SI

Freddie Freeman Gave Dodgers a Timely Reminder Moments After Walk-Off Grand Slam

The Dodgers first baseman is keeping his eye on the ultimate prize.

Josh Wilson

Freeman logged a triple and a grand slam in Game 1
Freeman logged a triple and a grand slam in Game 1 / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
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Freddie Freeman willed the Los Angeles Dodgers to an important victory in Game 1 of the World Series against the New York Yankees. In the bottom of the 10th inning with two outs, Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam to win the game 6–3 for Los Angeles.

Freeman, limited by an injured ankle which has required hours of pregame work, lifted his bat knowing he had gotten a hold of the home run. Then, he put a few more steps on his ankle, rounding the bases to get to home.

"That's a dream come true, but that's only one, we got three more," he reminded himself and his team after the game speaking to Fox's Ken Rosenthal. He refused to be a prisoner of the moment, just saying he didn't know where it ranked all-time on his personal list of moments.

It was not his only contribution, Freeman had another hit earlier in the game, a triple off a bobbled ball in the outfield, proving he and the Dodgers medical team have kept the ankle from being a complete limiting factor.

Freeman went on to tell Rosenthal in the postgame interview that he was hoping to time Nestor Cortes's four-seam fastball. The pitch he hit was just one of Cortes's two pitches in the game.

Just before pitching to Freeman, the Yankees intentionally walked Mookie Betts.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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