How could it end any other way?

They were Yankees-Dodgers. It was Freddie Freeman against Nestor Cortes. It was bases loaded and two outs. It was the 10th inning in Game 1 of the World Series. It was the slugger with a sore ankle against a southpaw who hadn’t pitched in a month.

And it was swinging on the first pitch. A stove that captured too much of the plate. Freeman launched a walk-off grand slam into the right field seats of Dodger Stadium and grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat on Friday night. The Dodgers captured Game 1 6-3.

That came after Jazz Chisholm Jr., acquired at the trade deadline from the Yankees, gave them the lead in the top of the 10th inning. He singled, stole second and third base and then scored the go-ahead run off Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen. But Freeman and the Dodgers had a definitive answer.

Freeman’s swing ended a classic Game 1. Both starting pitchers excelled. There were big swings in both directions. The Dodgers took a lead, the Yankees took the lead and then went all out on extras.

The Dodgers struggled to get anything going against Yankees starter Gerrit Cole, but three of their four hits yielded extra bases. In the fifth, Juan Soto’s tricky route into right field turned a would-be double into a triple for Enrique Hernández, who scored on Will Smith’s sacrifice fly.

Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty bounced back beautifully from a rough start last time out. He didn’t let Juan Soto or Aaron Judge beat him. But then Giancarlo Stanton did. In the sixth, Flaherty spun an inside curveball under the zone, and Stanton smoked it to left field for a go-ahead two-run home run. It was Stanton’s sixth homerun this postseason. Crucially, the Yankees left the bases loaded that inning, with lefty Anthony Banda striking out Alex Verdugo.

The Yankees were perfectly positioned to close out the game, with Cole leaving after six-plus innings of one-run baseball and the Yankees bullpen completely rested. Ohtani disrupted those plans. He hit a double high from the center field wall off reliever Tommy Kahnle and went to third when Soto’s throw jumped short Gleyber Torres. Another misplay, another run on a sacrifice fly.

In extras, Chisholm raced home when diving Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman bobbled Anthony Volpe’s grounder, which could have been a double-play ball to end the inning.

The Yankees turned to reliever Jake Cousins. Gavin Lux walked with one out, and Tommy Edman singled on a grounder that bounced off second baseman Oswaldo Cabrera’s glove. Cortes came in and faced Ohtani, who flied out to left on a fantastic catch by Verdugo that took him into the stands. The Yankees intentionally walked Mookie Betts, setting up the left-to-left matchup with Freeman.

The team that won Game 1 has won the World Series 24 of the last 30 times. With one mighty swing, Freeman put the Dodgers on the right side of that statistic.