Freddie Freeman makes history with walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series

The swing was honed on the sandy plains of suburban Orange County, the result of years of daily batting practice between a son and his father.

Almost every afternoon of his childhood in Southern California, Freddie Freeman was picked up from school by his father, Fred, brought a bucket containing exactly 48 baseballs to a field near their home, and then spent an hour taking balls that Fred passed to him turned towards. .

So was Freeman’s swing first made as a young player – a routine that served as the genesis of an unforgettable October story decades later on Friday evening.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning, and the Dodgers one out away from losing to the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series, Freeman etched his name in postseason history, turning an instant fall classic into a raucous storybook -end got. .

On which was the first walk-off grand slam once in a World Series game, Freeman took the Dodgers to a 6-3 Game 1 wins.

And after being mobbed by his teammates and serenaded by more than 50,000 fans, Freeman immediately looked for his father in the crowd.

“My swing is because of him. My approach is thanks to him. I am who I am because of him,” Freeman said of Fred, whom he greeted with a two-handed high five during an exchange behind the home plate net.

“You couldn’t have written it any better,” Fred added, still standing in his field-level seats as pandemonium ensued around him. “For this year, the way it happened is unbelievable… It’s just amazing.”

Indeed, this would not be Freeman’s October. Not after a season of off-field setbacks, including his three-year-old son Max’s battle with a terrifying case of diabetes Guillain-Barré syndrome in August, which left him briefly paralyzed. And not long after, Freeman sprained his ankle during the final week of the regular season.

Although the veteran first baseman was able to play through most of the playoffs through the injury, he would have required hours of pregame treatment — and, as a result, very little time in the batting cage to fine-tune his hampered swing.

“He’s doing something that’s actually heroic, to put himself in a position to even be available, let alone in the starting lineup,” said teammate Kiké Hernández. “Freddie is a grinder. There aren’t many superstars who grind like Freddie.

In recent days, however, Freeman finally experienced some smoother sailing.

The off week leading up to the World Series allowed his ankle to improve significantly, with Freeman recording his lowest level of swelling since he was initially injured.

Meanwhile, the slugger found a new mental cue that synchronized his swing mechanics, telling himself to “step out” with his injured lead foot with each hack to relieve pressure on the most sensitive part of his injury.

“He said to me yesterday, ‘Dad, I think I’m going to hit well,’” Fred recalled.

“And,” Fred added with a laugh of disbelief, “he did.”

Freeman was one of the few to hit Yankees starter Gerrit Cole early Friday, with his triple in the first inning serving as the Dodgers’ only hit until the bottom of the fifth inning.

That’s when Hernández found the right field corner with a line drive that got past an overly aggressive route by outfielder Juan Soto. He later scored an at-bat and headed home on a sacrifice fly by Will Smith.

As that run opened the scoring, the lead quickly changed hands.

In the top of the sixth, Giancarlo Stanton hit a low slider off Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty, blasting a two-run home run around the foul pole in left field.

The Dodgers tied the score in the eighth inning, with the help of a sloppier Yankees defense. With one out, Shohei Ohtani doubled off the wall to right, then took third when the cut-off throw got away from second baseman Gleyber Torres. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts in the next at bat.

Read more:Plaschke: In a year that was so unlikely, Freddie Freeman becomes Kirk Gibson

The score would remain 2-2 until the 10th inning, when Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a one-out single off Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen, stole second and third base on Treinen’s slow throw and then scored on a ground ball by teammate Anthony Volpe. .

That left it up to the Dodgers to answer.

With two on and two outs in the 10th, the Yankees decided to intentionally walk Betts with first base open, favoring Cortes – a left-hander making his first postseason appearance after playing the first two had missed rounds with an injury – facing Freeman in a left-on-left matchup.

“I was almost hoping Mookie would get the hit,” Fred joked, wracked with nerves as Freeman came to the plate.

Instead, Freeman expected a fastball on the first pitch. He took out the vessel for an offering on the inner half. He then raised his bat into the air as the ball disappeared into the right-field pavilion; not far from where Kirk Gibsonwho played through his own leg injuries 36 years earlier, landed his iconic Game 1 walk-off explosion during the 1988 World Series.

“Everything was the same,” noted manager Dave Roberts. “Beyond the fist pumps.”

Freeman’s celebration wasn’t much more subdued. He met first base coach Clayton McCullough with a low high five. He flexed his arms as he walked around the second one. And by the time he reached the home stretch — feeling like he was “just floating around the bases” — his teammates were waiting with open arms and frenzied excitement, swallowing him up in a dogpile on the plate.

“Knowing what Freddie went through this year is super special,” Betts said. “I’m glad it was Freddie who did it.”

When Freeman broke away from his teammates, he immediately ran to his father behind the plate.

They high-fived through the mesh and clasped hands. Then they screamed wildly, almost hitting faces. No words were needed to express their shared elation.

“I just wanted to share that with him because he was there (for me),” said Freeman, whose batting practice with his father only took shape after his mother, Rosemary, died of cancer when he was 10.

“He’s been through a lot in his life, too,” Freeman added. “And to experience a moment like that, I wanted to be part of it with him.”

Although Freeman said he would imagine hitting home runs in the World Series during backyard games with his two older brothers, such an imagination rarely accompanied his daily blood pressure with Fred.

Those sessions were for serious work, for focused reps, for the kind of consistency Freeman built his fifteen-year MLB career on.

Read more:How Freddie Freeman and his father developed one of the best baseball swings

“We never did that,” says Fred. “It was always a hit on the next line drive. Go to the next line drive. We had never visualized something like this. It was always about what we had to do.

That’s why, when Freeman stepped into the box in the 10th inning, he wasn’t thinking about hitting a grand slam. He wasn’t trying to end the match with a historic, historic explosion.

Instead, he crouched in his batting position, held his bat behind his head and executed the same swing that he and his father had honed in his youth, and which he continues to refine to this day.

“All the batting practice, all the brutal hours we spent together on a baseball field, we still do together in the offseason,” Freeman said. “If he didn’t give me batting practice, if he didn’t love the game of baseball, I wouldn’t be here playing this game. So that’s Fred Freeman’s moment right there.”

One that is destined to live forever – after decades of preparation.

Read more:Complete coverage: Dodgers vs. New York Yankees in World Series

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.