Baseball: LA Dodgers’ stunning comeback over NY Yankees seals World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers produced a stunning fightback to defeat the New York Yankees and clinch the World Series with a dramatic come-from-behind 7-6 victory at the Yankee Stadium.
On a night of spellbinding drama, the Dodgers sealed their second Major League Baseball championship crown in five seasons and eighth overall after recovering from 5-0 down to complete a 4-1 series victory on Wednesday.
The Yankees, who had kept the series alive with an 11-4 rout in game four on Tuesday, had looked poised to take the series back to Los Angeles for game six after home runs from Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm and Giancarlo Stanton.
Yankees starter Gerrit Cole meanwhile produced a masterful performance from the mound to keep the Dodgers’ potent offensive lineup scoreless through four innings.
But a catastrophic fifth inning by the Yankees, which included a litany of defensive errors, saw the Dodgers pile on five unearned runs to tie the score at 5-5.
Although the Yankees regained the lead through a Stanton sacrifice-fly in the sixth inning, the Dodgers hit back in the eighth with sac-flies of their own from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts to claim what turned out to be a winning 7-6 lead.
The Dodgers then brought back game three starter Walker Buehler to bag the final three outs in the ninth to clinch victory.
“Obviously [we’re] resilient, but there’s so much love in this clubhouse, care – that care won this game today,” said Dodgers star Betts. “That’s what it was. It was love, it was grit. It was just a beautiful thing and I’m just proud of us and I’m happy for us.”
Buehler meanwhile admitted he had not been expecting to play a part in the game.
“I wish I was in a little better shape so my heart could have handled it better,” the Dodgers pitcher said.
Dodgers star Freddie Freeman, who blasted four consecutive home runs in the opening four games of the series, was named Series Most Valuable Player.
“I think we were all saying the first three innings – ‘let’s just get one, just chip away, we can do this,’” said Freeman, who drove in two runs in the fifth inning rally with a single.
“There’s a couple of mistakes that happened, you’ve got to capitalise.”
The showdown between two marquee franchises had been a boon for MLB, with Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani driving record TV ratings in his native Japan.
Fans gathered for public screenings and celebrated wildly when the Japanese star’s team sealed the win.
Oshu, a sleepy city of 110,000 in northern Japan known for its apples and beef, waited patiently for its favourite son to lift the trophy.
“He’s like someone who lives above the clouds, so it’s a huge source of pride that he comes from Oshu,” 44-year-old Norihisa Sato told the AFP news agency at a public viewing event at city hall earlier in the series.
Ohtani is one of baseball’s biggest stars, joining the Dodgers at the end of last year on the most lucrative contract in US sports history.
The 30-year-old has enjoyed a record-breaking year, becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in one season, an achievement previously thought impossible.
He is an icon in Japan, where baseball is a national obsession. His performances have been headline news since he moved to MLB in 2018 but this year is the first time he has appeared in the World Series.
Ohtani said he was “honoured” to have sealed his first World Series title .
Although Ohtani had a relatively quiet World Series – failing to get a home run and suffering a shoulder injury in game two – it did little to take the shine of his maiden championship.
“I’m honoured to be able to be part of a season where we played the longest, and to be able to get to know this team,” said Ohtani following the celebrations.