The Los Angeles Dodgers erased a five-run deficit in the fifth inning and rallied past the New York Yankees in the eighth inning in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, October 30.
As a result, the Dodgers defeated the Yankees 7-6 to capture the franchise's eighth MLB title ― their second under manager Dave Roberts, who was born in Okinawa.
And it's their first World Series crown with Japanese superstars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the team. They signed 10- and 12-year blockbuster contracts in the offseason.
The Dodgers overcame two deficits at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday and put themselves in position to win the game if their bullpen didn't blow the lead.
With the Yankees down to their final three outs and the Dodgers clinging to a one-run lead, longtime skipper Roberts, who has guided the team since 2016, summoned Walker Buehler from the bullpen.
The hard-throwing right-hander was the Game 3 starter (five innings of two-hit, no-run ball) and hadn't made a relief appearance since 2018. He embraced the challenge with the game ― and the team's championship aspirations ― on the line.
Buehler was LA's eighth pitcher of the night.
Preserving the Lead in the 9th
As the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the ninth, shortstop Anthony Volpe, who bashed a grand slam in New York's Game 4 win, stepped into the batter's box representing the tying run in this high-pressure duel.
Buehler won the battle, coaxing Volpe to hit a groundout to third. Max Muncy fielded the ball and fired it to first baseman Freddie Freeman.
The next two Yankees batters, Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo, both struck out on knuckle curves.
Wells ran the count to 3-2 before he fanned.
Verdugo got ahead in the count (1-0) before Buehler, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, seized control. The left fielder swung and missed on three straight pitches: a cut fastball and back–to-back deceptive breaking balls. Buehler got the save, the Dodgers nabbed the title, and he raised both arms in triumphant celebration after the third out.
Then Buehler hugged catcher Will Smith. Dodgers teammates raced out of the dugout to join the title-winning celebration on the field.
Moments later, Roberts while speaking on ESPN Radio, described the scene as "pure elation."
"That was awesome, that was as cool a baseball experience as I'll ever have probably," Buehler said in a postgame interview on ESPN Radio. "I'm just thankful, man. That was an unbelievable game."
World Series Euphoria for Ohtani and Teammates
Speaking to reporters after Game 5, an emotional rollercoaster for both teams, Ohtani summed up his views on the experience.
"I'm honored to be able to be part of a season where we played the longest, and to be able to get to know this team," Ohtani said in the postgame news conference. "My first year and experience winning a World Series has been a tremendous honor."
Reflecting on the entire season, including his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara's gambling scandal in the spring, Ohtani added, "We were able to get through the regular season, I think, because of the strength of this team, this organization. And the success of the postseason is very similar to how we were able to pull it off during the regular season."
Ohtani played the final three games of the Fall Classic after sustaining a partial dislocation of his left shoulder (subluxation) in Game 2 on an unsuccessful stolen base attempt in the seventh inning.
"His swing is still fluid even though he's not on time," ESPN Radio analyst Eduardo Perez said during the game.
Batting leadoff, Ohtani went 0-for-4, including a strikeout, on Wednesday. Ohtani finished the World Series with a .105 batting average (2-for-19).
For Ohtani, a look of pure joy appeared on his face after the Dodgers clinched the title. Moments earlier he was clapping in the dugout as Buehler pitched against Verdugo and the Yankees were down to their final out.
Big Start for the Yankees
Facing Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty, the Yankees quickly took a 3-0 lead in the first inning with back-to-back homers by Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Judge led MLB with 58 home runs in 2024, four more than National League leader Ohtani. On the first pitch of his first at-bat in Game 5, his round-tripper to right, a two-run shot that scored Juan Soto for the first run of the game, was his first homer of the World Series.
Chisholm then sent a 2-1 fastball over the right-center field fence to make it 3-0.
Verdugo extended the lead to 4-0 on an RBI single in the second inning.
Flaherty, a 13-game winner in the regular season, was taken out of the game with one out in the second. He allowed four runs and four hits in his 1⅓ innings.
In the third inning, the Yankees pulled ahead 5-0 on a Giancarlo Stanton solo shot to right. It was his seventh homer of this postseason.
Yankees Squander Their Big Lead
For the Yankees, mental and fielding miscues proved costly in final game of the World Series.
In the fifth, Kike Hernandez initiated a game-changing rally with a leadoff single to right-center off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. It was LA's first hit of the game.
Tommy Edman followed and smashed a liner to center. Six-time All-Star Judge was in position to make the catch for the first out, but the ball squirted out of his glove.
"He just took his eyes off it," ESPN Radio analyst Jessica Mendoza said of Judge shortly after the play on the network's game broadcast.
Thus, a rally was brewing.
And Smith kept it going.
With runners at first and second, Smith hit a grounder to shortstop Volpe, who made a poor throw to third baseman Chisholm. Volpe was charged with a throwing error on the attempted force play at third.
And now the bases were loaded with nobody out.
Cole fanned Gavin Lux and Ohtani.
Up next: Betts.
The dynamic veteran slapped a grounder to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who fielded the ball beyond the bag but held on to it. Rizzo anticipated that Cole would cover the bag and intended to make a throw to him. But Cole didn't run to first to make the routine play.
That enabled Hernandez to score.
A big mental breakdown by the Yankees following the two earlier errors prolonged the fifth.
Freeman followed with a two-run single to center, cutting the lead to 5-3.
A Game-Tying Hit for the Dodgers
Cleanup hitter Teoscar Hernandez followed with a two-run double that bounced off the wall in center. And now it was a tie game.
Cole escaped further damage by walking Max Muncy and then getting Kike Hernandez to groundout to end the top of the fifth.
"I think our lineup did a really good job battling and seeing pitches during that big five-run inning," Ohtani told reporters. "Although we were assisted by some errors on the other side, we really did a good job and [were] able to capitalize on those."
The Yankees, of course, had a different perspective.
"You feel pretty confident with your ace up there and a five-run lead, but you know, that's baseball, man," Verdugo said, according to The Associated Press, after the game. "They played the better baseball in this World Series."
Boone Shares Perspective on Team's Struggles in the 5th
On defense, the Yankees failed to make important plays in the fifth inning.
After their Game 5 loss, Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who has led the team since 2018, spoke about those miscues.
"Yeah, just we didn't take care of the ball well enough in that inning," Boone told reporters. "Against a great team like that, they took advantage. It looked like just kind of that sinking liner that just Judgey missed.
"The play to Volpe, the right move obviously going to third, a little bit of a short hop over there to third, didn't complete the play.
"And then Mookie hits a squibber so Rizz couldn't really run through it. He kind of had to stay there and make sure he secured the catch because of the spin on the ball. And I think Gerrit just ― all that he went through in that inning, kind of spent and kind of almost working his way out of it, just didn't react quick enough to get over."
Yankees Pull Ahead in the 6th, Dodgers Respond in the 8th
With two outs in the sixth, Stanton hit a sacrifice fly to center off Brusdar Graterol (the sixth of eight Dodgers pitches in Game 5). Soto scored on the play to give New York a 6-5 lead.
Yankees starter Cole left the game after 6⅔ innings. He allowed five runs (all unearned) and four hits, walked four and struck out six.
In the eighth, batting against reliever Tommy Kahnle, New York's third pitcher of the night, Kike Hernandez and Tommy Edman hit back-to-back singles and Smith walked to load the bases.
Boone made a pitching change, bringing in closer Luke Weaver to face No 9 hitter Lux, who hit a sac fly to center. That made it 6-6.
Ohtani followed and reached base on catcher's interference.
What happened? Home-plate umpire Mark Ripperger ruled Wells' glove touched Ohtani's bat on the only pitch of the at-bat, which was hit foul.
And with the bases loaded, Betts stepped into the batter's box. He connected with Weaver's first pitch and hit a go-ahead sac fly to center, scoring Edman on the play. Dodgers 7, Yankees 6.
Freeman struck out to end the rally.
Dodgers' Freeman Wins the World Series MVP Award
Freeman had four homers and a record-tying 12 RBIs in the 2024 World Series. He matched ex-Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson's mark of 12 RBIs from the 1960 Fall Classic.
The Dodgers star hit homers in each of the first four games of the series and set a World Series record with six consecutive games with homers, dating back to 2021 when he played for the Atlanta Braves.
Freeman hit .300 against the Yankees and was named World Series MVP.
"That means there [were] a lot of my teammates on base," Freeman told reporters, speaking of his run-producing prowess in the series after being presented the Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award. "I'm glad I was able to get hot at the right time."
World Series Notes
Former Yankees star Hideki Matsui, the MVP of the 2009 World Series, threw the ceremonial first pitch before Game 5.
Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter had the same honor before Game 3 on Monday night.
Paul O'Neill, who won four World Series rings with the Yankees, tossed the ceremonial first pitch before the fourth game.
A Manager's Perspective on Ohtani
After the Dodgers received their championship trophy amidst a flurry of questions from the media, Roberts spoke about the significance, in his mind, of Ohtani becoming a World Series champion. In short, it's a big deal, he declared.
"I'm thrilled," Roberts said. "Six years in the [United] States [with the Los Angeles Angels], arguably the best player in the big leagues. So he committed to us, and he wanted to play for a championship. For it to kind of come to fruition in his first year is pretty remarkable."
Added Roberts, "What Shohei's done to our ball club, the Dodger fan base domestically, globally, I just don't think you can quantify. And he's just such a good guy. He was playing with one arm in the postseason. So most guys would probably tap out, but he was going to not be denied at playing and posting and being in the lineup.
"So for him to hoist that World Series trophy, that's something he dreamed of, I'm sure, for quite some time."
The Agony of Defeat
Boone knows as well as anyone that the 27-time champion Yankees are expected to contend for World Series titles every year. Winning the title is the only goal.
That said, in the postgame news conference he discussed the crushing defeat that ended their season.
"I mean, I'm heartbroken," Boone confessed. "It doesn't take away my pride of what that room means to me and what that group forged this year and what we've been through to get here.
"But I'm heartbroken. I'm heartbroken, and I'm heartbroken for those guys that poured so much into this. The ending is cruel. It always is."
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Author: Ed Odeven
Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.
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