Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman (4 HRs, 12 RBIs) named World Series MVP

NEW YORK – Freddie Freeman set the course for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ run to the championship with a historic homer – and went on to win his way to World Series MVP.

Freeman homered in each of the first four games of the series, then drove in two runs with a clutch two-out single during the Dodgers’ 7-6 clinching victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

While Freeman had a World Series record six-game hitting streak, he just missed extending the mark to seven — Aaron Judge got a Freeman drive to the fence early in the game that could have cleared it.

Freeman’s numbers in the series were certainly MVP-worthy — .300, four homers and 12 RBIs — but it was Freeman’s dramatic Game 1 homer that set the tone for LA’s victory.

“I wish I could explain the zone — you just get into one of those zones where everything seems to slow down just enough… sometimes it’s just to get another lane,” Freeman said during an interview with Fox after the match when David was asked by David. Ortiz to explain what it feels like to be in the zone he’s been in this postseason.

With two outs in the 10th inning and the Dodgers trailing 3-2, Freeman pulled a Nestor Cortes fastball into the right field seats at Dodger Stadium for the first game-ending grand slam in World Series history.

It was dramatic enough, but the blast almost exactly replicated the game-ending homer by the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 Fall Classic. The similarities were uncanny: Not only was the homer a come-from-behind game-winner, but like Gibson, Freeman was hobbled when he hit it. Freeman has battled an ankle sprain during the Dodgers’ postseason run, an ailment that required near-constant treatment.

While Gibson’s legendary dinger was his only at-bat in the series, Freeman kept on mashing. He hit a solo homer in Game 2 and two-run homer in the first inning of Game 3. He homered again in the first inning of Game 4, another two-run shot, breaking a record for homers in consecutive World Series games pitched by Houston’s George Springer.

The homer streak began when Freeman won his first World Series ring in 2021 with the Atlanta Braves. In his World Series career, Freeman is hitting .310 in 11 games with six homers and 17 RBIs, the most RBIs of any player through his first two career World Series appearances all-time.

Freeman, who signed with the Dodgers before the 2022 season after 12 seasons with Atlanta, has managed to continue to stand out even in the star-studded LA clubhouse. That’s especially the case for his manager, Dave Roberts.

“If I had one player,” Roberts said, considering his next words. “I’ve said it before if you — all-around, he’s my favorite player to be around, what he does for the culture, the organization, the team.”

Freeman has an active streak of seven consecutive World Series games with an RBI, tied for the third-longest streak in history. He has also collected at least one hit in each of his 11 World Series games.

Freeman, the 2020 NL MVP, becomes the 12th player to win a regular season and a World Series MVP. Ten of the previous 11 are in the Hall of Fame.