NEW YORK — — You’ve got to hand it to Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And not just because the Yankees certainly did.

When New York allowed LA back into World Series Game 5, the Dodgers did what they’ve done all year: kept going.

After using three miscues to erase a five-run deficit in the fifth inning during one of the most memorable midgame meltdowns in baseball history, the Dodgers used sacrifice flies in the eighth inning by Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts to beat New York 7-6. on Wednesday evening.

“In spring training we said we were going to do this and we did it,” Betts said, champagne stinging his eyes.

Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning for New York. Alex Verdugo’s RBI single chased Jack Flaherty in the second, and Giancarlo Stanton’s home run in the third inning against Ryan Brasier gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead.

In the dugout, the Dodgers remained focused.

“We were like, just take one, chip away, chip away,” Freeman said.

Mistakes by Judge in center and Anthony Volpe at shortstop, combined with pitcher Gerrit Cole’s failure to cover first on Betts’ grounder, helped Los Angeles score five unearned runs in the fifth.

Of the 234 teams trailing by five or more points in a Series game, the Dodgers became only the seventh to win.

“This will stick forever,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I’m devastated.”

After Stanton’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning put the Yankees back ahead 6-5, the Dodgers loaded the bases against loser Tommy Kahnle in the eighth before the sacrifice fly flew off Luke Weaver.

Judge doubled off winner Blake Treinen with one out in the bottom half and Chisholm walked. Manager Dave Roberts walked Treinen to the mound at 37 pitches.

“I looked into his eyes. I said, how are you feeling? How much do you have left?” Roberts recalled. “He said, ‘I want it.’ I trust him.”

Treinen retired Stanton on a flyout and struckout Anthony Rizzo.

Walker Buehler, making his first relief appearance since his rookie season in 2018, threw a perfect ninth for his first Major League save.

When Buehler struck out Verdugo to end the game, the Dodgers poured onto the field to celebrate between the mound and first base, capping a season in which they won 98 games.

As several thousand Dodgers fans remained in a largely empty stadium, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred presented the trophy on a platform quickly erected above second base.

Ohtani, the Dodgers’ $700 million record holder and baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-steal player, went 2 for 19 with no RBI and had one hit after dislodging his left shoulder during a stolen base attempt in Game 2. Ohtani went pouring champagne on teammates through the clubhouse and having it sprayed on him

“We were able to get through the regular season, I think, because of the strength of this team, this organization,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “The postseason success is very similar.”

Freeman hit a two-run single to tie the Series record of 12 RBI, set by Bobby Richardson over seven games in 1960, and was named Series MVP. With the Dodgers one out after losing Friday’s opener, Freeman hit a game-ending grand slam reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s homer off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of 1988 that led Los Angeles to the title.

The Dodgers won their eighth championship and seventh since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles – their first in a non-shortened season since 1988. They won a World Series on a neutral site against Tampa Bay in 2020 after a 60-game regular season and were able to don’t. holding a parade due to the coronavirus pandemic.

These Dodgers of Ohtani, Freeman and Betts joined the Duke Snider and Roy Campanella Boys of Summer of 1955, the Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale era that included the three titles from 1959-65, the Tommy Lasorda-led groups of 1981 and ’88, and the 2020 Betts and Clayton Kershaw champions.

Roberts ended a season that began with a gambling scandal involving Ohtani’s interpreter during the opening series in South Korea and won his second championship in nine years as Dodgers manager, matching Lasorda and trailing Walter Alston’s four. The Dodgers won for the fourth time in 12 Series meetings with the Yankees.

New York has remained without a title since finishing at a record 27th in 2009. The Yankees acquired Juan Soto from San Diego in December, knowing he would be eligible for free agency after the 2024 Series. The 26-year-old star went 5 for 16 with one RBI in the Series, heading into what will be closely monitored in open market bidding.

“I’m open to listening to any team,” Soto said. “I haven’t closed any doors or anything like that, so I will be available for all thirty teams.”

Judge finished 4 for 18 with three RBI.

“You can’t give a good team that many extra outs,” Judge said. “It starts with me there in the line drive coming in, misrepresenting that. So that doesn’t happen, so I guess we have a different story tonight.

Cole did not allow a hit until Kiké Hernández singled in the fifth inning. Judge, who made a leaping catch off the left-center wall an inning earlier to deny Freeman an extra base hit, dropped Tommy Edman’s fly to center. Volpe then bounced a throw to third base on Will Smith’s grounder, allowing the Dodgers to load the bases with no outs.

Cole struck out Lux and Ohtani, and Betts grounded to Rizzo – a slow Mookie grounder turned the 1986 World Series, by the Mets’ Mookie Wilson against Boston.

Cole didn’t cover first and pointed to Rizzo, who didn’t attack because he was afraid the spinning ball would get past him. Betts outjumped Rizzo to the bag.

“I took a bad angle to the ball,” Cole said. “I wasn’t really sure how hard he hit. … By the time the ball got to me, I wasn’t in a position to cover first.

Freeman followed with a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández hit a tying two-run double.

“When you get extra outs and you take advantage of those types of games, it’s huge,” Freeman said. “If we get it back on even terms, you can just feel the momentum building.”

Stanton’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning off Brusdar Graterol gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead, but the Dodgers rallied one last time in the eighth after Kiké Hernández singled off Kahnle to lead off, Edman followed with an infield hit and Smith walked on four pitches.

“We faced every adversity possible and overcame them all,” said Freeman, who won his second title with Atlanta after 2021 and rebounded from a sprained ankle to homer in each of the first four Series games.

The Dodgers were purchased by Guggenheim Baseball Management in 2012 and hired Andrew Friedman from Tampa Bay two years later to run their baseball operations. He bolstered the front office with a host of analytics and performance scientists, and ownership provided the money.

Los Angeles spent an unprecedented $1.25 billion last offseason on deals involving Ohtani, pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and James Paxton, and outfielder Teoscar Hernández. Much of the money was in future liabilities, bringing the Dodgers’ deferred compensation to $915.5 million between 2028 and 2044.

Faced with injuries, the Dodgers acquired Flaherty, Edman and reliever Michael Kopech before the trade deadline, and they all became key cogs in the title run. The additions increased the payroll to $266 million, third behind the Mets and Yankees, plus a projected luxury tax of $43 million.

Los Angeles will celebrate Friday with a parade on what would have been the 64th birthday of Dodgers great Fernando Valenzuela, who died three days before the Series opener.

“It will be emotional for all of us,” Roberts said.

NEXT

Los Angeles opens its spring schedule on February 20 against the Chicago Cubs at Camelback Ranch, and the Yankees open the next day against Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB