2024-10-27 00:15:03
Even the casual baseball fan knows all about Kirk Gibson and his legendary walk-off home run. The serious baseball fan knows Dennis Eckersley gave up the home run. The dedicated Dodgers fan knows Mike Davis drew the walk ahead of Gibson.
But even the most diehard among Dodgers fans would struggle to identify the winning pitcher that night.
Blake Treinen, meet Alejandro Pena.
Freddie Freeman made a winner out of Treinen and all the Dodgers on Friday, blasting the first walk-off grand slam in the 121-year history of the World Series, sending a city into delirium and prompting instant mashups of the Gibson and Freeman home runs.
Treinen rescued the Dodgers in the ninth inning of Game 1 against the mighty New York Yankees. The Dodgers rescued him in the 10th inning, when Freeman hit a home run so dramatic it was branded as legendary as soon as it landed.
“That,” Treinen said, “was pretty sick.”
Treinen has emerged as the most dependable arm in a deep bullpen. He gave up one run in August, no runs in September. He had given up one run in October.
In the ninth inning of a tie game, the Dodgers asked Treinen to replace Michael Kopech with the potential winning run on second base. The Dodgers walked Juan Soto intentionally, so Treinen would face presumptive American League most valuable player Aaron Judge.
“There is peace about it,” Treinen said. “There is a peace when you go out and just let it be what it is. You can let the situation get big, or you can just try to live in it and enjoy it.”
Treinen called it a “pick your poison” situation. Neither Soto nor Judge is a welcome sight at the plate, but with Judge the Dodgers had the right-handed Treinen facing a right-handed batter.
Jack Flaherty, the Dodgers’ starter, struck out Judge three times.
“He’s not a guy that you necessarily go in looking to strike out,” Treinen said, “because he is a great hitter. But every hitter gives you a window every now and again. Right there, we were just trying to get some weak contact, or at least change the eye level, and fortunately we got a popup.”
Said Kopech: “Blake has cleaned up after me already some in this postseason, so for him to come and do what he needed to do right there was huge.”
As Treinen returned to the dugout, Kiké Hernández asked him a question.
“Do you want me to end this?” Hernández asked.
That would not be the scripted ending on this evening. The Dodgers were retired in order in the ninth, with Hernández flying out to end the inning.
In the 10th, Treinen gave up a run when Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled, stole second base, stole third base and scored on a force play. During the regular season, eight of nine runners stole successfully against Treinen.
The Yankees led, 3-2.
“Initially,” Treinen said, “pretty bummed that I would be the one with an L next to my name.”
Hernández again told Treinen the Dodgers would pick him up. After the game, Hernández said he had anticipated Shohei Ohtani would hit the walk-off home run.
“Fairy-tale ending,” Hernández said.
Instead, Freeman hit the walk-off home run — and how about the guy who barely could walk delivering his own fairy-tale ending?
“It was barely off the bat before I started blacking out and trying to get to the field. I almost fell over the rail,” Kopech said. “Freddie is a bad man.”
Treinen rushed the plate to join the teammates enveloping Freeman in a huge hug reminiscent of 1988.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team stay on the field for 20 minutes after the final play just to watch in awe and soak in the fans,” Treinen said. “That was the most incredible moment in baseball I’ve been blessed to see.”
Legendary hero: Freeman.
Winning pitcher, with the first World Series victory of his career: Treinen.
“I never thought of that,” Treinen said. “Add it to the list of gratitude for the big guy upstairs.”
