Ohtani emerged for pregame introductions wearing a brace or heating pad on his injured left shoulder under his jacket and clutched his left arm close to his body when running the bases. He went 0 for 3 but reached base twice — on a walk and when he was hit in the foot by a pitch.
Freeman, meanwhile, has clearly recovered from the sprained ankle that hampered him so badly during the first two rounds of the postseason. He turned on an inside cutter from Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt in the first inning Monday night and lined it into the right-field seats for a two-run home run.
Freeman also homered in the third inning of Game 2, making him only the third player to homer in each of the first three games in a World Series (Barry Bonds in 2002, Hank Bauer in 1958). Freeman also homered for the Atlanta Braves in Games 5 and 6 of the 2021 World Series, giving him home runs in a record-tying five consecutive World Series Games. George Springer also did it for the Houston Astros in the 2017 and 2019 World Series.
“When you come into a road park, you want to try to strike early and quiet the crowd, and we were able to do that in the first inning,” Freeman said.
In perhaps his final game in a Dodgers uniform — he will be a free agent this winter — Walker Buehler recalled his own history. Pitching like the Buehler of old, he held the Yankees scoreless for five innings, allowing just two hits and two walks.
“Listen, man, we play professional baseball for a living,” Buehler said. “When it’s going good, there’s not much else you’d rather do on this earth.”
There were few times during the regular season when Buehler had that feeling. But his 5.38 ERA from the regular season has been irrelevant in the postseason. Buehler allowed six runs in the second inning of Game 3 in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres — then gave the Dodgers 12 consecutive scoreless innings through the rest of his postseason. He has allowed just one run in his 18 career World Series innings.
“It’s just in DNA,” Gavin Lux said. “Some guys just have it. ... The bigger the moment the bigger they perform. Walker’s got that in him. He always has. You just see that different look in his eyes. The bigger the game we all want Walker out there.”
That six-run inning in the NLDS was fueled by poor defense — so they owed him one. The only time Buehler ran into trouble against the Yankees, the defense stepped up around him.
Giancarlo Stanton doubled with one out in the fourth inning (the first hit off Buehler). Mookie Betts made a diving catch on Jazz Chisholm’s sinking liner for the second out before Anthony Volpe dropped a single into left field. Teoscar Hernandez came up throwing, firing a 93.9-mph bullet (his fastest throw of the season via Statcast) on one hop to catcher Will Smith, who tagged Stanton out to keep the Yankees scoreless.
“The Teo throw was huge. It obviously killed the momentum,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Mookie’s play on the sinking liner from Jazz ... I thought Walker was kind of feeling it a little bit. There was starting to be a bit more hard contact. So to make a defensive play on a sinking liner and then the play at home plate was huge for all of us.”
After the power burst by Freeman, the Dodgers took more pedestrian routes to tacking on single runs in the third and sixth.
In the third, Tommy Edman drew a leadoff walk, went to second on Ohtani’s ground out and raced home on Betts’ bloop single to right field. In the sixth, Gavin Lux was hit by a pitch, stole second and just beat the throw home to score on Kiké Hernandez’s single to center field.
Roberts made his bullpen calls with one eye on tonight’s pitching plan — and continued to make all the right choices, as he has throughout this postseason run.
But he had to survive scares in the sixth and seventh innings. Most dangerously, the Yankees put two runners on with two outs in the seventh. With Juan Soto on deck, Anthony Banda struck out Gleyber Torres when home plate umpire Mark Carlson called a 2-and-2 fastball clearly above the zone strike three.
The Dodgers were one out away from their fifth shutout of this postseason (which would have tied Cleveland’s postseason record from 2016) when Alex Verdugo hit a two-run home run off Michael Kopech.