The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions after winning a thrilling Game 5 at Yankee Stadium.
After falling behind 5-0 early, the Dodgers took advantage of a miscue-filled fifth inning by the New York Yankees to even the score before finally pulling ahead in the eighth inning.
We've got it all covered, from live updates and analysis during the game to takeaways after the final pitch and our lasting impression of L.A.'s Fall Classic triumph.
Dodgers -- from the stars to the supporting cast -- are World Series champs
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Takeaways
Los Angeles Dodgers 7, New York Yankees 6
Dodgers: There might have been more talented Dodgers teams in this era. There have definitely been healthier ones. This one, though, was the most perseverant. And so it was fitting, perhaps, that on the night they clinched, the Dodgers overcame a five-run deficit and used eight relievers -- one of them a starting pitcher by trade -- to secure 23 outs in a come-from-behind victory over the Yankees in Game 5. The last of those relievers was Walker Buehler, the Game 3 starter who had been dreadful as a reliever throughout his career and had been six years removed from his last stint out of the bullpen.
When Buehler took the mound in the ninth inning, the Dodgers had taken advantage of a litany of Yankees mistakes to score five runs against a dominant Gerrit Cole in the top of the fifth and used back-to-back eighth-inning sacrifice flies by Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts to take their first lead. In the next half-inning, a tiring Blake Treinen had confronted a two-on, one-out situation and gotten out of it unscathed. Then Buehler came in and retired the bottom of the Yankees' lineup in order, securing the Dodgers' first championship since 2020 -- and their first full-season title since 1988.
The 2024 Dodgers saw a number of starting pitchers suffer season-ending injuries. On the night they clinched a division title, Freddie Freeman sprained his ankle. On the night they took a 2-0 lead in this World Series, Shohei Ohtani slightly dislocated his shoulder. They needed to stage a bullpen game to save their season against the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series and required a walk-off, Kirk Gibson-style grand slam from Freeman to win the opening game of this World Series. Over and over again, they proved they were up for any challenge. -- Alden Gonzalez
Yankees: All year, right through the American League Championship Series, the Yankees masked a propensity for sloppiness with overwhelming talent. They were the worst baserunning team in the majors during the regular season. They regularly committed defensive miscues. They were not as fundamentally sound as one would expect for a team this good. But the Yankees boasted superstars. They banged home runs. They out-talented teams.
Until they couldn't.
Their shortcomings finally caught up with them in Game 5. A total meltdown of a fifth inning, one that will be remembered as one of the worst in World Series history, cost the Yankees their season. Aaron Judge flubbed a routine fly out for his first error of the entire year -- regular season or postseason. Anthony Volpe couldn't make an accurate throw to third base. Gerrit Cole didn't cover first base on what would've been an inning-ending groundout, opening the floodgates. From there, the Dodgers scored five runs to tie the game. The Yankees retook the lead even after all of this -- but fumbled it away again in the eighth inning.
It was that fifth inning that really cost the Yankees a chance to hop on a flight to Los Angeles and continue their attempt to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win the World Series. Their talent won out against the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians in October. The Dodgers were too good for that to happen again. -- Jorge Castillo
Lasting impression of this World Series: The 120th World Series ended with the Dodgers in a pile on the mound and the Yankees stunned by an all-time awful fifth inning that allowed the Dodgers to win their eighth championship. The two-error frame, compounded by one mental blunder, will go down as one of the worst half-innings in Yankees history, turning a 5-0 lead into a 5-5 score. It also speaks to a series won on the margins.
The Dodgers scored 25 runs to the Yankees' 24. New York outhomered, outhit and outwalked Los Angeles. And yet the Dodgers won the World Series in convincing fashion, over five games, because they were better in close contests. It took a walk-off grand slam in Game 1, a pair of 4-2 wins (Games 2 and 3) and a 7-6 nail-biter in Game 5, but the Dodgers didn't make any enormous mistakes, and the Yankees handed them gift after gift in the deciding game.
The battle of superteams and superstars went to the Dodgers and Ohtani. He won his first World Series, even as he barely contributed. Freeman tormented Yankees pitchers all series, and he was the clear MVP. Tommy Edman, acquired at the trade deadline, followed his NL Championship Series MVP performance with another excellent showing. Teoscar Hernandez was clutch too.
This is the Dodgers' second title in five years -- and their first in a full season since 1988. They will get even better as a coterie of pitchers return. The Yankees, meanwhile, will face the questions not only about how they blew the lead in Game 5 but whether Juan Soto -- their best player all postseason -- will return, as a jackpot awaits in free agency. -- Jeff Passan
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