- It happened on October 25, 2024, in Game 1 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
- The Dodgers trailed 3-2 in the 10th inning, with two outs and the bases loaded.
- Freddie Freeman, playing on a badly sprained ankle, hit the first pitch he saw into the seats.
- It was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. The Dodgers won 6-3 and took the Series in five games.
Baseball has been deciding its champion in the World Series since 1903. By 2024 almost everything that can happen in a game had happened there at least once.
One thing had not. Then a first baseman who could barely run walked to the plate in Los Angeles.
What a walk-off grand slam is
A grand slam is a home run hit with a runner on every base. It scores four runs with one swing, the most a single hit can produce.
A walk-off is any hit by the home team that wins the game in its final turn at bat. The game ends at once and everybody walks off the field.
Put the two together and you have the most dramatic ending the sport allows. In more than a century of World Series games, nobody had done it.
The ankle
Freeman had sprained his right ankle badly in the last week of the regular season. An injury like that usually keeps a player out for weeks.
He kept playing. He missed three games earlier in the playoffs when the pain was too much, and in the others he moved around the bases with an obvious limp.
Game 1
The opening game was tied 2-2 after nine innings, so it went to a 10th.
In the top half, Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Yankees hit a single, stole second base, then stole third. He scored on a ground ball. New York led 3-2 and needed three outs to win.
The Dodgers put two runners on. With two outs, the Yankees chose to walk Mookie Betts on purpose. That loaded the bases and brought up Freeman.
The idea made sense. The pitcher, Nestor Cortes, was left-handed, and so is Freeman. A left-handed pitcher usually has the advantage over a left-handed hitter. But Cortes had not pitched in a game for more than a month.
One pitch
Cortes threw a fastball on the inside part of the plate. Freeman swung at the first pitch and hit it high down the right-field line.
He knew at once. He raised his bat in the air and began to walk. The ball landed deep in the seats, four runs scored, and the Dodgers had won 6-3.
It had never happened in a World Series. It took one pitch.
After he crossed home plate, Freeman went straight to the screen behind it. His father was sitting there, and the two shouted at each other through the netting.
The echo of 1988
Dodgers fans had seen something very like it before. In Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, in the same ballpark, Kirk Gibson came off the bench with two injured legs. With two outs in the last inning he hit a home run to win the game.
Gibson's is one of the most replayed home runs in history. Freeman's came 36 years later, also in Game 1, also with two outs, also from a player who could hardly run. The Dodgers went on to win the Series in five games both times.
Freeman's World Series
| Stat | Number |
|---|---|
| Home runs | 4 |
| Games with a home run | Each of the first four |
| Runs batted in | 12, tying the World Series record |
| Award | Most valuable player of the Series |
The grand slam was only the start. Freeman hit a home run in each of the first four games, something no player had done in a World Series. He drove in 12 runs in five games, which matched a record set in 1960.
For the full list of champions, read World Series titles by team. For another night Dodgers fans will not forget, there is Shohei Ohtani's 50-50 game.