After their 1981 matchup, the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers reignited their rivalry on baseball’s biggest stage, the MLB World Series.
In their previous Fall Classic matchup, the blue crew was down 2-0 to the Yankees, but when coming back home to LA, it was Fernando Valenzuela who threw a staggering 147 pitches in game three.
This propelled the Dodgers to pull off four straight wins, ultimately clinching the title at Yankee Stadium.
New York wanted to erase the ghosts from 43 years ago after blowing a favorable 2-0 series lead.
The Dodgers aspired to honor the legacy of the recently deceased legend, Valenzuela.
Game one was a battle that lived up to the hype. While it was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation, extra innings were needed. New York scored one run at the top of the tenth inning, which the Dodgers matched.
With only one out to work with, Freddie Freeman came up to the plate with bases loaded, and on his first swing, Freeman hit a grand slam claiming the first series win for Dodgers.
The Yankees’ response to the loss showed that they were prone to falling into a slump.
In total, New York only put up four hits in game two. Half of those came from Juan Soto, who is a free agent this offseason. The top of the batting lineup struggled, and the major story for the Yankees when taking the series back to the Bronx was if captain Aaron Judge would be able to escape his playoff funk and get a hit.
The Dodgers knew that a crowd who hasn’t hosted a Fall Classic since 2009 would come in hot, so they wasted no time in putting up runs. Freeman hit a two-run homer to give LA a 2-0 lead early.
Despite Yankee legend Derek Jeter throwing the first pitch, the Bronx bombers again failed to show up at the plate, posting four total hits which turned into only two runs.
Photo courtesy of FMT.
LA was now up 3-0 in the series, and if New York wanted to keep their championship hopes alive, they would have to become the second team in MLB history to come back from such a deficit. The last time a team came back from being down 3-0, was the Boston Red Sox in 2004 against the New York Yankees.
The Yankees weren’t thinking too far ahead, as after game three, manager Aaron Boone said, “We’re trying to get a game tomorrow, OK?” Well, they did. The batting lineup came to life for the first time in the series, as the Yanks put up nine hits and eleven runs. The Dodgers, in a rare showing, couldn’t keep up, even if Freeman hit yet another homerun.
Now with the series at 3-1, the pinstripes had one more game to play at home to try and force the series back to LA, and their effort to stay alive couldn’t have started any better. Judge responded to his critiques with a two-run homer in the first inning, which was added on to by Jazz Chisholm Jr, who was acquired via trade midseason.
In the blink of an eye the Yankees extended their three-run lead to five. Up until the fifth inning, Yankee Stadium felt confident that there would be a game six.
It all started when Judge dropped a routine fly ball. Despite the mistake, the Yankees still forced 2 outs and no runs, but the bases were loaded when six-time silver slugger Mookie Betts came to the plate.
Betts brought one runner home. Later, Freeman came to knock two more runs in. Both men would get to home plate themselves off a hit from two-time all-star Teoscar Hernandez.
Even though the Yankees took a one run lead, the Dodgers would clinch the game, and the title with two sacrifice flies, becoming the first team to comeback from a five or more-point deficit in World Series history.
Celebrating in the same stadium as they did in 1981, the blue crew beautifully remembered the life of Valenzuela, by replicating his triumph.
Sebastian Perez-Navarro is a staff reporter for The Prospector and can be reached at [email protected]
