Inside Freddie Freeman's historic walk-off grand slam and more from Dodgers clubhouse after Game 1

Immediately after the swing of his life, a walk-off grand slam to win Game 1 of the World Series, Freddie Freeman ran behind home plate and celebrated with his father Fred.

If there is anyone who knows what Freeman has endured to get to this point, it’s his father. When he was growing up, he and Fred drove to an open baseball field near their home in Orange County and hit three buckets of baseball’s almost every day. It was where one of the most compact and consistent swings in major-league baseball was born. And once Freeman touched home plate, he locked eyes on Fred celebrating with fans, and bolted toward his father.

“My swing is because of him,” Freeman said. “My approach is because of him. I am who I am because of him.

Freeman added: “That’s mostly his moment because if he didn’t throw me batting practice, if he didn’t love the game of baseball, I wouldn’t be here playing this game. So that’s Fred Freeman’s moment right there.”

But getting to this moment for Freeman has been what multiple Los Angeles Dodgers teammates described as “heroic.” All postseason, Freeman has battled a sprained right ankle that has impacted every facet of his game: his swing, his ability to run the bases and at times, even his ability to walk across the diamond. He has spent more time in the training room before and after games than at any point throughout his career. 

Still, Freeman has insisted on playing through the injury. He has missed only three playoff games. At one point in the National League Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts was asked whether Freeman — who was 7-for-32 in the postseason leading into the World Series — was hurting the team by continuing to play. But the Dodgers, both Roberts and hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc insisted, never wavered in their thinking: if Freeman could play, they wanted him in the lineup.

“I want Freddie out there all the time,” Van Scoyoc said. “Freddie is a generational player. He’s probably a Hall of Famer. I want him there every single day.”

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Freddie Freeman, Dodgers benefited from extra rest after NLCS

The five-day break between the NLCS and World Series allowed Freeman the chance to reset. Most of his days were spent in the trainer’s room rehabbing his right ankle. He did crosswords to kill time. It was his first extended break since suffering the injury — an ailment that was supposed to sideline him 4-6 weeks — that ultimately only kept him out of the lineup eight days.

It wasn’t until Wednesday — two days before Game 1 of the World Series — when teammates started to notice a change in Freeman. It started with his mannerisms. It extended to his swing. Then when he took batting practice that afternoon, Enrique Hernandez said, “it didn’t look like it did a couple days prior.”

Added Hernandez: “I’m glad that we didn’t finish the Mets in five games and that we did it in six, so that the World Series started tonight and not on Tuesday. The extra couple days helped him and a lot of the other guys as well.”

The bottom of the 10th inning, and everything that led into Freeman’s historic moment, underscored just how potent and devastating the Dodgers’ lineup can be. It started with a Gavin Lux walk and Tommy Edman single off of Yankees right-hander Jake Cousins. Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ $700 million star, flew out to left field against left-hander Nestor Cortes.

Then Aaron Boone, preferring the lefty-to-lefty matchup, elected to intentionally walk Mookie Betts to load the bases to get to Freeman. On the first pitch, Freeman laced a 93 mph fastball into the left field bleachers to seal a 6-3 win in Game 1 of the World Series. It marked the first hit with runners in scoring position on the entire night for the Dodgers while also being the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.

After the game, Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech sat at their lockers and discussed the magnitude of the home run that Freeman had hit only minutes earlier. Ben Casparius sat at his locker, scrolled Instagram and watched the home run on repeat while Anthony Banda looked over his shoulder. After the third time watching, Banda looked down at his left arm and said, “That just gave me chills.”

“Those are the kind of things when you’re five years old with your two older brothers. You’re playing wiffle ball in the backyard, those are the scenarios you dream about: two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game,” Freeman said. “For it to actually happen and get a home run and walk it off to give us a 1-0 lead, that’s as good as it gets right there.”