Yankees 11-4 Dodgers (October 29, 2024) Game Recap

NEW YORK — — Fifteen years on little Anthony Volpe watched the Yankees parade with the World Series trophy, he saved their season and kept alive the hopes of an improbable title.

New York had moved closer to being swept in the World Series when Freddie Freeman hit another home run in the first inning.

Volpe, a New York native whose family idolizes the pinstripes going back generations, turned on a knee-high slider and perhaps reshaped the series as well. His grand slam in the third inning led the Yankees to an 11-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night, forcing a Game 5.

“The place was shaking. I felt like the ground was literally shaking,” Yankees catcher Austin Wells said.

Wells and Gleyber Torres added homers for the Yankees, who opened the game with a five-run eighth.

New York, which had scored just seven runs in the first three games, had some of its swagger back. Wells spoke after the game wearing a “Fully Operational Death Star” Yankees T-shirt, referring to general manager Brian Cashman’s 2018 quip.

Fans in the sellout crowd of 49,354 chanted Volpe’s name during the ninth inning.

“It’s like you finally got to see the top blow off Yankee Stadium in a World Series game,” Aaron Boone said after his first World Series victory as New York’s manager. “When Anthony hits that ball, it was fun to see Yankee Stadium erupt.”

Wells said the dire situation after Monday’s loss had eased the pressure.

“Why not go out tomorrow and have fun?” he described as the atmosphere.

Freeman homered for his sixth straight when he lined a slider from rookie Luis Gil into the short porch in right field after Mookie Betts’ one-out double. He became the first player to homer in the first four games of a World Series, and his streak of six straight long balls is one more than Houston’s George Springer in 2017 and ’19.

“I’ll look back on it after we hopefully win and get this done tomorrow,” Freeman said. “Pretty cool. Obviously hopefully I can continue that tomorrow.”

Game 5 is Wednesday night, with Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of Game 1.

Trying to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the series, New York went ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second and Volpe’s drive to Daniel Hudson.

“All it takes is one swing,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said.

Volpe sent Hudson’s first pitch into the seats in left field.

“I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence,” Volpe said.

A Gold Glove shortstop in his second big league season, the 23-year-old Volpe also doubled, becoming the first player in major league history with a grand slam and a pair of stolen bases in one game. He was 8 when the Yankees last won the series.

Volpe scored New York’s first run when he walked after falling behind 0-2 in the second inning. He made a base-running blunder when he headed back to second to reach and failed to score on Wells’ double off the center-field wall — stomping his own leg in anger. Verdugo followed with an RBI grounder.

“They’re going to struggle,” Betts said. “If you made it this far, you’ve got a resilient team that’s going to fight all the time.”

Los Angeles closed to within 6-4 in a two-run fifth that included Will Smith’s homer by Gil and an RBI grounder by Freeman. Despite a sprained right ankle, Freeman batted to avoid an inning-ending double play on what was originally ruled out but overturned on video review.

Wells hit a second-deck homer in the sixth against Landon Knack, and Verdugo added another run-scoring grounder in the eighth — with an 11-pitch at-bat — before Torres’ three-run homer off Brent Honeywell.

Tim Hill, winning pitcher Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza put together five innings of one-hit scoreless relief with seven strikeouts, and the Yankees avoided what would have been their first losing streak since 1976.

“As far as results go, having six guys in your pen feeling good, rested, I feel good about that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams to take 3-0 leads in the series went on to sweep, all but the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs, the 1937 Yankees against the New York Giants, and the 1970 Baltimore Orioles against the Cincinnati Reds. All three of those streaks ended in five games.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox, sparked by a stolen base by Roberts, are the only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in any round and beat the Yankees in the AL Championship Series.

Judge drove in his first run of the series with an RBI single in the eighth and is 2 for 15 in the four games. Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani is also 2 for 15 after going 1 for 4 with a single, his first hit since partially separating his left shoulder in game 2.

New York snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Dodgers dating back to 1981. The Yankees got their first seven RBI from the bottom three hitters in their batting order, Volpe, Wells and Verdugo, who had gone 4-for-32 with three RBI in the series.

Volpe was interviewed after the game by former Yankees captain Derek Jeter, now a Fox broadcaster.

“It is my dream, but it was the dream of all my friends, all my cousins’ dreams, probably also my sister’s dream. But winning the World Series came first. far from it. Nothing else compares. So there is still a lot of work to do,” said Volpe.

Former Boston star David Ortiz, also a Fox commentator, presented Volpe with a jersey.

“I have it in my locker,” Volpe said. “I can’t wear it. It’s got him and Red Sox stuff on it.”

UP NEXT

Cole allowed one run over six-plus innings in the opener — Kiké Hernández tripled in the fifth when right fielder Juan Soto took a bad route and then scored on Smith’s sacrifice bunt. Flaherty gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings, a two-run homer by Giancarlo Stanton.

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