LOS ANGELES — About the whole “whole new ballgame” thing.
What if that’s a whole bunch of baloney?
Because if you’re the Dodgers and Freddie Freeman has, only hours before, set off an impromptu firework show across L.A. with his historic blast in the 10th inning to win Game 1 of the World Series, no, you don’t try to immediately turn the page.
Why would you want to?
All you want to do is keep the good times going. And so the Dodgers have, chasing Game 1’s dramatics with a 4-2 victory in Game 2, jumping ahead 4-1 on Saturday night and holding off the New York Yankees after that at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers now need only two more victories as the best-of-seven World Series heads to New York, with Games 3, 4 and, possibly, 5, set for Monday, Tuesday and potentially Wednesday.
It was, as Ice Cube – the rapper and Saturday’s pregame opening act, would tell us – a couple of good days in L.A.
Would have been all good if the Dodgers’ global superstar Shohei Ohtani hadn’t hurt his left shoulder sliding into second base in the seventh inning Saturday.
Seeing their biggest star walk off the field cradling his arm took some wind out of the Dodgers’ sails, but still, a steady wind is still at their backs heading east.
The first two victories of this series will, of course, be remembered most for Freeman’s grand slam off of New York Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes on Friday night – the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, and the kind of thing you wear for a bit after experiencing it.
Either as a badge of honor or as a bruise.
One of those where-were-you-when sports moments, an all-timer that went down as just the third walk-off home run in postseason history by a player whose club was trailing, à la Joe Carter in 1993 and Kirk Gibson’s iconic shot for the Dodgers in ’88.
The type of thing that, depending on your perspective, had you going to bed either in a state of bliss or fury, and waking up the same way.
And when you’re on the right side of a spectacle like that, it’s probably not hard to convince yourself that it’s fate knocking: After all, it’s been documented that Gibson’s homer had landed at 8:38 p.m., and that Freeman’s cleared the wall at 8:39 p.m.
“We celebrated the heck out of last night, as I thought we should have,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who acknowledged Saturday was “a new day” but “I do think there’s some kind of momentum, excitement that will carry over to (Saturday’s) game.”
So, no, Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas told me Saturday morning – with Friday’s roaring crowd still echoing in all of our consciousness, he didn’t plan to flush that feeling. He wanted to ride it. Relish it. Add some mustard.
“We use that as a momentum and as a confidence booster,” said the Dodgers’ veteran, who returned to the lineup after being left off the Dodgers’ National League Championship Series roster with an adductor injury.
“Knowing that we’re down to the last out … knowing that you walk one guy to face another Hall of Famer is really good on our side.”
The Yankees have future Hall of Famers on their team, too, of course. But those guys had to absorb Freddie’s Friday gut punch, and they were left reeling, pressing and guilty – especially in presumptive American League MVP Aaron Judge’s case – of over-reaching for pitches.
So far this series, Judge has gone 1 for 9 with six strikeouts, including swinging and whiffing six times in his four at-bats. For the postseason, he’s 6 for 40 with two homers and 19 strikeouts.
And without his help, the Yankees mustered only four hits Saturday – and only against starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto – though they did load the bases with one out in the top of the ninth inning.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, added some Ice Cube to their cup running over with good vibes and proceeded to hit Yankees starter Carlos Rodón as if they were batting around beach balls, tagging him with six of their eight hits and all four of their runs in 3⅓ innings.
“You definitely do need to ride some emotions, but you also have to understand that each day is a new day,” Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts said after he went 2 for 4 with a run Saturday, extending the playoff success that eluded him in recent years. “You need to enjoy it, but you also have to understand there’s business to take care of.”
Or as reliever Alex Vesia put it after he came on to record the final out, getting Jose Trevino to fly out: “It’s not always gonna go our way. But one pitch at a time, one out out at a time, Dodgers all the way.”