Freddie Freeman walk-off home run wins Dodgers longest game in World Series history – The best player perhaps in the history of the game had his latest Greatest Game Ever in Game 3 of the World Series. A Dodger icon from a different time, who achieved the heights of his career but also dived the depths of playoff anguish, saved them in the most gut-wrenching, close-your-eyes, no-not-him fashion possible. The last man on the Toronto Blue Jays’ and Dodgers’ pitching staffs were charged with pitching till tomorrow – or at least long enough for their team to score – and one of them pulled it done. Freddie Freeman walk-off home run wins Dodgers longest game in World Series history
Gather all those elements, mix them in a diabolical stew only baseball could concoct and the Dodgers and Blue Jays played to a standoff into the 18th inning, until finally, Freddie Freeman saved the Dodgers, with a walk-off home run to dead center field, sending Dodger Stadium into exhausted relief and ending a game that equaled the longest World Series clash by inning, and second-longest by time.This epic lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, long enough to contain numerous games within the game.
Consider this one:
After Shohei Ohtani’s game-tying home run in the seventh inning, the teams more than a whole scoreless game — 10 innings of perfect relief performance from both pitching staffs. The only other World Series game longer than this came on these same grounds, same circumstances, nearly seven years to the day: World Series Game 3, lasting 7 hours, 20 minutes until Max Muncy ended it with an 18th-inning solo home run against the Boston Red Sox’s Nathan Eovaldi. Freddie Freeman walk-off home run wins Dodgers longest game in World Series history
Muncy is still a Dodger, and he nearly did it again, slamming a 14th-inning pitch from Blue Jays reliever Eric Lauer just short of the foul pole in right center. That simply delayed the Blue Jays’ execution and gave a window for Freeman’s heroics. And the walk-off histrionics that followed were as much relief as release. Sure, there’s plenty of time remaining in this best-of-seven donnybrook. Yet in taking a 2-1 Series lead, the Dodgers tilted the scales dramatically by claiming this 50-50 game in which both teams exhausted significant pitching equity to stay in this fight. Beyond starting pitchers Ohtani and Shane Bieber, who will be ready for Game 4 some 19 hours later? Don’t ask that just yet.
No, when pitching staffs have to cover 18 innings in one game, all bets are off for the remainder of the series. Need visual proof? Yes, that was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw every pitch for the Dodgers in Game 2 just two days ago, getting loose in the 17th and 18th innings. And indeed, there was Shane Bieber, due to start Game 4 later Oct. 28, doing the same for the Blue Jays. In this stemwinder of a game, both sides took leads of several runs but also manufactured game-tying rallies in regulation the latest coming on Ohtani’s game-tying, seventh-inning home run. His homer to left center field forced the forever baseball that followed, but it was a greater pivot point for the entire series: Ohtani may never get another pitch to hit. Freddie Freeman walk-off home run wins Dodgers longest game in World Series history
The opening half of Ohtani’s night: Double, home run, double, home run.
The second half: Walk, purposeful walk, intentional walk, intentional walk, intentional walk, walk – the four free passes a postseason record.Yep, Ohtani reached base nine times in nine plate appearances, but the Dodgers could not cash him in once Toronto manager John Schneider opted to take the bat out of his hand, presumably for good.
“Again, man, the guy’s a great player,” Schneider said, keeping his cheery mien in his postgame press conference. “There’s certain times where I feel like you feel like, you feel better about someone else beating you. “If that someone else is Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman it still stings.” Freddie Freeman walk-off home run wins Dodgers longest game in World Series history
About the Author
