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As of this writing, the Los Angeles Dodgers hold a 3-0 lead over the New York Yankees in the 2024 Major League Baseball World Series. A breakdown of this series shows the Dodgers’ comeback ability and the Yankees’ failure to hit with runners on base.
Game one was a 10-inning event that produced a first in World Series history — a game-winning, walk-off grand slam home run to decide the affair.
The Dodgers opened the game with a heartwarming dedication to the memory of Fernando Valenzuela, who died just days before the start of the series. Valenzuela’s legend came into being in 1981, when he burst on the Major League Baseball scene by winning his first eight starts as a rookie, creating what is now known as “Fernando-Mania.” The young screwball-throwing left-handed pitcher from Etchohuaquila, Mexico, was named a surprise opening-day starter for the Dodgers due to injuries in their starting rotation. His mound presence dazzled the baseball world, highlighted by his famous look to the sky before delivering his signature pitch, the screwball that baffled hitters.
Dodger pitcher Walker Buehler threw 5 shutout innings in game 3. PHOTO: LOS ANGELES DODGERS/MLB
Many baseball experts offered the opinion that Valenzuela’s “screwgie,” baseball’s nickname for the screwball, was comparable to that of the great Carl Hubbell, who played for N.Y. Giants from 1928-1943 and was one of the all-time pitching greats ever to possess mastery of the pitch. There were skeptics of the pitch due to its stress on the elbow joint. Many felt that it would shorten Valenzuela’s career. Fernando kept defying the odds and throwing his signature pitch.
Following a work stoppage by Major League Players, Valenzuela helped to lead his Dodgers team to the World Series against the New York Yankees. The Yankees took a two-game to-none lead before Valenzuela threw one of the all-time greatest games in series history. His epic 147-pitch performance in the Dodger’s 5-4 victory in game three in Los Angeles turned the series back in the Dodger’s favor. L.A. would win three straight games to take the best of 7 series, 4-2, cementing the legend of Fernando-Mania.
Valenzuela was one of the dominant pitchers of the 1980s, winning 134 games, making six National League All-Star teams, and two World Series titles, 1981 and 88, as a Dodger. His impact on the Mexican and Hispanic communities, both on and off the field, was so impressive that the team retired his number 34 in 2023. It was a fitting tribute that his number was stenciled on the mound for the first two series games in Dodger Stadium. The team will also wear a number 34 patch with his first name on it throughout this World Series to honor his memory.
Yankee reliever Nestor Cortes gave up the wining runs in game 1. PHOTO: NEW YORK YANKEES/MLB
That was the backdrop leading up to game one of this series. The drama of the game reached its climatic conclusion with Freddie Freeman’s titanic bases-loaded, two-out, walk-off grand slam home run, the first in the history of World Series play.
The first baseman’s slam pushed the Dodgers to a 6-3 triumph. The Dodgers, with home runs from Tommy Edman, back-to-back home runs by Teoscar Hernandez, a two-run blast, and Freeman, rode the one-hit pitching of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched 6.1 innings and held on for a 4-2 triumph in game two.
The down note for the Dodgers came when Shohei Ohtani suffered a shoulder injury on an attempted steal. He was in the Dodgers’ lineup for game three in Yankee Stadium. He drew a walk in the first inning and came home to score on a home run by Freddie Freeman, which gave Los Angeles a quick 2-0 advantage. Freeman’s home run was his fifth in five straight World Series games, tying the all-time series record set by George Springer.
Dodger starter Walker Buehler, who had five innings of shutout pitching and a 0.50 ERA in three World Series starts, and the overall superior work of the L.A. bullpen kept the Yankees scoreless until a two-run homer by Alex Verdugo, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, finally got the Yankees on the scoreboard. But it was too little too late as the Dodgers moved within a victory of the eighth World Series title in franchise history.
If the Dodgers win this World Series, there will be an eternal discussion on the managing strategy of N.Y. Yankees skipper Aaron Boone in game one. With his team leading 3-2 in the tenth inning, he chose to pitch left-hander Nestor Cortez against Dodger sluggers Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, with Dodger runners on first and second base, instead of left-handed relief specialist Tim Hill. Cortez had not pitched in 38 days while recovering from an injury.
Boone’s strategy looked good when Cortez got Ohtani to foul out to Alex Verdugo, who made a running catch before falling into the stands in short left field. Verdugo threw the baseball back into the field of play, from the stands, allowing the two Dodgers’ base runners to advance to second and third base.
Mookie Betts was intentionally walked to load the bases for Freeman, who launched Cortez’s first pitch into the right field stands, sending the sellout Dodgers crowd into complete hysteria. Cortez had gotten Ohtani out on one pitch and gave up Freeman’s historic blast on his second official pitch — two pitches that will go down in baseball history — the second bringing to mind Kirk Gibson’s history-making game-winning home run off of Oakland A’s relief specialist Dennis Eckersley that sparked the 1988 Dodgers to a five-game World Series title over the heavily-favored A’s.
The Dodgers are in the hero’s role following the first three games of this World Series.
