LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman knew exactly what the Yankees were thinking.
Freeman saw it coming when Aaron Boone decided to intentionally walk Mookie Betts to load the bases and get to Freeman in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series. This is nothing new for the top of a deep Los Angeles Dodgers order.
“We’ve been seeing it all year,” Freeman said Friday night at Dodger Stadium. “They’ve been walking Shohei [Ohtani] to get to Mookie, Mookie to get to me. It’s what I said earlier, that’s what’s so good about our lineup. It’s a tough matchup no matter where you are.”
Freeman has been limited by an ankle sprain for weeks. He was clearly in pain while trying to run the bases in the NLCS and the Dodgers even sat him a few times in the last round against the Mets. Boone said he liked the matchup with left-hander Nestor Cortes, a starter who hasn’t pitched in more than a month because of a flexor strain.
But there are no good matchups against this lineup. Freeman did his best Kirk Gibson impression, sending the first pitch he saw over the right field fence for a walk-off grand slam — the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. The Dodgers beat the Yankees 6-3 to set the tone for the series.
“You know, if you’re going to walk one of them, you’ve got to face the Hall-of-Famer after,” said Dodgers utility man Kiké Hernandez. “I don’t know if he took it personally when they walked Mookie, but it kind of looked that way.”
A hobbled Freeman rounded the bases, just as Gibson did at the same ballpark in 1988, after he hit a two-run blast in Game 2 of the World Series with injuries to his left hamstring and right knee. The two home runs came at exactly the same time, 8:37 p.m.
Maybe he didn’t know that line drive would clear the fence, but he knew that the Yankees felt Betts was more of a threat to drive in a run than himself.
“Right when they awarded him second and third, I knew I was going to be coming up in that moment,” Freeman said. “But right when I saw the four, I went over what I was going to be looking for and tried to be simple and see it and hit it. Luckily, I did.”
More than 50,000 fans at Dodger Stadium exploded. Signs flashed on the scoreboard informing the crowd that history had been made, but it wasn’t immediately clear to everyone, Freeman included.
“It felt like nothing, just kind of floating,” he said. “Those are the kind of things that when you’re 5 years old with your two older brothers and you’re playing wiffle ball in the backyard, those are the scenarios you dream about. Two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game…
“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.”
Freeman played as though both of his ankles were at full strength, hitting a triple in his first at-bat. The time off between Game 6 of the NLCS and Game 1 of the World Series allowed him to rest and get treatment.
If the Yankees were underestimating him before the series, they sure aren’t now.
“I think people think they can get to him a little bit easier, and think he proved tonight that they can’t,” said Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech. “I mean, he’s an MVP for a reason, and we’ve got three of those guys at the top. Can’t work around two of them to get to one of ’em because somebody’s gonna hurt you.”
After Freeman touched home, he was mobbed by teammates who had poured out of the dugout. He then sought out his family in the first row. It’s been a challenging year for the Freemans with his 3-year-old son Max diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition that is considered rare to begin with, but even more rare in kids. Freeman took time away from the team to be with Max in the pediatric ICU.
He greeted his wife, Chelsea, and their three kids. Then he shared a moment with his dad, Fred, the person who got him hooked on baseball just 30 miles away from Chavez Ravine in the backyard of their home in Orange.
“That’s mostly his moment,” Freeman said. “If he didn’t throw me batting practice, if he didn’t love the game of baseball, I wouldn’t be here playing this game. So that’s Fred Freeman’s moment right there.”
