However the 2024 World Series works out, Freddie Freeman’s performance will be remembered for a while.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ first baseman made history in Game 4 on Tuesday with a two-run homer off New York Yankees rookie Luis Gil, putting the Dodgers up 2-0 in the first inning of an elimination game for New York. It was not the longest homer, at 343 feet, but Yankee Stadium will help many left-handed power bats.
For the first time this series, Freeman’s home run was not enough to help propel the Dodgers to victory. The Yankees rallied for an 11-4 win to extend the World Series to Game 5 on Wednesday and cut their deficit to 3-1. Freeman finished his night 1-for-4 at the plate with the home run, one run scored and three RBI.
The history Freeman made is twofold. He is the first player to ever homer in the first four games of a World Series, having been previously tied for the record with Barry Bonds and Hank Bauer at three. He has also now homered in six straight World Series games, having gone deep in the last two contests of the Atlanta Braves’ win in 2021.
Freeman has been among the top hitters in MLB for years, but he has reached another level in this Fall Classic. He also entered this series with no shortage of difficulty, having sprained his right ankle near the end of the regular season and been significantly limited in the first two rounds of the postseason.
Freeman didn’t post an extra-base hit in the NLDS or NLCS, and he missed a couple of games to help his ankle heal, but he now has four homers, plus a triple, in the games that matter most. The most memorable of those home runs was, of course, his walk-off grand slam in Game 1, the first of its kind in World Series history.
