NEW YORK – Freddie Freeman set the course in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ quest for the championship with a historic home run – and continued to claw his way to World Series MVP.

Freeman homered in each of the first four games of the Series and then drove in two runs on a two-out single during the Dodgers’ 7-6 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

While Freeman had a record streak of six consecutive World Series games with a smashed homer, he just missed extending it to seven – Aaron Judge grabbed a Freeman drive on the fence early in the game that might have cleared him.

Freeman’s numbers in the series were certainly MVP-worthy — .300, four home runs and 12 RBIs — but it was Freeman’s dramatic Game 1 home run that set the tone for LA’s win.

“I wish I could explain the zone — you just get into one of those zones where everything seems to slow down just enough…sometimes it’s just to get one more pitch,” Freeman said during a postgame interview with Fox then David asked him about it. Ortiz to explain what it feels like to be in the zone he’s been in during this postseason run.

With two outs in the 10th inning and the Dodgers down 3–2, Freeman pulled a fastball from Nestor Cortes into the right-field seats at Dodger Stadium for the first game-ending grand slam in World Series history.

That was dramatic enough, but the blast almost exactly mirrored the game-ending homer by the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 Fall Classic. The similarities were uncanny: Not only was the homer a come-from-behind game winner, but like Gibson, Freeman was hobbled when he hit it. Freeman battled an ankle sprain during the Dodgers’ postseason run, an illness that required near-constant treatment.

While Gibson’s legendary dinger was his only at-bat of the Series, Freeman continued to stomp. He hit a solo homer in Game 2 and a two-run homer in the first inning of Game 3. He homered again in the first inning of Game 4, another two-run shot, breaking a record for home runs in consecutive World Series matches by George Springer of Houston.

The homer streak started when Freeman won his first World Series ring with the Atlanta Braves in 2021. During his World Series career, Freeman hit .310 in 11 games with six home runs and 17 RBIs, the most RBIs of any player in his first two World Series appearances of all time.

Freeman, who signed with the Dodgers before the 2022 season after 12 seasons with Atlanta, has managed to continue to distinguish himself even in LA’s star-laden clubhouse. That’s especially true of his manager, Dave Roberts.

“If I had one player,” Roberts said, thinking about his next words. “I’ve said it before: Overall, he’s my favorite player as far as what he does for the culture, the organization and the team.”

Freeman is on an active streak of seven consecutive World Series games with an RBI, tied for the third-longest streak in history. He has also scored at least one hit in each of his 11 World Series games.

Freeman, the NL MVP in 2020, becomes the 12th player to win a regular season and World Series MVP. Ten of the previous eleven are in the Hall of Fame.