2024-10-30 10:10:03
NEW YORK — The almighty cheer that erupted from Yankee Stadium very well might have been heard as far away as the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where Anthony Volpe spent the early years of his life as a young Yankees fan.
Heck, the sound might have carried all the way to where he grew up in New Jersey, too.
That’s because Volpe’s first postseason homer was, at last, the hit for which these Yankees have been starved all week — a grand slam off Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson that sent New York on its way to an 11-4 victory in Game 4. The homer gave New York new life in an elimination game (Los Angeles leads the best-of-seven Series, 3-1) and also marked the sixth grand slam overall this postseason, an MLB record.
“I didn’t know I got it,” Volpe said to FOX after the game. “And then I blacked out right when it went out.”
The Yankees hadn’t led in this World Series since the walk-off grand slam from Freddie Freeman in Game 1 — but with a grand slam of his own, Volpe finally gave his team a spark, and not a moment too soon, with the Yankees desperately trying to avoid a sweep.
“The Yankees and the organization and growing up watching these guys had such a big impact on my life, on my relationships – my relationships with my parents, my sister, everyone,” Volpe said. “The memories watching them, we still talk about. I think that’s what makes the Yankees the Yankees, and the city and these fans and everything about it. There’s nothing like it.”
It had been Freeman, of course, who had put the Dodgers firmly on the path toward that Fall Classic sweep with yet another homer in the first inning, a two-run blast that made him the first player to homer in six consecutive World Series games.
At last, the Yankees had an answer — with the slam that made this the first World Series since 1987 with multiple grand slams (Kent Hrbek and Dan Gladden for the Twins) and the first since ‘64 with a slam on each side (Ken Boyer for the Cardinals, Joe Pepitone for the Yankees).
The energy in the Bronx built as Hudson plunked Aaron Judge with one out in the third, mounted as Jazz Chisholm Jr. rocketed a single off the right-field wall and rose to a fever pitch when Giancarlo Stanton took a walk to load the bases.
And following a frustrating series of missed opportunities in big moments for these Yankees, Volpe finally released the tension with the eruption that followed his first-pitch swing on a down-and-in slider to left-center, sending the ball 390 feet into the euphoric left-field bleachers.
