Lucas Giolito had one of the best seats in the house for Game 1 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.
The Boston Red Sox pitcher was there to watch his high school teammate and friend Jack Flaherty start the first World Series game in Los Angeles since 1988. He stayed to see a classic finish, as Freddie Freeman walked off the Yankees in the 10th inning with the first walkoff grand slam in World Series history.
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In an interview with the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast, Giolito talked openly about the Yankees’ pitching strategy for the 10th inning, when manager Aaron Boone brought in Nestor Cortes to face Freeman.
“I thought it was a recipe for disaster,” Giolito told host Rob Bradford. “They were warming up a lefty, Tim Hill, and I was like ‘OK cool Tim Hill’s going to come into the game if stuff gets hairy.’ And then Nestor Cortes comes out and I’m like, ‘what the hell is going on?’
“I didn’t know exactly how long it had been since (Cortes) pitched but I knew it had been a while. I knew he was dealing with an (elbow) injury, and it’s like, you’re going to bring him into this situation? First of all he’s a starting pitcher, and now you’re throwing him into this weird, late, crazy, pressure, extra-inning World Series game when the last batters he faced were probably his own teammates in a live batting practice.”
Cortes indeed hadn’t pitched since September, when he was sidelined with an elbow injury that threatened to knock him out for the entirety of the Yankees’ postseason run. When New York extended its season into the World Series, Cortes was included on the Yankees’ playoff roster.
Hill, a left-handed reliever, had a long track record of postseason success. He made four consecutive scoreless appearances in the American League Championship Series after getting touched for three runs in Game 1 against the Cleveland Guardians. Hill was six days removed from his most recent appearance when the World Series rolled around; Cortes was five weeks removed from his.
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The task was tall: a first-and-second, one-out jam while clinging to a 3-2 lead and the top of the Dodgers’ lineup — Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman — coming to the plate.
Cortes retired Ohtani on a foul fly thanks to an amazing catch by Alex Verdugo going over the left-field rail. Betts, a right-handed hitter, was intentionally walked.
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Freeman belted the first pitch he saw into the right-field bleachers, ending the game.
“I thought it was insane,” Giolito said. “But I don’t know, maybe the Yankees thought otherwise at the time. Maybe they thought it was the right move. If he had gotten out of it, we wouldn’t even be talking about it. Anything can happen in baseball.”
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