The scene was set, the players were ready, and the fans were excited to see a historical, modern-day matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees in the 120th edition of the World Series. These two regular-season powerhouses had the best record of their respective leagues, with the Yankees topping the American League (AL) with a 94-68 (.580) record, and the Dodgers winning the National League (NL) with a 98-64 (.605) record. It’s no surprise that these teams were able to make it to the World Series, and they were ready to put on a show to light up their home cities.
The history between these two teams runs deep, especially in the Fall Classic: the Yankees and Dodgers had met 11 times prior, with the Yankees having the Dodgers’ numbers at an all-time series lead of 8-3. The last time they met was in 1981, where the Dodgers were able to beat the Yankees in six games (4-2). Major League Baseball (MLB) has a much different look now, and the hype around this 12th meeting between the Dodgers and Yankees (after a long stretch without Dodgers-Yankees World Series matchups) created electric stadium atmospheres and emotional moments for both fans and players.
From the first game, the 2024 World Series—which has a best-of-seven, winner-takes-all format—did not disappoint. Game 1 at Dodgers Stadium was a low scoring game that ended up going to extra innings at 2-2. Both the Yankees and Dodgers were pitching well, and their offenses were unable to blow up the game for either side. In the 10th inning, though, the stars aligned for eventual World Series MVP Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers: He hit the first ever World Series walk-off grand slam to spark the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory and a crucial 1-0 lead in the series. It was a live representation of every kid’s dream: in the World Series… down by 1 run… 2 outs… bases loaded… and hits a walk-off grand slam!
“That’s stuff [when] you’re five years old in the backyard right there,” Freeman humbly told the FOX broadcast in an on-field interview just after his grand slam. “That’s a dream come true, but that’s only one [win]. We got three more.”
Carrying on with their momentum in Game 1, the Dodgers would proceed to win the next two games, both with a score of 4-2: Game 2 at Dodger Stadium, and Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. The headline of these two games? Starter pitching. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the highest paid rookie pitcher in MLB history, threw a 6-inning gem in Game 2, only allowing the Yankees one hit and one run to score. Walker Buehler, after struggling during the regular season with a 5.39 ERA and fighting for a spot on the Dodgers’ postseason, threw a shutout 5-inning, five strikeout redemption game under the immense pressure of the electric Yankee Stadium crowd. The Dodgers’ biggest disadvantage going into this series was their starting pitching, seeing as they had three starting pitchers available throughout the postseason—not even enough to have a full rotation of pitchers for any of their postseason series. Still, all three of their starting pitchers were able to step up big time when the Dodgers needed them most. Throughout the postseason, manager Dave Roberts had to rely on purely their bullpen (called bullpen games) for certain games because of their shortage of starting pitchers, but the Dodgers pitching staff showed grit and determination as they pulled off hard-fought wins even with a shortened pitching squad.
Arguably, the Dodgers bullpen games were the hardest during the postseason. It showed in Game 4 of the World Series, when the Dodgers opted to use their bullpen to pitch the entire game. The bullpen gave up 11 runs, losing 11-4 to the Yankees, who came back from a 2-run Freddie Freeman home run in the first inning. But what the bullpen and the starting pitchers have done for the Dodgers this postseason can not be understated. The pinnacle of the pitching squad’s perseverance came in the last inning of Game 5; the last three outs of the 2024 World Series. Walker Buehler, a starting pitcher on just two days of rest after having thrown 76 pitches in Game 3, came in as the closer to finish off the Yankees through straight adrenaline pitching. He definitely wasn’t the Dodgers’ first choice as closer: after all, Buehler is a starting pitcher who struggled throughout the regular season. But manager Dave Roberts put his wholehearted faith in his players, knowing that he was short handed in his pitching staff, and it paid off in the best way possible.
Game 5 was one of the most incredible games in all of baseball history. The Yankees had a 5-0 lead going into the 5th inning, with their ace pitcher Gerritt Cole completely shutting down the Dodgers. Nobody on the Dodgers had even given up a hit yet, while the Yankees’ offensive stars such as Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Jazz Chizholm Jr. all hit home runs to galvanize Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately for the Yankees, the Dodgers took advantage of a string of horrible unforced errors by the Yankees defense in the fifth inning, tying the game at 5-5 by the end of the inning. These errors were representative of the defensive woes the Yankees had experienced throughout the World Series; the Dodgers simply played a cleaner game throughout the entirety of the series. With their cleaner and more efficient game, the Dodgers are now the only team in MLB history to have come back from 5 runs down in a clinching game in the World Series.
The one constant throughout this entire series? World Series MVP Freddie Freeman’s consistent performance. Freeman, after hitting the Game 1 walk-off grand slam that will be talked about for decades to come, stayed hot and continued to produce, hitting three more home runs in Games 2, 3, and 4 respectively and producing offensively with 12 Runs Batted In (RBI). His World Series home run streak, extending from the 2021 World Series Games 5 and 6, meant that his six consecutive World Series games with a home run is now the new record for the most consecutive games with home runs in the World Series (beating George Springer’s 5 in a row). With his .310 batting average, 12 RBI, and four home runs, Freeman was able to greatly impact the Dodgers’ win in the 2024 World Series, thereby winning the 2024 Willie Mays World Series MVP Award.
It’s undeniable that the Dodgers deserved to be in the 2024 World Series. They have been the winningest team in the past decade under manager Dave Roberts. They consistently perform in the regular season, having won their NL West division every single time since 2013, bar the 2022 season where they came in second. Yet prior to this World Series, the only silverware the Dodgers had under their belt to show for their total regular-season dominance was their 2020 World Series win over the Tampa Bay Rays, in a shortened season caused by COVID. This, unfortunately for the Dodgers, allowed for their doubters to make an argument that the Dodgers were a consistent postseason flop. Even before their 2020 World Series win, the Dodgers had lost back-to-back World Series’ in the 2017 (to the Houston Astros) and 2018 (to the Boston Red Sox). To add even more pressure to the Los Angeles players and coaches, the Dodgers signed three-time AL MVP Shohei Ohtani from the Angels on the priciest contract in baseball history, adding on to their already star-studded lineup with former MVPs such as Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Going into the 2024 season as the favorites, the Dodgers had something to prove: they wanted to silence the doubters questioning the credibility of their 2020 World Series, and to prove that they could perform at the highest level when it mattered most. Blake Treinen, who threw two scoreless innings during the 7th and 8th innings of Game 5 and was an integral part of the Dodgers bullpen, had words to say to the Dodgers doubters after their World Series win:
“There’s been a lot of people that want to discredit 2020, and I don’t want to harp on this a lot, but it’s so great to see the guys still here from then be able to finally silence the critics from then,” Treinen said to FOX’s Alex Rodriguez in a postgame interview.
The Los Angeles Dodgers did just that. They proved their doubters wrong, even with the injuries of their pitching staff. In the World Series specifically, it wasn’t all about Ohtani, Betts and Freeman. Players in the bottom of the order such as Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman, and Kike Hernandez stepped up to really show the true family that the Dodgers have become. And this time, unlike in their 2020 World Series win (in which their celebration parade never happened because of COVID), Dave Roberts and the Los Angeles Dodgers finally get their parade.
