MLB Notebook: World Series Recap

For a World Series that was settled in five games after the eventual winner took the first three, this year’s Fall Classic was very competitively played. In the end though, it was the Los Angeles Dodgers who consistently got the big hits and the New York Yankees who consistently made the big mistakes.

When we talk about this Series twenty years from now, we’ll just refer it to shorthand as “the Freddie Freeman series.” Freeman was more than just this year’s World Series MVP. He had a historic performance. His grand slam to win Game 1 when his team was but an out from defeat was a moment for the ages.

It happened at the exact same time on the clock (11:37 PM EST) as Kirk Gibson’s blast in 1988, and even had the injury factor involved—Freeman’s ankle had hampered him badly during the National League playoffs, but he certainly didn’t have any problem getting leverage underneath himself. That would be the first of four home runs he hit, one in each of the first four games. For good measure in Game 5, he added a crucial two-out, two-run single in the dramatic fifth inning.

Freeman was the biggest hero, but there were others. Walker Buehler’s gem in Game 3 gave the Dodgers the breathing room they needed for the “bullpen game” of Game 4. Teoscar Hernandez hit .350, homered in Game 2 and it was his two-out, two-run double in the fifth inning of Game 5 that followed Freeman’s key hit and tied the game.

Hernandez and Freeman were the two players identified in this space as the ones who would have to heat up in the World Series, since you couldn’t keep expecting Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to sizzle like they had in the NLCS. That was true for Ohtani, who was a non-factor in the Series and played the last three games with a bad elbow. As for Betts, while he cooled down a bit, he still got on base eight times over the five games.

His biggest at-bat, though, involved none of these. It was his sac fly that brought in the run that won the championship in the eighth inning of Game 5. Mookie’s fist pump as soon as he hit the fly ball, knowing it was deep enough should be one of those little moments that hardcore Dodger fans always remember. The same goes for the work of reliever Blake Treinen, who got seven important outs on a night when L.A. pitching was struggling.

Tommy Edman was another player who cooled down after his rampage to NLCS MVP, but he still had a nice series. He and Kiki Hernandez had five hits apiece, giving the Dodgers steady contributions up and down the lineup.

Ultimately though, the Yankees will look back on this Series with considerable regret. The fifth inning of Game 5 was an all-time meltdown—a dropped fly ball from Judge, a poor throw on what should have been an easy force play by Anthony Volpe and then Gerrit Cole inexplicably not covering first on a play that should have ended the inning with the score still 5-0. Instead, a run scored, the aforementioned two-out/two-run hits tied it up and what should have been remembered as a gem for Cole took on a very different narrative.

It’s also worth questioning manager Aaron Boone’s handling of Game 1. His team had a 3-2 lead in the 10^th inning. Boone went with Nestor Cortes, who hadn’t pitched in weeks. I get going with a lefty against Freeman, but why not Tim Hill? The 34-year-old had pitched well in the ALCS and would go on to be effective in a couple World Series appearances. With the best relievers burned up, why not go with Hill instead of choosing this moment to start giving Cortes some work again?

The Game 1 decision-making and Game 5 fiasco alone turned this Series on its head. New York also lost close ones in Game 2 and Game 3. In fact, they were only outscored 25-24 in spite of losing four of five. The differences were on the margins, but that’s postseason baseball.

It will be a long offseason in the Bronx. That’s something they’ve gotten all too familiar with in Hollywood in recent years. But not this time. The Dodgers have their second title of the Dave Roberts Era.