For the second straight October, Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star Freddie Freeman has etched his name into World Series history. The 36-year-old drilled a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th inning to grant the Dodgers a 6-5 win in Game 3 and a 2-1 series edge over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Freeman was not initially sure if he had made a good enough swing to place the ball over the fence, but the veteran was able to send a sinker from Blue Jays reliever Brendon Little 406 feet for the victory.
“I was not sure,” Freeman told Ken Rosenthal during his postgame interview on Fox. “Just because of the other couple. My swings were getting better and better as the game was going on. I’m just glad I was able to get the opportunity again.”
Freeman had enjoyed a few solid at-bats throughout the contest, but had not yet been able to deliver the kind of swing that could change the course of a game.
“He hit it, and I said, ‘He got it this time,’” Kike Hernandez told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. “But the ball barely got out. The last two at-bats before that one, he hit the ball 104 twice and the ball wasn’t even close to the wall. It makes you think, is this one going to go out?
“Thank God it did.”
The Dodgers have become accustomed to such situations, and Freeman has seemingly been in the middle of the most intense moments.
In Game 1 of last year’s World Series against the New York Yankees, Freeman cranked a game-winning grand slam off of Nestor Cortes in the bottom of the 10th inning.
“That’s (the dream) you’re talking about as kids. And last year, it was always bases loaded, and two outs, bottom of the 9th. I know it happened in the 10th (last year in Game 1 of the World Series),” Freeman told Cary Osborne of Dodger Insider. “But to have it happen again a year later, to hit another walk-off, it’s kind of amazing, crazy, and I’m just glad we won and we’re up 2–1, and we got our Shohei on the mound tomorrow.”
The Dodgers and Blue Jays used 44 combined players in the six-hour and 39-minute thriller. They will now pivot towards Tuesday night’s Game 4 in Los Angeles.
