Dodgers win World Series after wild G5 comeback
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers were lined with stars but ravaged by injury. They had spent an entire season overcoming adversity.
And in the end, when it was time to clinch a championship, they did it once more, erasing a five-run deficit and using seven relievers — including starting pitcher Walker Buehler — to cover 23 outs in a 7-6, come-from-behind victory over the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night.
With that, the Dodgers clinched their eighth title in franchise history, their first since the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season and their first in a full season since 1988. They became the first team to use more than seven pitchers to clinch a championship.
“We’re obviously resilient, but there’s so much love in the clubhouse that won this game today,” Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said. “That’s what it was. It was love, it was grit. I mean, it was just a beautiful thing. I’m just proud of us and I’m happy for us.”
Their comeback was a product of the multitude of opportunities presented to them in the fifth inning. Aaron Judge had a liner hit directly at him ricochet off his glove. Anthony Volpe threw wide of third base on an attempted force out. Anthony Rizzo fielded a slow roller but had nobody to flip it to at first base. With two outs and the bases loaded, Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run single and Teoscar Hernandez added a two-run double to tie the score at 5-5.
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole had been cruising through the first four innings, keeping the Dodgers hitless while throwing only 49 pitches. He then threw 38 pitches in a fifth inning that essentially required six outs because of the team’s misplays.
The five-run comeback was tied for the fourth-largest in World Series history, surpassed only by the 1929 Athletics’ eight-run comeback against the Cubs in Game 4, the 1996 Yankees’ six-run comeback against the Braves in Game 4 and the 1956 Dodgers’ six-run comeback against the Yankees in Game 2, according to ESPN Research.
“We just take advantage of every mistake they made in that inning,” Hernandez said. “We put some good at-bats together. We put the ball in play.”
The Yankees took back the lead on Giancarlo Stanton‘s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth and preserved it when Clay Holmes came in relief of Cole to strike out Max Muncy with two on and two out in the top of the seventh. But the Dodgers broke through again in the eighth.
Enrique Hernández and Tommy Edman began with back-to-back singles, and Will Smith walked on four straight pitches, prompting Yankees manager Aaron Boone to replace Tommy Kahnle with Luke Weaver, who recorded four outs in Game 4. Gavin Lux and Betts followed with sacrifice flies, giving the Dodgers their first lead — one they would not give up.
The Yankees threatened in the bottom half, with two on and none out against a tiring Blake Treinen. Daniel Hudson and Buehler, the Game 3 starter who has struggled throughout his career out of the bullpen, were warming up. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts came out for a brief chat with Treinen, who then got Stanton to fly out and struck out Rizzo to end the threat.
Buehler checked in for the ninth and retired the bottom of the Yankees’ lineup in order. He spread his arms out wide and looked over at his dugout, then was promptly mobbed.
“There’s just a lot of ways we can win baseball games,” Buehler said. “Obviously the superstars we have on our team and the discipline, it just kind of all adds up.”
It was a fitting capstone for a dominant run. The 2020 to ’24 Dodgers became the first team since the 1953 to ’57 Yankees with multiple World Series titles and a winning percentage of .640 or better over a five-season span, according to ESPN Research.
This era’s Dodgers broke through to the World Series in 2017 and suffered a disheartening seven-game loss to the Houston Astros, a team that was later revealed to have been illegally stealing signs. The Dodgers returned to the World Series in 2018, only to be overwhelmed by the Boston Red Sox, and suffered a heartbreaking late loss in the decisive game of the 2019 National League Division Series to the underdog Washington Nationals.
The 2020 season, shortened by COVID-19, finally saw the Dodgers break through, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series and then defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in six games in the World Series, claiming their first title in 32 years. The next three years featured more heartbreak — outlasted by the Braves in the 2021 NLCS, then demoralized by the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2022 and 2023 NLDS, respectively.
The ensuing offseason saw the Dodgers splurge more than $1 billion on two generational players, two-way star Shohei Ohtani and young starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Tyler Glasnow was acquired via trade and signed to a lucrative extension. Teoscar Hernández came over as a free agent on a large one-year contract.
But injuries ravaged the team in the 2024 regular season. Yamamoto, Betts, Muncy, Treinen and Brusdar Graterol all sat out extended time; several key members of the rotation — Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone and Emmet Sheehan — were lost to season-ending injuries. On the night they clinched their 11th NL West title in 12 years, Freeman sprained his right ankle. On the night they took a 2-1 lead in this World Series, Ohtani suffered a subluxation of his left shoulder.
But the Dodgers kept going. They used a bullpen game to blow out the Padres with their season on the line while on the road in Game 4 of the NLDS, then came back to Dodger Stadium and shut them out to advance into the next round. They then used an overwhelming offensive attack to dispatch the surging New York Mets, accumulating an NLCS-record 46 runs. The first three games of the World Series showcased their end-to-end dominance.
Trailing by one with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth in Game 1, Freeman provided a Kirk Gibson-style walk-off grand slam for a thrilling victory. But it was starting pitching that powered the Dodgers through the first three games, with Jack Flaherty, Buehler and Yamamoto, the only three members of a maligned rotation, giving up only three runs in 16⅔ innings.
The Dodgers absorbed an eventual rout while utilizing mostly low-leverage relievers in Game 4. The thought, despite trailing by only one run after five innings and two runs heading into the eighth, was to save their best relievers for Game 5. Those relievers began to factor in as early as the second inning, by which point Flaherty had given up four runs on back-to-back homers from Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr., and an RBI single from Alex Verdugo.
Anthony Banda, Ryan Brasier, Michael Kopech, Alex Vesia, Graterol and Treinen — representing the group of arms that has so often stepped up throughout this postseason — combined to hold the Yankees to only two runs and four hits in 6⅔ innings, solidifying a title.
Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is set to play in Saturday’s key Big Ten matchup against No. 4 Ohio State.
Allar missed the second half of last week’s win over Wisconsin after suffering a left knee injury, but he was not listed on the injury report for the No. 3 Nittany Lions on Saturday morning.
Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week that Allar could be a game-time decision and that backup Beau Pribula would take snaps with Allar in practice.
Allar ranks 10th nationally with a QBR of 83.6. He has completed 71.3% of his passes for 1,640 yards and totaled 15 touchdowns with four interceptions.
Penn State starting defensive lineman Dani Dennis-Sutton will be a game-time decision, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Dennis-Sutton, who is listed as questionable, is expected to warm up and try to play.
Information from ESPN’s Jake Trotter was used in this report.
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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
WEST POINT, N.Y. — Army star quarterback Bryson Daily will miss Saturday’s game against Air Force with an undisclosed injury/illness, Army officials told ESPN.
Daily leads the country with 19 rushing touchdowns and leads all FBS quarterbacks with 909 rushing yards. He was unable to practice this week. The No. 21 Black Knights had a bye last weekend after beating East Carolina 45-28 on Oct. 19 to win their seventh straight game this season.
In the win over ECU, Daily carried the ball 31 times for a career-high 171 yards and accounted for six touchdowns, five rushing and one passing. The 6-foot, 221-pound senior has already set Army single-season records for touchdowns responsible for (26) and rushing touchdowns (19) in seven games.
With Daily sidelined, junior Dewayne Coleman will fill in at quarterback and make his first career start. Daily, one of four team captains, has been Army’s starting quarterback over the past two seasons and the main cog in a Black Knights offense that has eclipsed 400 yards of total offense in all seven games this season.
Army (7-0, 6-0) travels to North Texas next week for an AAC contest. They get a bye week on Nov. 16 and then face Notre Dame on Nov. 23 at Yankee Stadium.
There’s no timetable at this point on how long Daily might be out of the lineup, but Army officials don’t think it’s a season-ending setback.
Army, off to its best start in nearly 30 years, will be one of the top contenders for the Group of 5’s spot in the College Football Playoff if the Black Knights can win the American Athletic Conference championship.
The 2024 World Series ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the championship in a stunning comeback in Game 5, with Walker Buehler the unlikely pitcher to close out the 7-6 win over the New York Yankees. First baseman Freddie Freeman was handed the World Series MVP award for his record-tying 12-RBI performance.
But that doesn’t tell the full story of everyone who played a starring role in October — a postseason that featured a record six grand slams, among other wildness. So, to honor the best of the entire postseason, we’ve created our first MLB All-October Team.
From wild-card-round sensations to World Series standouts, here are the players our ESPN MLB panel of experts voted as the best of the best at every position along with some award hardware for the brightest stars of October.
2024 All-October Team
Catcher: Kyle Higashioka, San Diego Padres
Why he’s here: To be honest, it wasn’t a great playoffs for catchers — they hit just .184/.254/.310. Higashioka is the one catcher who did hit, belting three home runs and driving in five runs in the seven games the Padres played.
Honorable mention: Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
1B: Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why he’s here: Freeman didn’t have an extra-base hit and drove in just one run in the first two rounds of the playoffs as he tried to play through the severely sprained ankle he suffered at the end of the regular season. He didn’t even play in two games of the NLCS and required hours of physical therapy before each game just to get on the field. But the five days off before the World Series clearly helped, and he homered in the first four games, including his dramatic walk-off grand slam in Game 1 that will go down as not only the signature World Series moment of 2024 — but a World Series moment for the ages.
Honorable mention: Pete Alonso, New York Mets
2B: Gleyber Torres, New York Yankees
Why he’s here: Torres had a solid October as he heads into free agency, although he had little competition here. Indeed, second basemen collectively hit just .219 with three home runs the entire playoffs — two of those from Torres — and drove in 24 runs, with Torres driving in eight himself. He had three multihit games and scored five runs in five games in the ALCS, while also taking walks to help set the table for Juan Soto.
Honorable mention: Brice Turang, Milwaukee Brewers
3B: Mark Vientos, New York Mets
Why he’s here: Max Muncy set a record when he reached base 17 times in the NLCS, including a single-postseason-record 12 times in a row, but he went hitless in the World Series. Vientos, meanwhile, had a stellar first trip to the postseason, hitting .327/.362/.636 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 13 games. That followed a breakout regular season in which he posted an .837 OPS with 27 home runs in just 111 games. He looks like he’ll be a fixture in the middle of the Mets’ lineup for years to come.
Honorable mention: Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers
SS: Tommy Edman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why he’s here: Edman was an under-the-radar pickup at the trade deadline, in part because he was still injured and hadn’t yet played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Most of Edman’s starts came at shortstop, especially after Miguel Rojas was injured in the NLDS, but his bat got him here. Edman was the NLCS MVP after hitting .407 with a record-tying 11 RBIs in the series. He had started at cleanup just twice in his career but was slotted there twice against the Mets, driving in seven runs in those two games. Then he went 2-for-4 in each of the first two games of the World Series, including a home run in Game 2, and finished the Fall Classic hitting .294/.400/.588 with six runs.
Honorable mention: Francisco Lindor, New York Mets
OF: Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
OF: Juan Soto, New York Yankees
OF: Enrique Hernandez, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why they’re here: Betts entered this postseason in a 3-for-38 postseason slump going back to the end of the 2021 NLCS — and it initially looked like it would be more of the same when he went 0-for-6 the first two games of the NLDS, including being robbed of a home run courtesy of Jurickson Profar. Everything turned in Game 3 when Profar almost robbed him of another home run — but didn’t. After that, Betts was in the middle of most of the Dodgers’ big rallies, hitting .321/.394/.625 with four home runs and 16 RBIs over the Dodgers’ final 14 playoff games.
Soto’s at-bats spoke for themselves: He never seemed to have a bad one. His big at-bat was the three-run home run in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series. Getting intentionally walked twice while batting in front of Aaron Judge speaks to Judge’s struggles, yes — but also to how locked in Soto was all postseason. He finished the postseason slashing .327/.469/.633 with 4 home runs, 9 RBIs and 14 walks in 14 games.
Hernandez actually began October on the bench, but we’ve seen him perform big in the postseason before, and he stepped up when Rojas was injured in the NLDS. Hernandez homered in the Dodgers’ 2-0 victory to close out the Padres in the NLDS, had a big two-run home run against the Mets in Game 3 of the NLCS and got the series-turning five-run rally against the Yankees in Game 5 started with a leadoff single in the fifth as well as the series-winning rally in the eighth with another leadoff base hit. Overall, he hit .294/.357/.451 with 11 runs and six RBIs.
Honorable mentions: Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians; Teoscar Hernandez, Los Angeles Dodgers; Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres
DH: Giancarlo Stanton, New York Yankees
Why he’s here: The Yankees were often a two-man show in the postseason, just like they were in the regular season — except it was Soto and Stanton, not Soto and Judge. Stanton blasted seven home runs in the playoffs, including in the final three games of the ALCS (earning MVP honors) and in Games 1 and 5 of the World Series. He finished the playoffs hitting .273/.339/.709, and those seven homers are the most in a single postseason in Yankees history.
Honorable mention: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers; David Fry, Cleveland Guardians
SP: Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees
SP: Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers
Why they’re here: Certainly, it seems as if the status of the starting pitcher in the postseason continues to decline — although, that doesn’t mean they’re not important. There were certainly some stellar individual outings along the way: Corbin Burnes allowed one run in eight innings (but lost 1-0) for the Baltimore Orioles; Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler allowed one hit in seven scoreless innings (but that would be his only start); and the Padres’ Michael King fanned 12 to beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. Skubal had two scoreless starts against the Houston Astros in the wild-card series and Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS, confirming his status as one of the best in the game — or maybe the best, as his soon-to-be AL Cy Young Award will attest.
Cole was really the one consistent starter throughout the postseason, making five starts with a 2.17 ERA. Unfortunately, that ERA doesn’t register the five unearned runs from the final game of the World Series when the Yankees’ defense turned into a comedy of errors — including Cole himself opening up the floodgates by failing to cover first base to get what would have been the inning-ending out.
Honorable mention: Walker Buehler, Los Angeles Dodgers; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers; Sean Manaea, New York Mets; Seth Lugo, Kansas City Royals
RP: Luke Weaver, New York Yankees
RP: Blake Treinen, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why they’re here: It also wasn’t the best of postseasons for closers — not even great ones. The Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase allowed five earned runs all regular season — and then eight in the playoffs. Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams blew that wild-card game against the Mets. All-Star Jeff Hoffman lost two games for the Phillies. Weaver, however, was the one consistent late-game performer and was great while often pitching more than one inning. He posted a 1.76 ERA across 15⅓ innings. Who knows how the World Series ends if Yankees manager Aaron Boone keeps Weaver in the game in the 10th inning of Game 1. (Weaver had thrown just 19 pitches.)
Treinen, meanwhile, capped his comeback season — he had missed almost all of 2022 and then all of 2023 — with a 2.19 ERA across 12⅓ innings, winning two games and saving three others. In the World Series clincher, he recorded seven outs and got out of a two-on, no-out jam in the eighth inning to preserve the Dodgers’ 7-6 lead before handing the ball to Buehler to close out the ninth.
Honorable mention: Cade Smith, Cleveland Guardians; Michael Kopech, Los Angeles Dodgers; Beau Brieske, Detroit Tigers
All-October Award Winners
October MVP: Freddie Freeman
Pitchers of the month: Gerrit Cole, Walker Buehler (tie)
Best October introduction: Mark Vientos
Clutch performer: Freeman
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