Freddie, meet Freddie.
It was excruciating. It was exhausting. It was ecstatic.
It was Fred-die, Fred-die, Fred-die, forever.
Repeating history, rocking the Ravine, winning the unwinnable, Freddie Freeman has done it again for the Dodgers, knocking a baseball for a second consecutive October into probably a second consecutive championship.
In the 18th inning of the longest World Series game in baseball history Monday, nearly seven hours after it started, Freeman smashingly ended it with a leadoff home run against the Toronto Blue Jays to give the Dodgers a 6-5 victory and a two-games-to-one lead.
This time last year he was hitting an extra-inning, walk-off grand slam against the New York Yankees that propelled the Dodgers to the title. At the time, he was being compared to Kirk Gibson and his memorable 1988 World Series homer.
This time, he can only be compared to himself, a guy who was struggling so much in the postseason that both Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts had been intentionally walked in front of him late in the game.
Three times in extra innings, he could have ended the game with a hit. Three times he left runners stranded.
But, finally, Freddie once again became Freddie, driving the ball deep over the center field fence, thrusting his right hand in the air, and watching his teammates dancing and jumping and screaming with a jubilation not previously seen by this workmanlike team this postseason.
“I don’t think you ever come up with the scenario twice,” said Freeman. “To have it happen again, it’s kind of amazing, crazy, and I’m just glad we won.”
Nobody seemed happier than Ohtani, who left the scrum to run down to the bullpen to embrace teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Despite throwing a complete game two days ago, Yamamoto was preparing to pitch in this game because the Dodgers had run out of arms.
It was that kind of night. It was two seventh-inning stretches. It was umpires nearly running out of baseballs. It was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. eating in the dugout.
When Ohtani returned toward the dugout he was hugged by water-spraying teammates, and for good reason.
Throughout the night Ohtani once again wrapped Dodger Stadium in his giant arms and shook it down to its ancient roots.
The win was set up after Tommy Edman made a perfect relay throw to the plate to gun down Davis Schneider in the top of the 10th, then Clayton Kershaw dramatically worked out of a base-loaded inherited jam in the 12th.
But before Freeman’s homer, Ohtani owned the night.
He led off the game with a ground-rule double. Then he gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead with a third-inning homer. Then he closed a 4-2 deficit with a fifth-inning RBI double. Then he tied the game at 5-all with a seventh inning home run.
Then, his aura became even crazier.
Four times in a five-inning stretch from the ninth inning to the 15th, Ohtani was intentionally walked. Twice the bases were empty. Once he had to pause at second base to relieve leg cramping. It was nuts.
Imagine a player so dangerous he is given a base four times with a World Series game on the line. One can’t imagine. That’s Ohtani.
“He’s a unicorn,” said Freeman. “There’s no more adjectives you can use to describe him.”
Remember 10 days ago when Ohtani had three home runs and struck out 10? Monday night was nearly as impressive because it was in the World Series, his four extra-base hits tying a record that had last been set in 1906.
And, yeah, he pitches again Tuesday in Game 4, so by the time you comprehend all this, he may have done it again.
“Our starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight,” said Freeman.
He was so good, he was better than the Dodgers bad, which included bad baserunning, bad fielding, and a bit of questionable managing.
The Dodgers stranded the winning run on base in the ninth,10th, 11th, and 13th, 14th and 15th inning and 16th…and really should have won it in the 13th.
That’s when Dodger Manager Dave Roberts surprisingly batted for Kiké Hernández after a Tommy Edman leadoff double. Miguel Rojas bunted Edman to third, but Alex Call and Freeman couldn’t get him home.
The Dodgers took an early 2-0 lead on home runs by Teoscar Hernández and Ohtani, but they appeared to blow the game in the third and fourth innings
In the third, Freeman was thrown out at home by right fielder Addison Barger after a single by Will Smith on a bad send.
Another Dodger mistake set the Jays up to take the lead in the fourth, after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had led the inning off with a walk. Bo Bichette then grounded into a potential double play, but Tommy Edman booted the ball at second, and runners were on first and third. One out later, Alejandro Kirk blasted a terrible curveball 394 feet over the center field fence for a three-run jack.
Seemingly 10 hours later it ended, and one thought of actor Jason Bateman’s reminder to the crowd during a pregame cheer. He noted that the Dodgers had not clinched a World Series championship at Dodger Stadium since 1963.
Two wins in the next two days and they’ll finally do it again.
After Monday’s doubleheader sweep, it’s hard to believe they won’t.
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