Los Angeles Dodgers win MLB World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in five games and claimed the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series. It's the eighth franchise title for the Dodgers, who won their last in 2020. The Dodgers and the Yankees last met in the World Series in 1981, which Los Angeles won 4-2.
Freddie Freeman earned the Willie Mays MVP Award. He drove in 12 runs in five games, tying a World Series record that the Yankees' Bob Richardson set in 1960 in seven games, and joined the Astros' George Springer (2017) as the only player to homer in four straight. He extended his personal record, dating back to 2021, when he played for the Atlanta Braves, to six.
His first homer in the 2024 World Series made history. Freeman walked off Game One with a grand slam. It was the first walk-off grand slam ever hit in the World Series.
The 35-year-old slugger accomplished all that after severely spraining his ankle towards the end of the regular season.
"I did a lot of work between the National League Championship Series and the World Series," Freeman said. "Thankfully, my ankle got into a good spot where I could work on my swing, and I found a cue that really worked for me. I was able to slow things down. All you're trying to do is swing at strikes, take balls and hit the mistakes. Thankfully, I was able to do that for five games."
Freeman, who holds American and Canadian citizenship, represented the US at the WBSC 2005 World Youth Baseball Championship, later renamed the WBSC U-16 Baseball World Cup. He played for Canada at the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics.
The Dodgers clinched their eighth World Series title the hard way. They won Game Five 7-6, becoming the first team in a World Series-clinching win to come back from down five or more runs and the first team in MLB postseason history to erase a five-plus run deficit, fall behind again and win the game.
2024 World Series Results
Dodgers-Yankees 6-3 (10 innings)
Dodgers-Yankees 4-2
Dodgers-Yankees 4-2
Yankees-Dodgers 11-4
Dodgers-Yankees 7-6
After helping Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto celebrated again together.
Yamamoto limited the Yankees to one hit over 6.1 innings and earned a win in Game Two. It was the second postseason win for the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist and Premier12 2019 winner.
Shohei Ohtani appeared in all five games despite hurting his left shoulder in a failed steal attempt in Game Two. He only collected two hits.
Another international baseball alum contributed more. Teoscar Hernandez, representing the Dominican Republic at the inaugural WBSC Premier12, went 7-for-20, a .350 batting average, with one home run and four RBIs.
WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup 2013 winner Anthony Volpe helped the New York Yankees win their only 2024 World Series. The 23-year-old shortstop hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw from reliever Dan Hudson in Game Four's bottom of the third. It was his first postseason home run, the 34th in 319 MLB games.