By Zachary McMahon-
The New York Yankees were looking to bounce back after Freddie Freeman hit the Walk-off grand slam on Friday night for the Dodgers while playing Game 2 of the 2024 World Series on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Carlos Rodon pitched 3 ⅓ innings for the Yankees, allowing six hits and four earned runs on three home runs, and striking out three. Yamamoto started and went longer for the Dodgers pitching 6 ⅓ innings, pitching a one-hitter with two walks and four strikeouts. This is the 11th start of six or more innings with one or no hits in World Series history, and the second Dodgers pitcher to accomplish this, the other being Rich Hill in Game 4 of the 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox.
In the second inning, Tommy Edman hit a solo homer for his first homer in the World Series in his first appearance in the Fall Classic. Juan Soto tied it up with a homer of his own in the third for the Yankees. Soto is the youngest player to homer in the World Series for a second team, as he also played in the 2019 World Series with the Washington Nationals. After Soto’s homer, Yamamoto retired 11 consecutive batters.
In the bottom half of the third, Teoscar Hernandez and Freeman hit back-to-back homers, with Hernandez being a two-run home run as the Dodgers took a 4-1 lead. This was the second set of back-to-back home runs in Dodgers history, the other being Pedro Guerrero & Steve Yeager in 1981 World Series Game 5 against the Yankees.
Freeman his his fourth straight World Series game with a homer dating back to Game 5 of the 2021 World Series with the Atlanta Braves when they won against the Houston Astros, which is tied for second longest in WS history. He is also the sixth player to have multiple world series homers from multiple teams, with Corey Seager being the only other active player on the list with the Dodgers and the 2023 World Series with the Texas Rangers. He’s the 11th player to have homered in the first two games of a world series with David Ortiz being the most recent player before Freeman when he hit a homer in the first two games in the 2013 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
After Soto hit a single off the wall, and scored on a hit off the third base bag by Giancarlo Stanton. Jazz Chisholm Jr singled, and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Blake Treinen struck out Anthony Volpe, and Alex Vesia came in for the final out and flew out Jose Trevino to seal the victory for the Dodgers 4-2. Vesia is the first 1-pitch save to happen in the World Series, and the second time it’s happened in the postseason with Jason Isringhausen doing it for the Cardinals in Game 1 of the 2004 NLCS against the Astros.
This is the third time that two Dominican-born players homered in the same game, with the other two times being Nelson Cruz hitting a homer in Games 3 & 6 of the 2011 World Series for the Rangers, and then Adrian Beltre hitting for the Rangers in Game 6, and Albert Pujols hitting in Game 3.
Both teams will take a travel day as they will potentially play the next three days at Yankee Stadium starting on Monday at 8:08 pm, with Walker Buehler going on the mound for the Dodgers, and Clarke Schmidt going for the Yankees.
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