Ice Cube revs up fans and Yoshinobu Yamamoto strikes out Aaron Judge
⚾ Yankees 0, Dodgers 0 — First inning
Top of the first inning: Facing Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, New York’s Gleyber Torres drew a walk. Juan Soto grounded out to short and Aaron Judge struck out. Giancarlo Stanton popped out to Freddie Freeman at first base.
And recording artist Ice Cub got the fans (and players) ready for Game 2 before first pitch:
Dodgers’ Tommy Edman builds on NLCS MVP performance by doing the little things
Fresh off his MVP-winning performance against the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series, Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman opened the World Series against the New York Yankees on Friday night with a … clank!
The first ball hit to him in Game 1 in Dodger Stadium, a 93.5-mph grounder off the bat of slugger Giancarlo Stanton, went off Edman’s glove for an error, allowing the Yankees to put two on with two outs in the first inning.
The rare miscue from the sure-handed utility man did not cost the Dodgers, as the next batter, Jazz Chisholm Jr., grounded out to end the inning, and Edman’s evening got progressively better from there.
Shaikin: Joe Davis reveals the influence Vin Scully had on his Freddie Freeman World Series call
Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam for the Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees.
Joe Davis awoke Saturday morning, still fretting.
He is a perfectionist. He had provided a pretty perfect call of a pretty perfect moment the night before. In six words, he had delivered a magical homage to the best broadcaster in baseball history and the most dramatic moment in Dodgers history.
Were they just the right words? At just the right time?
He second-guessed himself long enough for his wife to tell him to knock it off.
“People really liked it, right?” his wife Libby said. “Would you stop?”
Dodgers-Yankees Game 1 was most-watched World Series game since 2019
The Dodgers’ dramatic 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night — which ended on Freddie Freeman’s walk off grand slam in the 10th inning — averaged 15.2 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes, Univision and streaming, making it the most watched Fall Classic game in five years.
It was only the fourth time in 36 World Series games since 2018 that the audience has cracked 15 million. The last one before Friday was the seventh and deciding game in the 2019 series, when Washington’s 6-2 victory over Houston for its first championship averaged 23 million.
According to Nielsen, the audience peaked at 17.8 million from the 10th inning until the game’s conclusion.
It was a 62% increase over last year’s first game between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rangers’ 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks in 11 innings averaged 9.35 million, and was the least-viewed Game 1 on record.
Friday’s game was the most-watched Game 1 since Los Angeles’ 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros in 2017 averaged 15.33 million. It also was the most-viewed Friday broadcast on Fox since Game 3 in 2017 (15.68 million).
The game had a 19.1 rating and 58 share in Los Angeles and 13.2 rating and 37 share in New York.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.
Shaikin: Blake Treinen finds ‘peace’ when facing Aaron Judge or any tough situation
Even the casual baseball fan knows all about Kirk Gibson and his legendary walk-off home run. The serious baseball fan knows Dennis Eckersley gave up the home run. The dedicated Dodgers fan knows Mike Davis drew the walk ahead of Gibson.
But even the most diehard among Dodgers fans would struggle to identify the winning pitcher that night.
Blake Treinen, meet Alejandro Pena.
Epic bat flip, but it wasn’t Freddie Freeman
Freddie Freeman’s grand slam in the 10th inning of Friday night’s 6-3 Game 1 victory over the Yankees was punctuated by a bat flip, but not by the man who hit the dramatic walk-off shot.
While Freeman celebrated the first walk-off slam in World Series history by pointing his bat toward the sky and releasing it like a mic drop before starting his trot, it was third baseman Max Muncy’s bat that went flying through the air.
“I was actually standing on the top step of the dugout, holding my bat, talking to [Roberts] about how there’s actually no way I can get up this inning, so I don’t know why I have my bat,” said Muncy, whose walk-off homer ended an 18-inning marathon in the 2018 World Series Game 3 win over the Boston Red Sox.
“I was gonna go on-deck in case there was a wild pitch and I needed to help the guy coming home … so I’m sitting there saying, ‘I don’t know why I’m holding my bat,’ and as soon as Freddie hit it, I just launched my bat. It was a fun moment for me.”
Evan Phillips disheartened that he might miss World Series
Evan Phillips feels like a mountaineer who reaches the final base camp on the way up Mount Everest but is unable to join the expedition for the assault on the summit.
The right-hander was one of the Dodgers’ top relievers this season, and he did not give up a run in 6 2/3 innings over five National League Division Series and Championship Series games, but a shoulder injury rendered him unfit for the World Series against the New York Yankees, and he was left off the roster.
“It’s really tough,” Phillips said. “I mean, this is a historic week in Dodgers history, and I want nothing more than to compete and be a part of this. … I’m very disheartened by how things have gone for me personally.”
Phillips threw 18 pitches in a scoreless sixth inning of a 10-5 NLCS-clinching Game 6 win over the New York Mets. Manager Dave Roberts planned to have Phillips pitch the seventh inning of the bullpen game, but when Phillips complained of arm fatigue, Roberts pivoted and sent Daniel Hudson out for the seventh.
An MRI test showed “nothing majorly concerning,” Phillips said, but it did reveal some nerve irritation in his shoulder. Phillips hoped to recover in time to pitch in the World Series, but because his injury dated to a previous round, the Dodgers would not be able to replace him on the World Series roster if he got hurt again.
“It’s just not bouncing back the way we need it to for me to be a usable pitcher for multiple games, and we don’t want to put other guys in the bullpen at risk if I were unable to go and unable to be replaced on the roster,” Phillips said. “That would really set us back as a group, and ultimately, that’s what the decision came down to.”
Phillips, one of the team’s top three leverage relievers along with Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech, said he is “progressing each day, hoping to make big strides in a short amount of time,” but to be added to the World Series roster, another pitcher has to get hurt.
“I have a lot of personal hurdles to climb before I get to that point,” Phillips said. “We’re still going day by day and trying to get to a point where I’m healthy enough to be an option. If that’s in the World Series, I’d be more than thrilled. But we have the big picture in mind, as well. It’s a very complex situation.”
Short hops
Roberts said right-hander Walker Buehler, who started Game 3 of the NLDS in San Diego and Game 3 of the NLCS in New York’s Citi Field, will start Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Monday night. “We love Walker in big games, and the road isn’t going to faze him,” Roberts said before Game 2. “It also allows him to be available for a potential Game 7, too.” … Roberts said Jack Flaherty’s right hamstring “tightened up a little bit” on the pitch before he gave up a home run to Giancarlo Stanton in the sixth inning of Game 1, which is why the right-hander was shaking his leg. “But I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal,” Roberts said.
Hernández: After a season of adversity, Freddie Freeman achieves a dream baseball moment
By the time Freddie Freeman walked into the interview room at Dodger Stadium on Friday night, he’d already been mobbed by his teammates at home plate, embraced everyone from reliever Blake Treinen to owner Mark Walter, run to the backstop to the share the moment with his father, had a five-gallon water cooler emptied on him in the middle of a nationally televised interview, received a bear hug from behind by Mookie Betts, dropped by his locker and walked down a hallway decorated with replicas of trophies and plaques won by the franchise’s greatest players.
Freeman still was jacked.
“I want to run through this table and tackle all of you guys,” he said with a laugh.
How could he possibly have come down after hitting one of the most dramatic home runs in baseball history?
Dodgers vs. Yankees starting lineups for Game 2 of World Series
Here are the starting lineups for Game 2 of the World Series between the Dodgers and New York Yankees. First pitch is scheduled for 5:08 p.m. PDT.
Plaschke: In a year that’s been so improbable, Freddie Freeman becomes Kirk Gibson
A one-legged hitter.
A walk-off World Series home run.
A Game 1 Dodgers victory swiped from a stunned opponent just one out from defeat.
Improbably, impossibly, did this really happen again?
Did Freddie Freeman just become Kirk Gibson, replaying the franchise’s greatest moment 36 years and endless heartbreaks later?
Dodgers fans talk about Fernando Valenzuela’s impact
Dodgers fans talk about what Fernando Valenzuela meant to them, their community and their families.
Freddie Freeman makes history with walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of World Series
The swing was honed on the sandlots of suburban Orange County, the product of years of daily batting practice between a son and his dad.
On almost every afternoon of his Southern California childhood, Freddie Freeman would get picked up from school by his father, Fred, bring a bucket of exactly 48 baseballs to a field near their house, then take an hour of hacks off balls Fred flipped to him.
It’s the way Freeman’s swing was first crafted as a young player — a routine that, decades later on Friday night, served as the genesis of unforgettable October history.
Dodgers vs. Yankees: How to watch and betting odds for Game 2
The Dodgers continue the postseason Saturday when they face the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. The game is scheduled to start at 5:08 p.m. PDT and will air on Fox and Fox Deportes. Radio broadcasts of the game will be on 570 AM and 1020 AM (Español) in the Los Angeles area.
Here’s the TV schedule for the remaining games in the best-of-seven series (all times Pacific):
- Game 3: Monday, 5:08 p.m. at New York | Fox, Fox Deportes
- Game 4: Tuesday, 5:08 p.m. at New York | Fox, Fox Deportes
- Game 5*: Wednesday, 5:08 p.m. at New York | Fox, Fox Deportes
- Game 6*: Friday, Nov. 1, 5:08 p.m. at Dodger Stadium | Fox, Fox Deportes
- Game 7*: Saturday, Nov. 2, 5:08 p.m. at Dodger Stadium | Fox, Fox Deportes
* — if necessary