Five months later, the within story of Freddie Freeman’s World Series walk-off grand slam | USAEMALL.com

The memories, joyful and painful, will endure.

In Game 1 of last year’s World Series, Freddie Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in the 120-year history of the Fall Classic. The shot at Dodger Stadium immediately joined the list of indelible Series walk-offs — Joe Carter in 1993, Kirk Gibson in 1988, Bill Mazeroski in 1960. And it was all the more improbable considering Freeman was playing with broken rib cartilage and a right ankle injury that would require surgery.

Five months later, the recollections of the participants remain vivid.

“Hands-down the best sports moment I’ve ever witnessed,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

“I wanted to throw up,” New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells said.

The following is an account of the stunning turn of events — the leadup, the moment and the aftermath — told mostly in the words of those involved.

The leadup

The Yankees took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th inning. Their manager, Aaron Boone, had a decision to make entering the bottom half: Which reliever would he use to face the bottom of the Dodgers’ order?

Right-hander Luke Weaver had needed only 19 pitches to complete 1 2/3 perfect innings, but Boone was wary of sending him to the mound a third time. Instead, Boone went with another righty, Jake Cousins, who proceeded to get into a first-and-second, one-out jam, bringing up the top of the Dodgers’ order, starting with Shohei Ohtani.

Enter left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr., who had not pitched in five weeks because of a strained elbow flexor. Boone believed Cortes to be a superior option to lefty Tim Hill, whose strikeout rate in 2024 was the lowest among major-league relievers.

Boone (to beat reporters the next day): I had no problem with Nestor even after the fact. I feel like that was the right move with one out. The biggest thing was, (should) I send Weave back out there for the third up? … That’s the one I wrestled with.

Cortes: I’ve been with Aaron Boone for five years. I know he trusted me enough. I guarantee you Aaron Boone would give me the ball every time.

Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo: The Tim Hill-Ohtani matchup, I think Ohtani 100 percent either puts the ball on the ground or shoots it the other way.

A game-ending double play was unlikely. Ohtani grounded into only seven double plays in 731 plate appearances during the regular season, and none in 76 plate appearances during the postseason. Boone also feared the potential Hill-Mookie Betts left-right matchup that might follow.

Swinging at Cortes’ first pitch, a 92-mph fastball close to the heart of the zone, Ohtani lofted a popup foul. Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo raced to make a spectacular grab, tumbling into the left-field stands.

Yankees reliever Clay Holmes: I remember sitting on the bench, next to Gerrit (Cole). We brought Nestor in. He got that first out, a popup. And I was just like, “Man, this is just the cherry on top for the legend of Nestor and what he’s done.” It seems like in those types of moments, Nestor always figures a way out and gets out of things.

The problem was, Verdugo left the field of play. The umpires ruled dead ball, and each runner advanced one base.

Verdugo (to reporters afterward): I didn’t know (the rule). I still don’t know.

With a base open, Boone ordered an intentional walk to Betts, setting up a left-left matchup with Freeman.

Boone: First and second, I wouldn’t have walked him.

Betts: I actually wanted to take a swing at it. Because that’s like kind of the thing you grow up hoping and dreaming for in the World Series. I mean I know it’s Game 1, maybe not Game 7, but a situation to be the hero.

Freeman: I was excited for that moment. If you look at the video, I’m already in the box when Mookie is still taking off his stuff.

Roberts: It happened so dang quick. I was upset because Shohei hadn’t done something dramatic, the way he had all year.

Fred Freeman (Freddie’s father): Everyone in the ballpark was standing. I was sitting. I was so nervous, I couldn’t even stand.

Freeman did not run for about a week prior to the series. But his ankle felt better as he jogged from the dugout to greet his teammates during introductions. And in the first inning, he legged out a triple, his first extra-base hit in nearly a month.

Fred Freeman: It was the first game he didn’t need the ankle taped. He could plant his foot without rolling over. The day before, he called me and said, “I got my swing back.” I said, “You do?” He said, “Yeah, I really have it.”

Dodgers pinch-runner Chris Taylor, standing on third base: I had a really good feeling. Freddie looked really good in our break before the World Series. He was much better physically. And his swing, he looked back to his normal self.

Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy: With Freddie, you never expect the home run. You expect a double in the gap somewhere.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith: I was just expecting a backside (opposite-field) base hit. I’ve seen him do it hundreds of times.

Fred Freeman: This is so bad to say, but my whole thing was, “Please don’t strike out. Hit the ball somewhere.”

The moment

Cortes threw Freeman a 92-mph fastball, down and in, nearly off the plate.

Rizzo: You’d think Freddie would see a pitch because Ohtani swung at the first pitch.

Wells: I was somewhat surprised that he did get that swing off on the first pitch like that.

Cortes: It was in enough, but low. And he’s known for going the opposite way. His game is left-center field. So for him to turn (on) that pitch, I give him all the credit.

Freeman: I went against the grain of who I am. In that situation, I always try and hit the ball to left-center. I looked in and stayed on the heater because if I looked in, I could (lay) off the cutter and slider away. Luckily, he threw it right where I was looking.

Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman: I was on second base, so I was the winning run, I was just thinking, “Find a way to score after Freddie hits the single.” It comes off the bat, I immediately start to get the break, and then a split second after he hit it, I was like, “OK, I don’t need to run very hard. That’s clearly a home run.”

Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle, who had already pitched: I was in the training room, watching the game with a few of the guys. Before we even saw him throw a pitch on TV, we heard the noise. We already knew what was coming. (The average delay in the broadcast is seven seconds.) I didn’t even watch it. I just got up and walked to my locker.

Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough: When it left his bat, I knew right away it was a homer. You know the trajectory, the sound. I kind of blacked out.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow: Nobody really knew what to do. Everyone just kind of lost conscious thought. I remember looking at (Michael) Kopech and everyone was like, “What do we do?”

Fred Freeman: I couldn’t believe it happened. I was sitting next to (film and TV producer) Burt Sugarman and (TV personality) Mary Hart. He pounds me on the back and said, “I knew he could do it,” something like that. And then Alma came over and jumped into my arms. (Alma Freeman is Fred’s wife and Freddie’s stepmother; Freddie’s mother, Rosemary, died of melanoma when he was 10.)

Freddie Freeman, normally stoic, held his bat high as he walked up the first-base line, doing his own version of a mic drop, flexing between second and third. The moment was cathartic, in more ways than one.

In late July, the youngest of Freeman’s three sons, Max, 3, had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition in which the body’s immune system attacks its nerves. Max went into temporary paralysis. He was placed on a ventilator. By the start of the Series, he was on his way to full recovery.

Freeman: I’m not one to do anything after home runs. But it was almost like a culmination of the last three months the Freeman family went through. All the grind, the heartache, everything just came out. My wife was there and my kids were there. My dad was sitting in the front row. I don’t know what came over me. I just knew he was there and I just ran over. Everyone asks me what’d you say to him. I said nothing. I just screamed in his face.

Fred Freeman: He just yelled. He didn’t say a word. He just yelled and I kind of yelled back. And then he kind of tried to headbutt me.

Freeman: It was about an hour conversation in about two seconds of screams.

The aftermath

Rizzo: He hits that home run and you’re just like, ‘Oh, God.’

Holmes: It was a huge shock. For a good minute, there was just silence.

Wells: I don’t even remember the crowd. I don’t remember the noise. I was just numb.

Kahnle: It was definitely not a great 10 minutes after the game. Good thing we had the older guys on the team. Rizzo was a big one, really good at keeping us moving forward, looking ahead, not dwelling on what just happened.

Rizzo: It wasn’t like a called meeting. It was just a couple of words. “We’re good. It was a great game. Hope everyone enjoyed the moment. It was pretty cool what we just got to experience.” It’s a gut-wrenching loss, especially having a lead. But we had lost gut-wrenchers throughout the year. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before. And usually we responded pretty well.

But the Series was never the same.

The Dodgers won Game 2, 4-2, with Freeman hitting one of three homers off Carlos Rodón and Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowing only one run in 6 1/3 innings. They also won Game 3, 4-2, with Freeman hitting another homer and Walker Buehler pitching five scoreless innings. The Yankees overcame yet another Freeman homer for an 11-4 victory in Game 4, but then came their infamous Game 5, when they melted down in the fifth inning and lost a 5-0 lead, falling, 7-6.

The question lingers: If not for Freeman’s walk-off grand slam, might things have turned out differently?

Wells: It changed the whole World Series. As simple as that.

Cortes: We win Game 1 — which we should have — we lost 2 and 3, we win Game 4 and we should have won Game 5. Then we go back to L.A., up 3 to 2.

Rizzo: You can’t let one loss destroy all of your morale. Because it could have, obviously. And obviously, we lost (the Series), so it’s easy to say that it did. I think showing up the next day, we had a chance to win Game 2.

Freeman: I would like to say we’d still win the series because we had a really good team and we were playing really good baseball. But you don’t know.

Smith: It would have been a lot harder to win.

Roberts: If we lose Game 1, I think the series goes seven games. As we all know, Game 7 is a flip of a coin.

The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty, Tyler Kepner, Will Sammon, Cody Stavenhagen and Chris Kirschner contributed to this story.

(Top photo of Freeman in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series: Keith Birmingham / MediaNews Group / Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)