NEW YORK— It had felt so close, but it remained so hard to cement.

For more than a decade, the Dodgers strived for more than just regular-season success. More than just repeat trips to the postseason. More than just a lone COVID bubble championship in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

This was supposed to be, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman had declared time and time again, a “golden age of Dodgers baseball,” a generation of organizational excellence unparalleled in the storied but often tortured history of the century-old franchise.

The fact that this had not yet happened caused annual internal consternation. So much so that even Friedman’s deep-pocketed bosses got fed up.

While the Dodgers courted then-free agent Shohei Ohtani over the winter — pitching the two-time star and two-time MVP as the missing piece to the team’s still-incomplete legacy — it was the club’s Mark Walter-led ownership group that yielded the most results. resounding message.

“They said when they look back on the last 10 years, even though they made the playoffs every year and won a World Series ring, they consider that a failure,” Ohtani said later at his introductory Dodgers press conference. “When I heard that, I knew it was all about winning.”

From the fires of last October’s failures, the Dodgers have forged a new resolve this year.

And in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, it led them to a championship in the most stunning of ways.

Despite trailing the New York Yankees by five runs in the first three innings Wednesday night, the Dodgers pulled off a title-winning rally. They scored five times in a fifth-inning rally fueled by shockingly poor Yankees defense, including a drop line drive into center field by Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole’s confusing decision not to cover first base.

The Dodgers’ final Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees to capture the 2024 World Series title.

After falling behind again in the sixth inning, the Dodgers once again found an answer. In the top of the eighth, they loaded the bases against Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle, then hit two sacrifice flies off closer Luke Weaver to take the lead.

The final six outs were stressful, with Blake Treinen bringing in the eighth, and – in another unthinkable turn – starting pitcher Walker Buehler coming up for the save in the ninth.

As the final out was recorded, a club so hungry to add to its 2020 title came pouring out of the dugout and harassing Buehler on the mound.

They had finally crossed the threshold of baseball immortality. They confirmed the golden age they had been chasing for so long.

With a 7-6 loss to the Yankees, securing a four-games-to-one series victory, they were once again baseball champions.

Fight, scratch and claw until the end.

This Dodgers team always seemed destined to reach the mountaintop. They took care of that in the winter, when a roster already led by former MVP winners Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman was bolstered by the additions of Ohtani, Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, expected top prospect Tyler Glasnow and veteran outfielder Teoscar Hernández; and re-signing the most central figure from the franchise’s recent past, future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

In the regular season, they led the Majors with 98 wins, won the National League West for the eleventh time in the last twelve years and watched Ohtani make history with a historic 54 home run, 59 steal campaign that will surely result in its third season. MVP award.

However, completing the franchise’s recent regular-season superiority with another World Series championship wasn’t easy.

There was a scandal early in the season, when Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the team and later arrested for stealing nearly $17 million from the slugger to cover gambling losses.

There were injuries throughout the campaign, from Betts’ broken hand in June to Freeman’s broken finger in August, to a litany of pitching losses that sidelined Yamamoto for three months and put Glasnow, Kershaw and standout rookie Gavin Stone in the ‘ postseason’.

There was also setbacks in October. Freeman was limited by a severely sprained right ankle. Betts and Ohtani both had early playoff problems. And in the NL Division Series, the club was eliminated after just three games against the rival San Diego Padres.

World Series MVP Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman celebrates immediately after the team’s title victory over the Yankees in Game 5.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“It was just a chore to go through the Padres in that DS,” Roberts said.

However, nothing felt as difficult as Wednesday’s title victory.

After rallying against the Padres and then eliminating the New York Mets in six games to win the pennant, the Dodgers rode the momentum of Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series to a three-point lead games against one. Wednesday evening.

And after blowing one closeout opportunity in Game 4, they seemed headed for another missed opportunity early.

With four batters in the bottom of the first inning, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead on home runs by Judge and Jazz Chisholm off starter Jack Flaherty. By the end of the third it was 5-0, with the Dodgers still looking for a hit on Cole, the Yankees’ ace.

But in the top of the fifth inning, everything changed.

After a leadoff single by Kiké Hernández, the Yankees defense suffered a total capitulation.

The righty flat out dropped a line drive off the bat of Tommy Edman, but then couldn’t throw to second in time to catch Hernández, who made a heads-up turn to slide in safely.

Short stop Anthony Volpe then made an error and made a throw to third base on a ground ball by Will Smith, loading the bases with no outs.

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1. Freddie Freeman runs past third base and scores in the fifth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 2. New York Yankees star Aaron Judge celebrates after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 3. Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen pounds his chest after the bottom of the seventh inning in Game 5 of the World Series against the Yankees. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 4. Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty sits in the dugout after being pulled in Game 5. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 5. Mookie Betts celebrates with teammates after driving in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Cole was on the verge of breaking out of the inning after striking out Gavin Lux and Ohtani in consecutive at-bats. But when Betts first hit a slow grounder to Anthony Rizzo, Cole didn’t run across to cover the base. Hernández scored. Everyone else was safe.

When the comeback window suddenly opened, the Dodgers made sure to take immediate advantage.

Freeman hit a two-run single to center, tying a World Series record with his 11th and 12th RBIs of the week. Teoscar Hernández tied the score in the next at bat, blasting a two-run double over Judge’s head to left center.

The Yankees would take the lead again after Giancarlo Stanton hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

But in front of a stunned crowd of 49,263 people, they never fully recovered.

Kahnle set up the Series-deciding jam in the top of the eighth, giving up singles to Kiké Hernández and Edman before walking Smith to load the bases. The Yankees turned to Weaver, their closest, in an attempt to escape the jam. But he yielded sacrifice flies to Lux and Betts, giving the Dodgers a 7-6 lead.

Despite having virtually no relievers left, the Dodgers did not want to relinquish the lead.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani celebrates in the locker room with his teammates while holding the World Series trophy after their victory over the Yankees.

In what was his third inning, Treinen ran into trouble in the eighth, as two Yankees reached base with only one out. Buehler was warming up at the time. So did veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson.

But as Roberts walked to the mound, he decided to leave Treinen there. The decision paid off. Treinen got a flyout from Stanton and a game-changing, swinging strikeout from Rizzo to end the inning.

That left the ninth for Buehler, who was just two days removed from a winning five-inning start in Game 3.

It was his first relief appearance of his postseason career. And, as an impending free agent, possibly his last appearance with the team.

Sixteen pitches later, he threw his arms in the air as Alex Verdugo whiffed at a curveball for a championship (and golden era cementing) strike three.

Highlights from the Dodgers’ title victory over the Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series.