Freddie Freeman mashed. Walker Buehler dealt. And the Los Angeles Dodgers are on the verge of the franchise’s eighth World Series championship.
After winning Games 1 and 2 at home, the Dodgers went into Yankee Stadium on Monday and secured to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and put the Yankees on the brink of elimination.
Only a historic rally by the Yankees would prevent a Dodgers championship. The Boston Red Sox remain the only MLB team to rally from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series when they stunned the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. No team has done so in the World Series.
As he’s been all series, Freddie Freeman was the hero Monday night thanks to a two-run home run off Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt in the top of the first inning. The blast to the right-field bleachers scored Shohei Ohtani and sucked the air out of a Yankee Stadium crowd that was hyped by a Fat Joe pregame performance and a first pitch by franchise icon Derek Jeter.
The home run was Freeman’s third in three games in this World Series including his walk-off grand slam that secured the Dodgers’ Game 1 win in extra innings. Dating back to Freeman’s World Series title with the Atlanta Braves in 2021, he’s now hit a home run in five consecutive World Series games, for the longest streak in World Series history.
Freeman will look to extend the record as his own in Game 4 on Tuesday as he eyes a World Series MVP trophy.
Walker Buehler played the co-lead for the Dodgers with five nearly flawless innings that produced two Yankees hits, two walks, zero runs and five strikeouts. Buehler repeatedly flustered a loaded Yankees lineup featuring Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. He didn’t allow a base hit until the fourth inning.
The Yankees had a chance to score after posting the only two hits they would get off Buehler in the fourth. But Teoscar Hernández threw Stanton out at home to end the inning on a base hit by Anthony Volpe.
Buehler returned to pitch a 1-2-3 fifth and appeared ready for the sixth after throwing just 76 pitches. But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts rolled the dice on his bullpen rather than stress his oft-injured All-Star. The gamble paid off.
Six Dodgers relievers delivered for the final four innings to secure the win. Mookie Betts (1 for 4) and Kiké Hernández (2 for 4) delivered insurance RBI after Freeman’s second-inning home run. Ohtani was 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored while playing with a left-shoulder injury sustained in Game 2.
For the Yankees, Aaron Judge continued to struggle. The presumptive AL MVP struck out seven times in 10 at-bats in Games 1 and 2. He finished Monday night 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout. Soto also finished without a hit on an 0-for-3 effort.
Stanton was New York’s most productive offensive player on a 2-for-4 effort, but the Yankees couldn’t capitalize on any of their scoring chances until Alex Verdugo hit a two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. But that was all they would score as their late rally fell short.
Game 4 is scheduled for Tuesday at 8:08 p.m. ET, when the Yankees will look to stave off a sweep in front of their home crowd.