Anthony Volpe on Tuesday smashed a grand slam as the New York Yankees avoided being swept in the World Series with an 11-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Volpe’s third-inning blast gave the Yankees a 5-2 edge, their first lead since Game 1, and later homers by Gleyber Torres and Austin Wells sparked New York’s rout.
“I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence,” Volpe said. “Everyone had confidence that someone was going to get the big hit... When the guys have confidence in you, I feel like you could do anything.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Yankees pulled within 3-1 in the best-of seven MLB championship showdown.
“We showed what we’re capable of doing as a team,” Torres said. “We’ll just try to continue that. Go tomorrow like there’s no tomorrow.”
No team has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win the World Series, but the Yankees became the first team in 54 years to force a fifth game when down 0-3.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It’s going to take a lot,” Wells said. “No one has done what we’re trying to accomplish.”
New York denied the Dodgers an eighth World Series title and first since 2020 while keeping alive hopes of the Yankees winning their first crown since 2009 and 28th overall.
“It’s good to have pressure,” Wells said. “It means that we’re in a good spot and people are counting on you, so I enjoy the pressure.”
Wells, 25, became the youngest Yankees catcher to homer in the World Series after going 4-for-43 in the playoffs previously.
“I just said screw it, we’re down three and just went out there,” Wells said. “I just blacked out. I don’t really know what I did.”
It was a record-shattering night for Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman, who smashed a two-run homer in the first inning to become the first player with homers in the first four games of a World Series.
Freeman, who blasted a walk-off grand slam to win Game 1, also moved past George Springer to set a record with homers in six consecutive World Series contests, counting the last two games from his 2021 title run with Atlanta.
Mookie Betts doubled in the first inning and scored on Freeman’s homer, then made a great grab for an out in foul territory despite a Yankees fan trying to pull the ball out of his glove.
Volpe scored from third base in the second inning on Alex Verdugo’s ground out, but the best was yet to come.
The game turned in the third as the Yankees loaded the bases to set the stage for Volpe, who blasted his grand slam into the centerfield stands for a 5-2 Yankees edge.
“Just getting the lead early was important and he gave us that with that one swing, and that was huge,” Wells said. “It allowed us to keep the lead and keep pushing and have aggressive at-bats.”
It was the sixth grand slam of this year’s playoffs, an MLB record.
Will Smith lifted the Dodgers within 5-3 with a solo homer in the fifth and Los Angeles added another run on a video replay over-rule when Freeman was declared safe at first base to allow Tommy Edman to score from third to make it 5-4.
However, Wells homered in the sixth and the Yankees broke it open in the eighth as Volpe doubled, stole third and beat a throw home from second to score. Torres added a three-run homer and Juan Soto doubled and scored on a Judge single.
“A lot of people getting in on the act was great,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “A lot of pitchers did really good things, really good defense. So good night for us and we’ll get another opportunity tomorrow.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS