It’s the final showdown of the Major League Baseball season, and as the leaves change color, the World Series this year is turning familiar shades of Dodger Blue and Yankee pinstripes. For the 12th time — with their first meeting having occurred in 1941 — the Yankees and Dodgers face off in the World Series.
Their most recent World Series meeting in 1981 will carry a particularly special significance this year, with Friday’s Game 1 coming just days after the death of Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela, who was the rookie star of that 1981 championship team at the height of “Fernandomania.”
Both clubs have been off for nearly a week, so the pitching staffs are lined up for the two teams that finished with the best records in their respective leagues in the regular season. In Game 1, Gerrit Cole (1-0, 3.31 ERA, 16.1 IP, 12 K, 6 BB in 2024 postseason) takes the ball for the Yankees against Jack Flaherty (1-2, 7.04 ERA, 15.1 IP, 8 K, 7 BB) for the Dodgers.
Time: 8:08 p.m. ET
Location: Dodger Stadium | Los Angeles
TV Channel: Fox
Streaming: Fox Sports App, Fubo
Live82 updates
Shohei Ohtani hits a ball about four feet short of a game-tying home run, but it’s still a double. Then Anthony Volpe bobbles the ball as it comes in from the outfield, so Ohtani takes third. The Dodgers once again have a runner in scoring position, with one out.
That’s Ohtani’s first hit of the World Series and it’s a big one.
Tommy Edman, usually a switch-hitter, is hitting right-handed against the righty Tommy Kahnle. Given how bad Edman is hitting as a lefty and how good Kahnle’s changeup is against lefties, it’s understandable.
Alex Vesia looks just fine as he throws a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. Shohei Ohtani is on deck as we head to the bottom of the eighth.
Alex Vesia, who missed the NLCS due to an intercostal injury, is now in for the Dodgers. L.A.’s top arms are Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen. We’ll see if they go to either in the ninth if they’re still trailing.
The Dodgers are now 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and will have Tommy Edman, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts due up in the eighth.
Kahnle gets out of it for Yankees
Tommy Kahnle coming in with two outs and two on looks a bit funky at first because the Dodgers had a lefty in Gavin Lux at the plate. But Kahnle had an active streak of more than 40 changeups in a row coming into this game. That pitch darts away from lefty batters, effectively making him a good platoon matchup in this spot.
Sure enough, Gavin Lux grounds out on the second changeup he sees. Inning over.
Kahnle famously loves spamming changeups, and Lux isn’t the best at hitting those pitches. He hit .198 with a .248 slugging percentage and a 35% whiff percentage against offspeed pitches during the regular season.
Kiké Hernández lays down a perfect bunt to advance both runners. But then Will Smith hits a first-pitch pop-out to give the Yankees their second out.
The Yankees pull Holmes to bring in Tommy Kahnle to face Gavin Lux.
Holmes hits Max Muncy in the foot with a breaking ball, and the Dodgers now have two on with no outs. The Yankees pitching coach must have seen something he didn’t like because he’s out there talking to Holmes now.
Teoscar Hernandez hits a full-count single to lead off the seventh, and that will do it for Cole. The Yankees are bringing in Clay Holmes.
Cole: 6+ innings, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 K, 88 pitches. He’s still responsible for the runner on first.
Gerrit Cole comes back out for the seventh inning with 4-5-6 due up for the Dodgers and at 80 pitches. As with Flaherty, we’ll see if the Yankees want to go to the bullpen if he gets into any trouble.
Brusdar Graterol strikes out Stanton to end the seventh. Now the Dodgers have nine outs to score a run.
Aaron Judge gets his first hit of the game on a 99 mph sinker from Graterol. Giancarlo Stanton comes up with two outs and a chance for more damage.
The Dodgers bring in Brusdar Graterol, who hasn’t pitched in a month, to face the top of the Yankees order. With Evan Phillips off the WS roster due to arm fatigue, the Dodgers need him to be a reliable late-inning arm for this series.
Freeman hits a fly ball to the warning track, but it stays in the park. The Yankees stay ahead 2-1, and the Dodgers are now 0-for-4 with RISP.
Jazz Chisholm fields a hard grounder to third and keeps Edman at third. It comes down to Freddie Freeman with two outs.
Make that five homers in a row for Stanton
Who else? Giancarlo Stanton hit another titanic home run — one with a 116.6 mph exit velocity, higher than any home run tracked in the World Series during the Statcast Era (since 2015) — to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
Stanton’s past five hits this postseason have all been home runs, which is both entirely understandable because it’s Stanton and a completely ridiculous statistic at this time of the year. His October legacy just keeps on growing.
Ohtani grounds out on a close play but advances Edman to third base. The tying run is 90 feet away for the Dodgers with one out.
Tommy Edman has made a few great plays at shortstop today, and now he has a hit. He leads off the bottom of the sixth with a double down the right-field line, and the Dodgers have a runner in scoring position with Ohtani, Betts and Freeman due up.
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