Brad Penner-Imagn Images/USA TODAY Sports/imago
Shohei Ohtani (r.) has good reasons to celebrate (New York, October 31, 2024)
The Dodgers were US baseball champions for the first time in 1955, when they were still based in the New York borough of Brooklyn. They last won in 2020, in the season that was shortened to 60 games due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Blue Wrecking Crew won their last title in a full 162-game season in 1988. Now the team from Los Angeles won the World Series for the eighth time in New York on Wednesday evening.
In game five of the series, everything initially went according to plan for the Yankees. In the first inning, Aaron Judge hit a home run with Juan Soto at first base for a 2-0 lead. Left-hander Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was signed shortly before the vTrade deadline at the end of July, followed up in the next at bat against Dodgers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty. He also hit a home run and made it 3-0 for the Bronx Bombers. In the second inning, shortstop Anthony Volpe got to second base with a double. Outfielder Alex Verdugo hit Volpe with a base hit to make it 4-0 to home plate. In the third inning, Giancarlo Stanton turned the score to 5-0 for the Yankees with a home run.
The Dodgers didn’t get a first hit until the fifth inning against Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole. They then got a few nice hits, which led to the score being 5-5 due to the Yankees’ sloppy defensive play. Mookie Betts scored a run with a single and Freddie Freeman scored two runs with a single. Teoscar Hernández then scored two runs with a double. Cole had to leave the game after a good five and a half innings in which he allowed four hits, four walks and had six strikeouts. Because of the defensive errors, he wasn’t charged with any of the Dodgers’ five runs, which is certainly little consolation for the exceptional pitcher.
But the Yankees didn’t give up and struck back immediately. After a deep fly ball from Giancarlo Stanton into center field, Juan Soto was able to score for a 6:5 lead. The Dodgers’ Gavin Lux matched Stanton with a deep fly ball in the eighth inning, allowing Enrique Hernández to make it 6-6, before Betts hit a fly ball to center field to give Tommy Edman enough time to travel from third base to home plate : 7:6, the final score.
Walker Buehler, who had thrown five innings in game three (two hits, two walks, no runs and five strikeouts), then turned out the lights as the closing pitcher with one baseout and two strikeouts at Yankee Stadium, helping the Dodgers win the game World Series. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) was – who else? – Freddie Freeman excellent. Freeman provided the first exclamation point in the final series in game one on Friday and hit the first grand slam home run in a World Series.
The Dodgers left their first match point on Tuesday with an 11-4 defeat at Yankee Stadium. It was the only game of the series that the Yankees won.
While the Dodgers players celebrated their victory civilly in New York, the celebrations in Los Angeles got slightly out of control. After fireworks were initially lit, the police reported a “hostile crowd” that was said to have set a bus on fire. People also gathered at Dodger Stadium. Projectiles and fireworks were shot and thrown at the emergency services at a street intersection when they wanted to break up a meeting. The police later reported looting in the city center.
