Passan: A wild Game 1 more than lived up to the hype of this World Series
-
Jeff Passan, ESPN
LOS ANGELES — About an hour after the closest thing to a perfect baseball game possible, Freddie Freeman stood near home plate at Dodger Stadium, where he had just ended Game 1 of the World Series with an extra-inning grand slam, and tried to explain what had just happened. Over 10 innings and 3 hours, 27 minutes, the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees morphed from a pitchers’ duel into a hitting and baserunning clinic into strategic theater into an indelible highlight among the 120 years of World Series. Baseball at its finest comes in many forms. This game somehow managed to cram them all into one.
The final score — Dodgers 6, Yankees 3 — does not scream classic. It is misleading. On Friday night, the 52,394 souls lucky enough to witness Game 1 in person beheld the rare sporting event that teems with hoopla only to find it exceeded. The two most famous franchises in baseball, genuine elites of their coasts, fought. And then with one swing, on a first-pitch 93 mph fastball from Nestor Cortes, Freeman managed to deliver the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history and limp around the bases 36 years after Kirk Gibson famously did the same.
“Just look at this game,” Freeman said, and he started listing everything that had unfolded. Four innings of shutout baseball. The Dodgers manufacturing a run on a sacrifice fly. Giancarlo Stanton countering with a towering two-run home run. The Dodgers punching back with a run off Yankees closer Luke Weaver. The Yankees seemingly going ahead on what appeared to be a Gleyber Torres home run, only for it to be ruled interference when a Dodgers fan reached over the fence to snag it, which was confirmed by replay. New York tagging Los Angeles’ best reliever, Blake Treinen, for a run in the 10th. And the tension of the bottom of the 10th: a walk and an infield single to bring up Shohei Ohtani, whose foul out to left advanced the runners to second and third, opening up a base for Yankees manager Aaron Boone to intentionally walk Mookie Betts, giving Freeman the matchup against Cortes, who hadn’t thrown a pitch since Sept. 18.
“Back-and-forth moments — that’s what creates classics,” Freeman said. “And I think we created one tonight.”
The tens of millions who watched it, in the United States and Japan and around the world, know that they did. Great baseball can be as filled with good (Jazz Chisholm Jr. stealing second and third before scoring in the 10th inning) as it is with bad (he was able to do so because of Treinen’s slow delivery). It can include great defense (Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman saving a run in the sixth knocking by keeping a grounder in the infield) and unsightly (both of the Yankees’ corner outfielders playing doubles into triples).
“Some people think a slugfest is a good game,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “Some people think a pitcher’s duel is a good game. I don’t know. I think if you just add a little bit of all the elements, it’s pretty fun.”
This game had plenty. Before the first pitch, there was already built-in tension for the starters: Gerrit Cole and Jack Flaherty, two right-handers who grew up in Southern California. The Dodgers had tried desperately to sign Cole when he was a free agent, and the Yankees tried to trade for Flaherty in July only to back away, and the two men, now playing against their one-time suitors, spent the early innings one-upping each other.
Stanton’s sixth-inning home run and subsequent stare — not to mention Flaherty’s forlorn face after realizing the mistake he’d made — left the Dodgers trailing 2-1, and marked the beginning of the scheming between Boone and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who had left in Flaherty for the third time through the order and paid dearly. Boone turning to Weaver in the eighth after Ohtani doubled off the top of the wall and advanced to third thanks to New York’s sloppy defense was strategically sound but failed to prevent the Dodgers from tying the score.
Two innings later, it could have been Ohtani again or Betts or anyone, really, in the Dodgers’ top-to-bottom scary lineup. That it was Freeman, the 35-year-old first baseman, was as exceptional a denouement as imaginable.
“I was hoping Mookie would get a hit to take the pressure off him,” said Freeman’s father, Fred, to whom Freeman ran after the home run, interlocking hands through the netting that surrounds the field. “Then they walked him. And I was like, ‘Oh, Freddie, Freddie, Freddie.’ And then first pitch.”
Over the past month, watching Freeman has been painful. Not only because throughout the Dodgers’ first 11 playoff games he hadn’t mustered an extra-base hit. Freeman is clearly in pain. His sprained ankle throbs. His body aches. He is an eight-time All-Star, a future Hall of Famer, a World Series champion with Atlanta in 2021. He had been through a brutal year already, with his 3-year-old son, Max, suffering through a bout of Guillain-Barré syndrome. Freeman kept pushing through the pain, hoping the five days off since the NLCS would do his body enough good to do something memorable.
His first-inning triple, with him hobbling around the bases, indicated he was primed to. Little did anyone know an even better finale was to come.
“In my eyes, he’s a superhero, really, honestly and truly,” Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda said. “Watching him get through the injury and seeing the rehab he put in, the time he put in and just trying to get back to health, to get back on the field, doing everything he can — that speaks volumes of him as a player and as a person. He really cares about this group. He cares about the organization. He cares about winning, and that’s what drives us all.”
That’s true of everyone on the field Friday, including the Yankees, who now must recover from as knee-buckling a gut punch as can be thrown. The good news is, there remains plenty of baseball to be played, countless opportunities for the Yankees to do so, and the standard set for the rest of the series has gone from high to stratospheric.
To suggest any of the games, however many remain, can match Game 1 is unfair — unless this is the sort of series where magic courses throughout, where two teams are so good, so evenly matched, so ready for the moment, so keen to win, that the hype is simply an accelerant. Maybe Game 2 on Saturday night continues where Game 1 so clearly delivered.
“The ending,” Dodgers center fielder Kiké Hernández said. “I mean, it doesn’t get better than that.”
It does, actually, because Hernández is forgetting one thing. When it comes to the Dodgers and Yankees, the 120th World Series, this battle of the titans who have so much more great baseball in them, it’s just the beginning.
There are some who saw what the Carolina Hurricanes did at the trade deadline — or perhaps failed to do after they traded Mikko Rantanen — and believe they’re cooked when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, based on the projections from Stathletes, the Canes remain the team with the highest chances of winning the Cup, at 16.7%.
Standing before them on Sunday are the Winnipeg Jets (5 p.m. ET, ESPN+). The Jets had a relatively quiet deadline, adding Luke Schenn and Brandon Tanev, though sometimes these additions are the types of small tweaks that can push a contender over the edge. As it stands, the Jets enter their showdown against the Canes with the sixth-highest Cup chances, at 8.7%.
Carolina has made two trips to the Cup Final: a loss to the Detroit Red Wings in 2002 and a win over the Edmonton Oilers in 2006. The Canes have reached the conference finals three times since (2009, 2019, 2023). Winnipeg has yet to make the Cup Final, and was defeated 4-1 in the 2018 Western Conference finals by the Vegas Golden Knights in the club’s lone trip to the penultimate stage.
Both clubs are due. Will this be their year?
There is a lot of runway left until the final day of the season on April 17, and we’ll help you keep track of it all here on the NHL playoff watch. As we traverse the final stretch, we’ll provide detail on all the playoff races — along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2025 NHL draft lottery.
Note: Playoff chances are via Stathletes.
Jump ahead:
Current playoff matchups
Saturday’s schedule
Friday’s scores
Expanded standings
Race for No. 1 pick
Current playoff matchups
Eastern Conference
A1 Florida Panthers vs. WC1 Ottawa Senators
A2 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. A3 Tampa Bay Lightning
M1 Washington Capitals vs. WC2 Columbus Blue Jackets
M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. M3 New Jersey Devils
Western Conference
C1 Winnipeg Jets vs. WC2 Calgary Flames
C2 Dallas Stars vs. C3 Colorado Avalanche
P1 Vegas Golden Knights vs. WC1 Minnesota Wild
P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. P3 Los Angeles Kings
Sunday’s games
Note: All times ET. All games not on TNT or NHL Network are available to stream on ESPN+ (local blackout restrictions apply).
New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia Flyers, 1 p.m. (TNT)
Seattle Kraken at Washington Capitals, 3:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh Penguins at Minnesota Wild, 3:30 p.m. (TNT)
Winnipeg Jets at Carolina Hurricanes, 5 p.m.
Columbus Blue Jackets at New York Rangers, 6 p.m.
Los Angeles Kings at Vegas Golden Knights, 8 p.m.
Dallas Stars at Vancouver Canucks, 9 p.m.
New York Islanders at Anaheim Ducks, 9 p.m.
Saturday’s scoreboard
Ottawa Senators 4, New York Rangers 3 (OT)
Seattle Kraken 4, Philadelphia Flyers 1
Boston Bruins 4, Tampa Bay Lightning 0
Florida Panthers 4, Buffalo Sabres 0
Colorado Avalanche 7, Toronto Maple Leafs 4
Calgary Flames 1, Montreal Canadiens 0
Nashville Predators 3, Chicago Blackhawks 2 (OT)
Los Angeles Kings 2, St. Louis Blues 1 (OT)
Edmonton Oilers 5, Dallas Stars 4
New York Islanders 4, San Jose Sharks 2
Expanded standings
Atlantic Division
Points: 83
Regulation wins: 34
Playoff position: A1
Games left: 18
Points pace: 106.3
Next game: @ BOS (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 79
Regulation wins: 31
Playoff position: A2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 102.8
Next game: @ UTA (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 78
Regulation wins: 32
Playoff position: A3
Games left: 19
Points pace: 101.5
Next game: @ CAR (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 69
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 20
Points pace: 91.3
Next game: vs. DET (Monday)
Playoff chances: 85.4%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 85.9
Next game: @ OTT (Monday)
Playoff chances: 8.3%
Tragic number: 37
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 21
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 85.9
Next game: @ VAN (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 19.8%
Tragic number: 37
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 83.3
Next game: vs. FLA (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 2.5%
Tragic number: 33
Points: 54
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 71.4
Next game: vs. EDM (Monday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 27
Metro Division
Points: 90
Regulation wins: 34
Playoff position: M1
Games left: 19
Points pace: 117.1
Next game: vs. SEA (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 78
Regulation wins: 32
Playoff position: M2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 101.5
Next game: vs. WPG (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 72
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: M3
Games left: 18
Points pace: 92.3
Next game: @ PHI (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 86.5%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 68
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 20
Points pace: 89.9
Next game: @ NYR (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 27.1%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 68
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 88.5
Next game: vs. CBJ (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 31.1%
Tragic number: 39
Points: 65
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 86.0
Next game: @ LA (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 29.7%
Tragic number: 38
Points: 62
Regulation wins: 17
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 18
Points pace: 79.4
Next game: vs. NJ (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 9.5%
Tragic number: 31
Points: 58
Regulation wins: 16
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 73.1
Next game: @ MIN (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 25
Central Division
Points: 92
Regulation wins: 36
Playoff position: C1
Games left: 18
Points pace: 117.9
Next game: @ CAR (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 84
Regulation wins: 34
Playoff position: C2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 109.3
Next game: @ VAN (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 78
Regulation wins: 33
Playoff position: C3
Games left: 18
Points pace: 99.9
Next game: vs. CHI (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.6%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 76
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 19
Points pace: 98.9
Next game: vs. PIT (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 94.4%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 69
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 87.1
Next game: @ PIT (Thursday)
Playoff chances: 37.2%
Tragic number: 34
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 85.9
Next game: vs. TOR (Monday)
Playoff chances: 26.4%
Tragic number: 35
Points: 55
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 71.6
Next game: @ SJ (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 24
Points: 49
Regulation wins: 17
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 18
Points pace: 62.8
Next game: @ COL (Monday)
Playoff chances: ~0%
Tragic number: 16
Pacific Division
Points: 82
Regulation wins: 35
Playoff position: P1
Games left: 20
Points pace: 108.5
Next game: vs. LA (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 78
Regulation wins: 27
Playoff position: P2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 101.5
Next game: @ BUF (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.7%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 73
Regulation wins: 28
Playoff position: P3
Games left: 21
Points pace: 98.1
Next game: @ VGK (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 84.1%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 70
Regulation wins: 24
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 91.1
Next game: vs. VAN (Wednesday)
Playoff chances: 27.5%
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 69
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 91.3
Next game: vs. DAL (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 30.9%
Tragic number: 40
Points: 61
Regulation wins: 19
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 80.7
Next game: vs. NYI (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 32
Points: 58
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 18
Points pace: 74.3
Next game: @ WSH (Sunday)
Playoff chances: ~0%
Tragic number: 25
Points: 43
Regulation wins: 12
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 54.3
Next game: vs. NSH (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: ~0%
Tragic number: 8
Race for the No. 1 pick
The NHL uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first round, so the team that finishes in last place is not guaranteed the No. 1 selection. As of 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins the lottery, so only 11 teams are eligible for the draw for the No. 1 pick. Full details on the process can be found here. Sitting No. 1 on the draft board for this summer is Matthew Schaefer, a defenseman for the OHL’s Erie Otters.
Points: 43
Regulation wins: 12
Points: 49
Regulation wins: 17
Points: 54
Regulation wins: 20
Points: 55
Regulation wins: 20
Points: 58
Regulation wins: 16
Points: 58
Regulation wins: 22
Points: 61
Regulation wins: 19
Points: 62
Regulation wins: 17
Points: 65
Regulation wins: 23
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 20
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 21
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 22
Points: 66
Regulation wins: 22
Points: 68
Regulation wins: 29
Points: 69
Regulation wins: 22
Points: 69
Regulation wins: 23
EDMONTON, Alberta — Dallas Stars forward Roope Hintz was hit by a puck shot by Edmonton Oilers center Adam Henrique and left the ice with a towel pressed against his bloody face Saturday night.
Hintz extended his stick toward Henrique, whose wrist shot sent the puck under Hintz’s visor during his club’s 5-4 loss to the Oilers. He was on the ice, with his face in a towel, as the team’s medical staff assessed him and helped him skate toward the dressing room.
After the loss, Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said Hintz was at a local hospital, receiving tests. The coach added that the initial report was fairly optimistic for Hintz, 28, who has 25 goals and 52 points.
“Everyone’s optimistic that it’s not ‘serious, serious,'” DeBoer said. “But we won’t know until we get testing.”
The short-handed Stars rallied from a 5-1 deficit before eventually losing. Trade deadline acquisition Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist in his debut for Dallas, which had its four-game winning streak stopped. Wyatt Johnston, Jamie Benn and Matt Dumba also scored for the Stars.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway