers had two runners in scoring position with one out in the seventh, but Will Smith and Gavin Lux couldn’t come through.
Ohtani ultimately tied the score in the eighth, doubling off the wall in right field, sprinting to third base when Juan Soto‘s throw got away and scoring on Betts’ sacrifice fly. And when Jazz Chisholm Jr. manufactured the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th — lining a single, stealing two bases and scoring on a fielder’s choice groundout — the Dodgers came back again.
Lux drew a one-out walk and Edman followed with a single, bringing up Ohtani and triggering a bizarre decision from Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Cortes, a veteran left-handed starting pitcher who had been recovering from a flexor strain and hadn’t appeared in a game since Sept. 18, was summoned from the bullpen to face Ohtani. On Cortes’ first pitch, Ohtani lofted a fly ball to foul territory in left field. Alex Verdugo made a spectacular lunging catch, but he also rolled over the fence and out of play, prompting both runners to automatically advance. With first base open, the Yankees elected to intentionally walk Betts and set up the left-on-left matchup with Freeman.
Freeman faced Cortes three times earlier this year, when the Dodgers visited Yankee Stadium on June 8. As soon as he saw plate umpire Carlos Torres raise four fingers to signal Betts’ free pass, Freeman started to go through his process. He remembered how Cortes’ fastball had ride to it, and he wanted to look for it on the inner half, partly to stay away from chasing the cutter and slider away. He told himself to stay on top of the pitch.
“I wanted to be on time,” Freeman said, “and I was.”
Freeman’s batted ball left his bat at 109.2 mph and went 409 feet into the right-field pavilion. A no-doubter.
“I know everybody’s focused on Ohtani, Ohtani, Ohtani,” Cortes said. “We get him out, but Freeman is also a really good hitter. I just couldn’t get the job done today.”
When the World Series concludes, Freeman’s Under Armour cleats will be donated to the Hall of Fame. At 8:38 p.m. PT on Friday, they were with him as he vigorously high-fived first-base coach Clayton McCullough, flexed toward the left-field fans on his way to third, got swallowed by bobbing teammates at home plate and sprinted to the backstop to celebrate with his father, Fred Freeman, who was seated nearby.
“I was shocked,” Fred said of his son coming over. “I was so excited and proud of him.”
It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, motivated by all of those days Fred tossed his son batting practice.
“My swing is because of him, my approach is because of him,” Freeman said. “I am who I am because of him.”
The last three months have been a whirlwind for Freeman. His young son, Max, had a scary bout with Guillain-Barré syndrome before making a miraculous recovery, prompting Freeman to be away from the team for 10 days. Freeman then suffered a nondisplaced fracture in his right middle finger. Then, on Sept. 26, the night the Dodgers clinched their 11th division title in 12 years, Freeman rolled his right ankle on a play at first base.
Every day that followed has been a fight.
“He’s doing something that is basically heroic to put himself in a position to even be available,” Dodgers utility man Enrique Hernandez said.
“Freddie’s a competitor, a fighter,” Betts added. “He’s a part of this group, and this group loves each other. Him, like the rest of us, will do whatever it takes to play. It couldn’t happen to a better human being. Freddie goes through so much. He doesn’t complain. He shows up ready to go no matter what.”
Freeman’s ankle reacted poorly when the National League Championship Series shifted to Citi Field in New York last week, so much so that he was out of the lineup for the pennant-clinching Game 6. The Dodgers winning that Sunday, though, ensured Freeman would receive six full days of rest before Game 1 of the World Series. Freeman stayed away from running, instead doing light defensive work, taking batting practice and undergoing lots of treatment.
Along the way, he found a cue that involved, in the words of Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc, “staying planted to the ground so he could rotate and transfer.” Freeman took batting practice Tuesday and continually hit line drives to the area of shortstop. He felt he was in a good place.
When lineups were introduced Friday, it marked the first time he had actually run onto the field to shake hands with teammates who lined up along the third-base line. And when he took his first at-bat, he produced a liner down the left-field line that caromed off the fence, rolled past Verdugo and resulted in his first career postseason triple.
Nine innings later, he shocked the world — just like Gibson.
With one exception.
“I played the whole game,” Freeman said.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Jesse Rogers and Jorge Castillo contributed to this report.
Washington Nationals slugger James Wood will bring his massive power to the big stage, becoming the third player to commit to the July 14 Home Run Derby in Atlanta.
Wood, 22, has delivered 22 home runs in 86 games during his first full major league season. He was acquired by the Nationals in 2022 as part of the package of top prospects Washington received in the trade that sent Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres.
Wood announced the commitment on Instagram, with a video montage of himself, along with video clips of former Atlanta Braves star Hank Aaron hitting his record 714th home run in 1974. The video included the words, “Derby bound.”
Wood has 12 homers that have been hit harder than 110 mph. It’s the second most in the league behind Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani‘s 13. Wood also has four dingers that have been launched longer than 445 feet.
Raleigh, who would become the first catcher to win the event, has a major-league-best 33 home runs. Acuna has nine home runs in 36 games after returning from a torn left ACL that also limited him to 49 games last season.
DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez‘s setback to his recovery from a fractured right hand is not as serious as first feared, general manager Dana Brown said Thursday.
Alvarez, who suffered the injury on May 2, was shut down after experiencing pain in his right hand. He had taken some swings at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday and when he arrived there Tuesday, the area was sore.
He was examined by a specialist, who determined inflammation was the issue and not a setback with the fracture.
“It had nothing to do with the fracture, or the fracture not being healed,” Brown said before Houston’s game at Colorado. “The fracture at this point is a nonfactor, which we’re very glad about. And so during the process of him being examined by the specialist, we saw the inflammation, and Yordan did receive two shots in that area.”
Alvarez first experienced issues with his hand in late April but stayed in the lineup. He was initially diagnosed with a muscle strain but a small fracture was discovered at the end of May.
Brown said there has not been an update on the timetable for Alvarez’s return but said with the latest update it “could be in the near future.”
“Yordan is going to be in a position where he’s going to let rest and let the shot take effect, and then as long as he’s starting to feel better, we’ll put a bat in his hand before we start hitting, but we’ll just let him feel the bat feels like,” Brown said. “And then we’ll get into some swings in the near future, but I felt like it was encouraging news. Now, with this injection into the area that was inflamed, we feel a lot better.”
Alvarez, who averaged 34 home runs over the previous four seasons, has just three in 29 games this year and is batting .210. He was the 2021 ALCS MVP for the Astros and finished third in the AL MVP voting for 2022.
Cleveland Guardians right-hander Luis Ortiz is under investigation by Major League Baseball after a betting-integrity firm flagged a pair of pitches that had received unusual gambling activity, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
Sources said betting-integrity firm IC360 sent an alert in June to sportsbook operators regarding Ortiz, whom MLB has placed on “non-disciplinary paid leave” through July 17.
The alert, according to sources who reviewed it, referenced action on Ortiz’s first pitches in select innings to be a ball or a hit batsman in two games: June 15 against the Seattle Mariners and June 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals. In both the bottom of the second inning against the Mariners and the top of the third inning against the Cardinals, Ortiz threw a first-pitch slider that was well outside the strike zone.
The alert on Ortiz’s first pitches flagged bets in Ohio, New York and New Jersey. Betting on the result of first pitches is offered by some sportsbooks, with such wagers commonly referred to as microbets.
Ortiz’s paid leave, which ends at the conclusion of the All-Star break, was negotiated between the league and the MLB Players Association. If the investigation remains open, the leave could be extended.
Ortiz had been scheduled to start Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs.
“The Guardians have been notified that Luis Ortiz has been placed on leave per an agreement with the Players Association due to an ongoing league investigation,” the team said in a statement. “The Guardians are not permitted to comment further at this time and will respect the league’s confidential investigative process.”
The investigation into Ortiz’s potential violation of the league’s gambling policy comes a little more than a year after MLB levied a lifetime ban against San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano for placing nearly 400 bets on baseball. Four other players received one-year suspensions for gambling on baseball while in the minor leagues. In February, MLB fired umpire Pat Hoberg — widely recognized as the best ball-strike arbiter in the game — for “sharing” a legal sports betting account with a friend who bet on baseball and later deleting messages key to the investigation.
A 26-year-old starting pitcher, Ortiz was acquired by Cleveland from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the winter as part of the three-team trade in which the Guardians sent second baseman Andres Gimenez to the Toronto Blue Jays. With a 4-9 record and 4.36 ERA, Ortiz has been a staple in a Guardians rotation whose 4.13 ERA ranks 18th in MLB.
Ortiz’s leave comes amid a slide for the Guardians, who have lost six consecutive games to drop to 40-44. While Cleveland remains in second place in the American League Central, it trails first-place Detroit by 12½ games.
Ortiz signed with the Pirates in 2018 at 19 years old, far later than the typical prospect, and didn’t reach full-season ball until 2021. He quickly shot through the Pittsburgh organization and debuted in 2022, eventually throwing 238⅓ innings and posting a 3.93 ERA in his three seasons with the Pirates.