Volpe’s grand slam sparks slumping Yankees offence in time to avoid Dodgers sweep in World Series

Anthony Volpe’s third-inning grand slam overcame Freddie Freeman’s record-setting home run, and the New York Yankees avoided a World Series sweep with an 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night that forced a Game 5.

Freeman homered for his sixth straight Series game, hitting a two-run drive in the first inning for the second consecutive night and again stunning the Yankee Stadium crowd.

Seeking to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 Series deficit, New York surged ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second and Volpe’s drive against Daniel Hudson in the third. Volpe turned on a first-pitch slider at the knees and drove it into the left-field seats.

“I was hustling. I didn’t know I got it,” Volpe said. “And then I blacked out.”

Volpe scored New York’s first run when he walked after falling behind 0-2 in the second inning and came home despite an uncharacteristic baserunning blunder that could have cost the Yankees a run. He also doubled and stole two bases.

“Amazing. Volpe, he did it all tonight,” Gleyber Torres said.

Austin Wells and Torres added homers for the Yankees, who broke open the game with a five-run eighth. New York had scored just seven runs in the first three games.

Los Angeles closed within 6-4 in a two-run fifth that included Will Smith’s homer off starter Luis Gil and an RBI grounder by Freeman. Despite a sprained right ankle, Freeman beat a relay to avoid an inning-ending double play on what originally was ruled an out but was reversed in a video review.

Wells hit a second-deck homer in the sixth against Landon Knack, and Verdugo added another run-scoring grounder in the eighth ahead of Torres’ three-run homer off Brent Honeywell.

Tim Hill, winning pitcher Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza strung together five innings of one-hit relief with seven strikeouts, and the Yankees avoided what would have been their first losing Series sweep since 1976.

Game 5 is Wednesday night, with the Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of Game 1.

New York’s Aaron Judge drove in his first run of the Series with an RBI single in the eighth and is 2 for 15 in the four games. Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani also is 2 for 15 after going 1 for 4 with a single, his first hit since partially separating his left shoulder in Game 2.

Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams to take 3-0 Series leads went on to sweeps, all but the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs, the 1937 Yankees against the New York Giants and the 1970 Baltimore Orioles against the Cincinnati Reds. All three of those Series ended in five games.

New York stopped a seven-game Series losing streak against the Dodgers dating to 1981. The Yankees got their first seven RBIs from the bottom three hitters in their batting order, Volpe, Wells and Verdugo, who had entered 4 for 32 with three RBIs in the Series.

“I don’t think anyone expected those guys to lay down. We had some at-bats that I thought could have been better, but we knew it was a bullpen game,” Roberts said. “As far as outcomes, to have six guys in your ‘pen that are feeling good, rested, I feel good about that.”

Freeman homers again, makes history

Freeman homered when he deposited a slider from Gil into the right-field short porch following Mookie Betts’ one-out double. He became the first player to homer in the first four games of a World Series and his streak of long balls in six straight games is one more than Houston’s George Springer 2017 and ’19.

Freeman’s walk-off grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning turned around the opener, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 win. The Yankees had not led since then.

Volpe walked in the second against rookie Ben Casparias, reached third on Wells’ double off the centre-field wall and scored on Verdugo’s groundout.

Losing pitcher Hudson loaded the bases in the third when he Judge with a pitch with one out, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled off the right-field wall and Giancarlo Stanton walked. Anthony Rizzo popped out and Volpe hit the record sixth slam of the postseason.