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Freddie Freeman Has Kirk Gibson Moment as Dodgers Stun Yanks

 There is a line in the movie "Moneyball" where Brad Pitt says, "How can you not be romantic about baseball?" 

Well on Friday night in Los Angeles, in a city known for Hollywood endings, Freddie Freeman not only won a World Series game for the Dodgers, he channeled the legend of Kirk Gibson from the 1988 World Series. 

It was at the end of that Game 1 of the '88 Fall Classic that Gibby cracked a three-run homer to win it for the Dodgers over the Oakland A's.  

Freddie Freeman celebrates his Grand Slam. Getty Images.

Ironically, Gibson was hobbled by a bad hamstring, and his at bat was a pinch hit. 

Likewise, Freeman -- a veteran player and borderline Hall of Famer, was also hobbled by a lower leg injury, his ankle. 

Both hitters are left handed. 

And the home run that Gibson hit 36-years ago, and the Grand Slam that Freeman hit on Friday night, both wound up in nearly the same location in the right field bleachers. 

Talk about symmetry. 

Baseball is wild cat. 


 

For the Yankees this game will live in infamy, especially if they fail to come back and win this series. 

Fans will point out, and they already are pointing out that Manager Aaron Boone took a huge risk bringing in a rusty Nestor Cortes into the tenth inning with the Yankees up 3-2, and needing only two outs. Cortes has been sidelined since September 18. Why bring him in this spot? It made no sense. 

Not to mention, it appeared in the top of the ninth that the Yanks may have been robbed a potential Gleyber Torres homer when video review showed that a fan had reached over the wall, caught it and pulled the ball back into the crowd. 

The home run was reversed, and Torres was awarded a double. The Yankees didn't score in the inning. 

Still the Yankees had their moment.

- Giancarlo Stanton's two-run bomb still hasn't returned to orbit. The blast gave the Yanks a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning. 

- Jazz Chisholm used his legs to help manufacture the go-ahead run in the top of the tenth to give the Yankees a brief 3-2 lead. 

- Gerrit Cole was dominant over six stellar innings of work. Should the Yankees have left him in at 88 pitches? 

- And don't forget Alex Verdugo's Jeter-esque play on a Shohei Ohtani pop up into foul territory in the bottom of the tenth. 

The Yankees find their backs to the wall in Game 2. Yoshinubo Yamamoto goes for LA, while Carlos Rodon will toe the rubber for the Yankees.


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