If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Freddie Freeman is becoming quite the impressionist.
Last year, just 367 days before Monday night’s game, Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in the history of the World Series. As FOX (and day-to-day Dodgers) announcer Joe Davis made the call: “Gibby, meet Freddie.” For the uninitiated, Davis was referring to Kirk Gibson’s memorable home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against the (then) Oakland Athletics.
As noted, both homers were walk-offs, with each giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the World Series. Gibson hit his into the right field bleachers of Dodger Stadium at 8:38pm and Freeman hit his into the right field bleachers of Dodger Stadium at 8:39pm. Both players were dealing with lower-body injuries that severely impaired their ability to be their best. The moments were so eerily similar that Davis matched Vin Scully’s famous “She is…gone” call.
Seven years and a day prior to Monday night’s game, Max Muncy ended the longest World Series game in history, when, as the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 18th inning, he crushed a 3-2 pitch over the center field wall to give the Dodgers a Game 3 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Last night, Freeman ended the second longest World Series game in history, when, as the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 18th inning, he crushed a 3-2 pitch over the center field wall to give the Dodgers a Game 3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Freeman even copied himself, raising his right hand in the air as he rounded the bases denoting the significance of his accomplishment.
When Muncy hit his homer against Boston in 2018, he gave the Dodgers their first and only win of that World Series, which the Red Sox won in five. Freeman’s home run last night gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead, and allows them to maintain home-field advantage after splitting the first two games of the series in Toronto.
Last night’s 18-inning marathon had everything fans could ever want in a ballgame. Jayson Stark laid out all of the “Weird & Wild” facts about the game, including that 37 runners were left on base and six others were thrown out on the bases. Among those, Freeman getting nabbed at the plate; Davis Schneider, in the game as a pinch-runner, getting nabbed at the plate; Teoscar Hernández getting thrown out at third base on a brilliant play by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.; Isiah Kiner-Falefa, in the game as a pinch-runner, getting thrown out at third base on a brilliant play by Tommy Edman.
Add to those Bo Bichette getting picked off first base when he thought the batter took ball four but actually took strike two. Tim Kurkjian, who claims that each time he watches a game he sees something he has never seen before, confirmed to me that he had never seen that (and he was visibly upset at the poor baserunning). Shohei Ohtani got caught stealing in the bottom of the ninth when his momentum pulled him off the bag.
Ohtani was on base in the ninth after receiving the first of four consecutive intentional walks (a record) followed by an unintentional intentional walk in the 17th inning. Despite the obvious reasons why a team would intentionally walk Ohtani with the game on the line, by the time he came to the plate in the ninth inning, he had already set a World Series record with 12 total bases, having hit two doubles and two home runs (the second of which tied the game at five, and was the last run scored for more than ten innings and many hours). In all, Ohtani reached base nine times, setting a post-season record, and tying a regular-season record last matched by Stan Hack in 1942.
All of the best baseball writers have taken a crack at what was arguably the greatest World Series game ever played.
In all of those stories, in all of that reporting, you still cannot perfectly describe the anxiety and elation of the Dodger fans on a cool and damp night at Chavez Ravine. When I saw Muncy walk off the Red Sox in the 18th inning in 2018, I didn’t think I would ever see anything like that again. Just seven years later, I saw it again, but better, with even more energy and more unease. Getting to the World Series is hard; winning a game in the World Series is hard; winning when you have expended your entire bullpen and you need a hero to come through after he did the incredible just a year ago, seems impossible. And yet, on Monday night in Los Angeles, thanks to Will Klein and Shohei Ohtani and, most specifically, Freddie Freeman, what seemed improbable, became possible.