About five minutes into Game 3 of Yankee Stadium’s first World Series game since Hideki Matsui drove in six runs to beat the Philadelphia Phillies on Nov. 4, 2009, the crowd was buzzing with hope that the Yankees could break through after two close calls. Los Angeles sang a vulgar chant for Freddie Freeman.

It didn’t cover the entire stadium, but it was heard quite enough as a crowd followed the Reggie Jackson line of “they don’t boo nobodies,” though it’s doubtful that “Mr. October” meant booing, vulgarities included.

A few pitches later, Freeman homered again, deflating an already anxious crowd that FOX commentator David Ortiz noticed was lacking some energy. When Freeman’s final home run landed in the right field, he earned the distinction of tying Barry Bonds (2002) and Hank Bauer (1958) as the third player with home runs in the first three games of a Fall Classic, although those players did in a World Series that went the distance as Bonds and the Giants lost to the Angels and Bauer and the Yankees pulled off the same comeback as the 2016 Cubs by winning by three games to one.

“For a guy like Freddie, who really doesn’t need anything more to cement his legacy,” said Max Muncy, “this was a pretty special run.”

When it comes to facing New York’s baseball teams, Freeman is someone special, as neither team has been coming out much lately. The Mets avoided it in the NLCS because Freeman was nursing an ankle he sprained on September 26, but the majority of the 207 times they faced him did not go well.

While Freeman’s .303 average is six points lower than Chipper Jones against the Mets, he is a .163 hitter in 24 regular season games against the Yankees.

Unless the Yankees expand the World Series to seven, Freeman won’t get close to 14 hits in his regular season meetings with the New York American League team. The reason the Yankees will have to be the first team to make it seven games after losing their first three games is Freeman, who is eagerly anticipating possibly experiencing the fifth champagne-soaked celebration at what is now Yankee Stadium.

He has four hits in the World Series, three of which are home runs, making him a likely MVP barring some sort of stunning comeback by the Yankees. The other is a triple that is equally impressive because of the ankle injury that caused him to go 7-for-32 in the first two rounds.

“I think I’m seeing the ball really well,” Freeman said in an understatement for Mets fans and a comment that becomes the same for Yankee fans.

And perhaps even more impressive is that Freeman stands on one leg because of his ankle. He’s feeling better now since the Dodgers gave him six days off by inviting him to the NLCS clincher against the Mets, but still not 100 percent.

“We went to Freddie several times and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got the last two series for you,’” Max Muncy said. “This is Freddie telling us, ‘Hey, I got you this time.'”

Freeman isn’t as hobbled as Kirk Gibson was in 1988, but still not completely healed. He had his Gibson moment with the first game-ending grand slam in World Series history by connecting Nestor Cortes with nearly the same spot as Gibson in the series opener after an ill-fated intentional walk to Mookie Betts and his homer was the started a series of frustrating events for the Yankees.

A night later, he hit one of Los Angeles’ three home runs off Carlos Rodon, who apparently pitched with a blister. And he did it again four pitches in his ninth World Series game, giving the Yankees and the fans their worst-case scenario.

But despite being hobbled a bit, Freeman has been able to jump on three inside fastballs and drive them a total of 350 yards. And in doing so, Freeman looks as confident as all those moments when he turned into the Cyborg of Chipper Freeman or Freddie Jones in those meetings with the Mets, against whom he first homered on April 16, 2011.

“We all know how great Freddie Freeman is, of course. I think the few days after their Championship Series obviously stood him in good stead and helped him, especially probably in the batter’s box,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s getting out of the swings that you’re normally used to seeing Freddie get out of, whereas maybe that didn’t happen in the previous rounds with the injury.”

And while the Yankees are seeing the swings that Freeman normally makes, the swings they often see from Aaron Judge are missing, making it very likely that the Dodgers will be celebrating their eighth title in the near future and toasting Freeman for being the MVP.