LOS ANGELES — The New York Yankees’ return to Dodger Stadium, the positioning of a star-studded World Collection and an inconceivable Recreation 1, was billed as one in every of this season’s most anticipated matchups. It started in unprecedented style — with Aaron Decide homering within the prime of the primary and Shohei Ohtani answering within the backside half, marking the primary time two reigning MVPs have homered in the identical inning of the identical recreation.
In the long run, Ohtani prevailed.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way phenomenon added one other homer within the sixth, igniting a four-run rally towards a beforehand dominant Max Fried and sparking an 8-5, come-from-behind victory on Friday evening. Ohtani has now gone deep 15 occasions in Could, tying a franchise file for essentially the most house runs in a single month.
“He is spectacular,” Decide stated. “He is among the best gamers within the recreation for a motive. What he can do within the field, on the basepath, as soon as he will get again on the mound — it is particular.”
Ohtani is anticipated to face hitters in a live-batting-practice session at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, his second in a span of six days. His pitching development has been regular in latest weeks, however he isn’t anticipated to hitch the Dodgers’ needy rotation till a while after the All-Star break. Within the meantime, Ohtani continues to be a pressure offensively, slashing .294/.394/.670 with 11 stolen bases and a serious league-leading 22 house runs — three greater than the second-place Decide, whose batting common sits at .392.
“I heard the chants for MVP tonight,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman stated of Ohtani, “and he is very well on his option to doing that once more.”
The Dodgers defeated the Yankees in 5 World Collection video games final fall, claiming their first full-season championship in 36 years. It was a matchup of arguably the 2 most storied franchises, each with bloated payrolls and star-laden rosters. Seven months later, the rematch was simply as adorned. Had Mookie Betts not sustained the toe fracture that’s anticipated to maintain him out for your complete weekend sequence, Friday’s recreation would have marked the primary time in main league historical past that three former MVPs resided in every lineup for a similar recreation.
Decide and Ohtani, although, are the clear headliners — and each performed as marketed. Ohtani homered twice; Decide homered, added a double and made a sensational diving catch deep within the right-center-field hole, robbing Teoscar Hernandez of additional bases.
Mentioned Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone: “Among the stars actually shone tonight.”
Fried was actually one in every of them. The star left-hander normal a 7-0 file and a 1.29 ERA via his first 11 begins with the Yankees and held a 5-2 lead when he took the mound for the sixth inning.
Then the Dodgers got here all the way in which again, drawing recollections of their notorious five-run rally in Recreation 5 of the World Collection. Ohtani began it with a towering house run to proper area. Hernandez and Will Smith added back-to-back singles. Freeman, who ranks simply behind Decide with a .368 batting common, added an opposite-field RBI double. Andy Pages drove in one other run with a single, and Michael Conforto plated the Dodgers’ sixth with a bases-loaded stroll.
The Dodgers added two extra with Pages’ two-run single within the seventh, and a severely shorthanded bullpen — one which misplaced Evan Phillips to Tommy John surgical procedure and has 4 different high-leverage relievers on the injured listing — held the Yankees in verify the remainder of the way in which.
Requested if it reminded him of the Dodgers’ World Collection comeback of Recreation 5, Freeman, who delivered the walk-off grand slam in Recreation 1, stated he “really by no means considered it.”
“That was simply fairly good ball recreation proper there to beat Max Fried, who might be one of many prime 5 pitchers within the recreation proper now. To attain that many runs off him, it’s extremely laborious to do. And a testomony to Shohei, who’s hitting house runs in every single place, after which simply getting guys on, protecting the road shifting, getting enormous hits, and simply tacking on a pair extra runs. That was superior.”
