Game Notes, 10/25/2024 – World Series G1

Down by a run, down to their three final outs, the Dodgers start to rally back and conclude the surge with a swing that makes World Series history.  Before the momentous swing, an intentional walk hits pause in the tension while also ratcheting the tightness.  And then the history-making swing to …

Sound familiar?   It is for Bill Bevens and Cookie Lavagetto, too.  

In Game 4 of the 1947 World Series, with the Yankees having made the trip from the Bronx to Brooklyn, Bevens was on the hill for New York, the right-hander three outs away from the very first no-hitter in World Series history.  A one-out walk got the tying run to first.  A two-out steal brought that tying run into scoring position, but also gave Bevens permission to intentionally finish a walk to Pete Reiser.  Bad move.  Lavagetto then came to the plate as a pinch-hitter and cracked a double on an 0-1 pitch to end the no-hit bid and win the game for Brooklyn.  

In World Series history, there have been only four instances of a game-ending hit coming with two outs and the hitter’s team trailing.  Lavagetto’s unforgettable cut was the first.  Somehow, in each of the three times it’s happened since, the Dodgers have been involved.   

Freddie Freeman, please meet Cookie Lavagetto.

Freddie Freeman connected on a walk-off grand slam to transform a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 victory and give the Dodgers the first win of the 2024 World Series.

~Freeman’s slam is the 22nd in World Series history but the very first to wrap a game.  It’s only the second-ever walk-off slam in playoff history, following Nelson Cruz’s four-run home run to break a 3-3 tie in Game 2 of the 2011 ALCS.

~Among the 22 World Series batters to go yard with the bases loaded, Freeman is one of four to swing and instantly turn a deficit into a lead.  

1964, G4:  Ken Boyer in the 6th inning, Cardinals trailing the Yankees 3-0

1988, G1:  José Canseco in the 2nd inning, Athletics trailing the Dodgers 2-0

2005, G2:  Paul Konerko in the 7th inning, White Sox trailing the Astros 4-2

2024, G1:  Freddie Freeman in the 10th inning, Dodgers trailing the Yankees 3-2

~Freeman’s slam is the first for a Dodger in the Fall Classic.  

~Freeman’s longball is the third walk-off homer in Fall Classic history to come with the batter’s team losing.  The other two are pretty famous:

1988, G1:  Kirk Gibson 2-run HR with his Dodgers trailing the A’s 4-3 in the 9th

1993, G6:  Joe Carter 3-run HR with his Blue Jays trailing the Phillies 6-5 in the 9th

~Freeman’s longball puts the first baseman into the company of 17 others who delivered a World Series walk-off home run.  

*A Game 1 has had this stirring conclusion four other times:  

1949:  Tommy Henrich off Don Newcombe | Yankees 1-0 win over the Dodgers

1954:  Dusty Rhodes off Bob Lemon | Giants 5-2 win over the Indians

1988:  Kirk Gibson off Dennis Eckersley | Dodgers 5-4 win over the A’s

2023:  Adolis García off Miguel Castro | Rangers 6-5 win over the D’Backs

↑ In each of the four cases above, the winning team in that Game 1 ultimately took the series.  

*Freeman’s game-ender gives the Dodgers three walk-off homers in the World Series, with his and Gibson’s in 1988 sandwiching Max Muncy’s blast in the 18th inning to conclude the long night’s journey in Game 3 of the Dodgers-Red Sox affair in 2018.

*Only one other walk-off home run had been delivered in any of the previous 66 World Series games between the Dodgers and Yankees:  Henrich’s solo shot off Newcombe to give New York a 1-0 win in Game 1 of the ’49 Fall Classic.  Within this rivalry, the knocks that stayed in the ballpark and instantly equaled victory:

Dodgers win!

1947, G4:  Cookie Lavagetto double in the 9th (to break up a no-hitter with 2 outs) 

1956, G6:  Jackie Robinson single in the 10th 

Yankees win!

1953, G6:  Billy Martin single in the 9th (to win the World Series)

1977, G1:  Paul Blair single in the 12th 

1978, G4:  Lou Piniella single in the 10th 

~Freeman’s game-ender is the 53rd walk-off hit in World Series history.  All five of the Dodgers’ reps have been identified somewhere above.  Only the Yankees – with 11 – have produced more.  On the other side of the happy-sad scale, New York has now suffered more Fall Classic game-ending hits than any other franchise, with nine.  The Yankees and Dodgers had been tied for the most. 

~Freeman’s game-ender came with his club down to its last out.  World Series history has seen four instances of a game-ending hit coming with two outs and the batter’s team trailing.  The Dodgers have been on the winning side of this scenario three times and on the losing side in the only other occurrence.

1947, G4:  Cookie Lavagetto double to give the Dodgers a 3-2 win

1988, G1:  Kirk Gibson HR to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win

2020, G4:  Brett Phillips single to give the Rays an 8-7 win 

2024, G1:  Freddie Freeman HR to give the Dodgers a 6-3 win.

~Freeman also delivered a triple in the win – his first three-base hit in a postseason career that now covers 251 plate appearances.  18 other players have produced a World Series box score featuring both a three-base and four-base knock.  The very first to do this was Elmer Smith in Game 5 of the 1920 World Series, when the Cleveland outfielder famously socked the very first grand slam in Fall Classic history.  

~Freeman’s four RBI in this 6-3 win puts him one shy of the most ever produced in a Game 1 of the World Series.  Davey Lopes drove in five for the Dodgers in 1978 to match the still-standing standard.  In 1959, Ted Kluszewski was the first to drive in five.  Dan Gladden (1987) and Andruw Jones (1996) have also produced five RBI in a Game 1.

Giancarlo Stanton clocked his sixth home run of the 2024 postseason and 17th of his playoff career.  

~It’s the second time in his postseason career Stanton has recorded six homers in a single year – he also had six in 2020 when the Yankees lost in the ALDS.  The six are the most ever hit by a Yankee in a single postseason, with Bernie Williams doing it in 1996 and Alex Rodriguez matching in 2009. 

~Stanton’s 17 career postseason home runs matches him with Jim Thome, David Ortiz and Bryce Harper for the 14th most in postseason history.  Stanton’s 17 are the fourth most for any Yankee, behind Bernie Williams (22), Derek Jeter (20) and Mickey Mantle (18).

~Stanton pushed past the 150 postseason plate appearance line in Game 1.  He is one of 200 players to have at least 150.  Among them, only Babe Ruth (.744) and Lou Gehrig (.731) claim a higher slugging percentage than Stanton (.681).

~Stanton has homered in four straight postseason games – the longest streak for any Yankee since 2020, when Stanton set the franchise high mark with longballs in five straight.

Gerrit Cole allowed a run in 6.0 innings, lowering his postseason ERA to 2.91.  Among the 22 postseason hurlers to have logged at least 120.0 innings, he’s one of nine to hold a sub-three ERA.  

0.70 ERA   Mariano Rivera  141.0 IP (0 starts)

2.23 ERA   Curt Schilling      133.1 IP (19 starts)

2.51 ERA   Jon Lester          154.0 IP (22 starts)

2.59 ERA   Orel Hershiser    132.0 IP (18 starts)

2.61 ERA   Jim Palmer         124.1 IP (15 starts)

2.67 ERA   John Smoltz       209.0 IP (27 starts)

2.71 ERA   Whitey Ford       146.0 IP (22 starts)

2.84 ERA   Dave Stewart     133.0 IP (18 starts)

2.91 ERA   Gerrit Cole         126.2 IP (21 starts)

~Cole is the first World Series Game 1 starter since the Mets’ Ron Darling in 1986 to not pick up a win after going the minimum five frames and allowing no more than a run.  Aside from those two, five others make up the entire list:

Jim Konstanty in 1950

Don Newcombe in 1949

Bob Feller in 1948

Charlie Root in 1929

Hippo Vaughn in 1918

Jazz Chisholm, Jr. stole three bags in the loss.  The third baseman tied a World Series record with the three.  Honus Wagner set the bar in 1909, and was first matched by Willie Davis in 1965.  Lou Brock had three in a World Series game in both 1967 and 1968. More recently, B.J. Upton (2008) and Rajai Davis (2016) did it.

Kiké Hernández joined Freeman in the triples column on Friday night, with both of the three-baggers coming off Gerrit Cole.  Cole is one of the 30 hurlers to surrender multiple triples in a World Series game.  Curiously, the last five pitchers to do this represented a New York team – a span that covers a half-century.  Before Cole, it was, by descending date:  Met Bobby Jones in 2000, Met Dwight Gooden in 1986, Yankee Doyle Alexander in 1976, and Met Jerry Koosman in 1973.  Cardinal Nelson Briles broke the string in 1968.  Then the next two, in this backward accounting, were Brooklyn Dodgers – Carl Erskine in 1953 and Vic Lombardi in 1947.

Cole and Jack Flaherty each finished with a Game Score of at least 55 (Cole was at 64, while Flaherty set the floor with his 55).  Before this year, Game 1 hadn’t seen both starters get to/surpass 55 since 2009, when CC Sabathia (64) and Cliff Lee (83) did this.  Before that, it had last happened in 1999, with Greg Maddux (57) and Orlando Hernández (79) pitching in.

Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.