Yankees blow Game 1 of World Series on Freddie Freeman's walkoff grand slam

LOS ANGELES — After a 15-year wait, the Yankees returned to the World Series with a classic.

And with the emotional roller coaster and dazzling destruction that can only be delivered in October.

Playing in the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009, the Yankees squandered one-run leads in the eighth and 10th innings and let Game 1 slip through their fingers on Freddie Freeman's swing at a sold-out and shaking Dodger Stadium on Friday night. .

The Yankees were stunned by the walk-off grand slam Freeman hit on the first pitch he saw from Nestor Cortes, sending the heavyweights to a 6-3 loss to open the World Series.

“It's hard. We played a good ballgame,” Gerrit Cole said after pitching six one-run innings. “Obviously, they did enough to win the game.”

The Yankees went ahead in the 10th behind a Jaz Chisholm Jr. single, two steals and an RBI groundout by Anthony Volpe, but any breather was followed by a slap in the face.

In the bottom of the 10th, Jack Cousins ​​walked Gavin Lux before Tommy Edman singled.

Cortes, fresh off a flexor strain, did his job against Shohei Ohtani with an assist from Alex Verdugo.

The left fielder hit the foul wall and pounced on it for a spectacular grab.

“We've got a big guy there, and we've got to get one more,” Verdugo said of his thought process. “We got the bases-loaded, lefty-lefty matchup we wanted.”

But the matchup they wanted backfired. Aaron Boone's decision to go with Cortes over Tim Hill didn't pay off when Freeman blasted Cortes' fastball on the night in Los Angeles.

“Just liked the matchup,” Boone said of the decision. “The reality is [Cortes has] Throwing the ball really well the last few weeks because he's ready for it.”

Cortes said he was ready, and his momentum was intact.

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But he wanted the four-seamer 2 or 3 inches higher, and instead it was low enough to wreck Freeman.

“I knew this runway was for me,” Cortes said of her look of relief, “and I didn't get it done tonight.”

These all-timers include: a Cole-Jack Flaherty old-fashioned pitchers' duel; Juan Soto defensive lapse that led to the first Dodgers run; a Giancarlo Stanton two-run moonshot; An Ohtani double destroyed the tying run; a Gleyber Torres deep drive that turned a fan into Jeffrey Mayer, reaching and gloved the ball to rule out a double; And Aaron Judge got his chance and let it go, all before a 10th-inning uppercut.

Yes, the most-hyped Fall Classic in recent memory delivered and delivered on the play: two star teams that seemed almost guaranteed to be evenly matched turned out to be almost evenly matched.

In a tough contest like this, small mistakes are magnified, and the Yankees made those small mistakes.

Sloppy defense helped the Dodgers tie it in the eighth.

Ohtani sent a double off Tommy Kahnle and the right-field wall that handled Soto and dropped him to second.

The ball deflected off Torres' glove and bounced into no-man's land, allowing Ohtani to take third.

The extra 90 feet was crucial when Luke Weaver entered and allowed a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly.

The Yankees were perhaps a foot shy of regaining the lead in the top of the ninth when Torres hit a deep fly ball to left-center.

It was a chance and ended up in the gloves of a fan – who reached the field of play for the souvenir.

With Torres only given second base and stranded at third, Judge came out with the bases loaded.

The Yankees offense was frustrated all game except for Stanton, who blasted a two-run homer in the sixth that was the only run the Yankees staff needed.

Cole was more flashy than dominant through six innings in which he allowed four hits, walked none and struck out four.

The Dodgers' run against the ace came in the fifth, when Kike Hernandez sent an extra-base hit into the right-field corner.

Soto went for the catch instead of carrom, the ball was out of reach and Soto raced past it.

The overrun allowed Hernandez to advance to third with a one-out triple.

Will Smith lifted a fly ball down the right-field line that became a sac fly while Soto fired a two-hop throw home that reached too late, scoring the first run of the game.

The last four runs hurt the most.

“We've already talked about it,” Boone said of the crusher. “We're fine.”