NEW YORK — The 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers were lined with stars but ravaged by injury. They had spent an entire season overcoming adversity.
And in the end, when it was time to clinch a championship, they did it once more, erasing a five-run deficit and using seven relievers — including starting pitcher Walker Buehler — to cover 23 outs in a 7-6, come-from-behind victory over the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night.
With that, the Dodgers clinched their eighth title in franchise history, their first since the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season and their first in a full season since 1988. The Dodgers became the first team to use more than seven pitchers to clinch a championship.
Their comeback was a product of the multitude of opportunities presented to them in the fifth inning. Aaron Judge had a flare hit directly at him ricochet off his glove, Anthony Volpe threw wide of third base on an attempted force out, Anthony Rizzo fielded a slow roller but had nobody to flip to at first base. With two outs and the bases loaded, Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run single and Teoscar Hernandez added a two-run double, tying the score at 5-5.
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole had been cruising through the first four innings, keeping the Dodgers hitless while throwing only 49 pitches. He then threw 38 pitches in a fifth inning that required six outs. The Yankees re-took the lead on Giancarlo Stanton’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth and preserved it when Clay Holmes came in relief of Cole to strike out Max Muncy with two on and two out in the top of the seventh. But the Dodgers broke through again in the eighth.
Enrique Hernandez and Tommy Edman began with back-to-back singles and Will Smith walked on four straight pitches, prompting Yankees manager Aaron Boone to replace Tommy Kahnle with Luke Weaver, who recorded four outs in Game 4. Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts followed with sacrifice flies, giving the Dodgers their first lead — one they would not give up.
The Yankees threatened in the bottom half, with two on and one out against a tiring Blake Treinen. Daniel Hudson and Buehler, the Game 3 starter who has struggled throughout his career out of the bullpen, were warming up. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts came out for a brief chat with Treinen, who then got Stanton to fly out and struck out Rizzo, ending the threat.
Buehler checked in for the ninth and retired the bottom of the Yankees’ lineup in order. He spread his arms out wide and looked over at his dugout, then was promptly mobbed.
It was a fitting capstone for a dominant run. The 2020 to ’24 Dodgers became the first team since the 1953 to ’57 Yankees with multiple World Series titles and a winning percentage of .640 or better over a five-season span, according to ESPN Research.
