news right here on HQ. Find it on CBS sports HQ streaming free anywhere you are. This is what dreams are made of. Bottom of the 10th. Two outs, bases loaded. Freddie Freeman facing Nestor Cortez down a run. Walk me off the first walk off. Grand slam in World Series history. Wait, what did you just say? Say that again. The first walk off grand Slam in World Series history. You're telling me there's never been one of these ever? In the history of the World Series? 120 World Series, we've never know it just happened. We just saw something we've never seen before. A dream world Series, a nightmare for the Yankees in game one. Oh, my goodness, what a game. Sign me up for six more of those six three. The final. The homer hits the over. How about that? Freddie Freeman nursing a badly sprained right ankle and plays the role of hero, a former MVP, won a World Series with the Braves in 2021.
Now looking to lead the Dodgers to a world Series title here in 2024. Wow. Holy smokes. Game one of the World Series. Are you kidding me? David Samson, Bobby Valentine and 2013 World Series champ Will Middlebrooks will in the wall. David, I'm going to go to you first. Holy smokes. Your reaction is what? What is Nestor doing on the mound? We're talking here.
We're watching the game. When he's added to the roster. I'm expecting him to be there for length and as a backup plan, but they actually went to him. And guess what happened? Bobby and Will, it was game over. Nestor Cortez, first time pitching in a month. In the 10th inning. They deserve it with the way they played. Well, David, he was well rested and he only threw two pitches. So two pitches he got Ohtani out for intentional walk.
You know, what are you going to do. He got Ohtani out on one pitch. They didn't overuse him. Oh my goodness. That David was bonkers. That was Will. That was bonkers. Was that not bonkers. Absolutely insane. I mean this this absolutely is what we wanted in game one. It's what we want for seven games. But when you have two teams that are this evenly matched, it comes down to pure execution. And that's not just players. What David just said. It comes down to managers too, because why is Nestor Cortez in that game at all? I thought he was warming up to come in if the game got tied to cover a couple innings in extra, that should have been Tim Hill on the mound facing those lefties. He's had success in the postseason. Nestor hasn't pitched in over a month and you put him in that spot. Bobby, what are we doing? Why not go to Tim Hill there? Well, all I can tell you is that we'll learn to second guess managers like that.
When he played for me in Boston, you know, and he's good. He's exactly right. That's all I can tell you. But I thought it was Hill's spot in the game. There had to be a lot of five day meetings where they saw Nestor throwing in the bullpen, and the guns were on him, and all the nonsense was there, and they said, he's ready, he's ready, and he'll be ready for Ohtani. So don't worry about it, because he's got big game guts. All that stuff went right down the drain. But he threw he's he's rested for tomorrow if they need him. I mean that is incredible that they went to Nestor Cortez. We talked about how he said he would trade an injury for a ring. Well, he just gave up a grand slam. The first walk off grand slam in World Series history. Bobby, we're going to second guess not only Aaron Boone for the decision there, but also you talked about this pregame the defense.
Think about all the mistakes that were made in this game. Soto misplays a ball in right field that allows Kiki Hernandez to get to third. They take the lead on a sac fly. You talk about the defense where there's a throw coming in from the outfield. Gleyber Torres off his glove. Nobody's backing it up. And they tie it at two. You know what was cool about that. Ohtani was actually doing his team dance and realized the ball got away and still went to third. He had his game awareness going while he was celebrating with his teammates.
I thought that was neat. And I think that was a bad route by Soto right there. There were plays that should have been made that weren't, and it could have been the difference to the game right here where this throw comes in David and one hops Torres boom. But Rizzo needs to be there. Well he should be walking behin. So let's see. He should be trailing the runner and he wasn't. And it's frustrating.
But the pitcher you got to be in the right position there. And the first baseman gets that ball well. Well he's got to be there. Well he's an infielder. You know that. That's his ball to be there 100%. You know we talk about David. We talked about this yesterday. The little things might not win you games but they can lose you games. And in that situation there's a lot to unpack. It's a short hop. You know there's not a play behind you as an infielder. You don't try to just glove, swipe, pick that, square it up, take it off the chest. There's no play at second base. But then Anthony Rizzo, he's a veteran player.
He knows this. Once that runner is going to second base you're out of the play. The pitcher's towards third base in case of a triple, and it's your job to trail that base runner for exactly that. For the ricochet, for the ball that clanks off the glove for some reason trickles away. And there's someone there in that dead area between the mound and second base that's on Anthony Rizzo. Right there. Yes, Torres should have caught that ball, but Rizzo's got to be there. Well, I'm going right back to you. As a former player, how do the Yankees pick themselves up after this? I mean, a walk off grand slam.
Like, you can sit here and say, we're going to flush it. We could have gotten beat 12 to 2. That's a demoralizing way to lose a game. That's a tough one. You got to wake up and do it again at Dodger Stadium. It's a really tough place to play. You just got to hope your your superstars step up and go off tomorrow. What's really tough is you lose a Gerrit Cole outing as evenly matched as this as this World Series is, Gerrit Cole was the one advantage. It felt like the Yankees had, even though he wasn't himself today he was. And that was that advantage. And they couldn't get the win in that start. So you're putting the ball in Carlos hand and it's a it's a coin flip with him.
He could pitch like an ace or he could give up four in the first couple innings. You don't really know which which Carlos Rodon you're going to get. I think we knew that the bullpens were going to play a huge factor in this game, and we haven't mentioned Jack Flaherty or Gerrit Cole, who both provided great starts for the Dodgers and Yankees respectively. But when it came down to it and that's what this series is going to be a battle of bullpens at the end of the day.
And if the Yankees continue to play sloppy and make mistakes, the Dodgers are going to take advantage. So in order for the Yankees to prevail or the Dodgers, frankly, they have to be crisp and you have to have the better bullpen effort. And it's clear what happened today. The Yankees did not get the better bullpen effort. Yeah, well, neither team's bullpen did what they had to do. You know, Treinen gave up stolen bases and base hits. Weaver came in and gave up the sac play with a man on third, where he could have gotten a strikeout to keep that run from scoring.
Yes. So this is all even on bullpens doing nothing. And defense and baserunning wasn't on par for either team either. Edmonds falling down around second base. You know, the plays that we already cited. So yes, stealing bases at hand, you know, easily. You know, Josh Chisholm had two hits three stolen bases. He's on his way to a pretty good series. He is. You're right. But he's going to need the Yankees to win the whole thing. Come back because Freddie Freeman I know and a losing team.
You can't your losing team you can't get an MVP, right? I mean it's happened before. According to Bobby. It's over. Look, will I told you that there was four World Series that went nine games. Let's just make this a nine game World Series. I mean, this has been incredible already to make this and this is already lived up to the hype.
And through what which I mean, we've we've beaten a dead horse with this. We talked about it over and over again. How good this is for baseball. Have this many superstars and future Hall of Famers between the white lines going at this is baseball at its absolute best right now. So Hakeem, however many games we can talk to the players union into, to letting them play, let's do it. What does it say about Freddie Freeman? The injury at the end of the regular season sprained his right ankle. He gets a week off here before game one of the World Series. But to be in that spot and do what he did and I know he's a veteran and a former MVP and a World Series champion, but what does that say about him being back in the lineup, being available and having a really good, really good game? One, because that ball he was first pitch swinging.
But just what he did in this game. Yeah my guy Jonathan Papelbon said the best ability is availability. So even him and his 70% or whatever it was over the last series, it was good to still have him in there in the box. He went one for 16 before that. Coming into this series, you know, and watching his swing and it's his right ankle. So that's the one. When he swings he kind of rolls over on his front side a lot on that front ankle. And I'm sure that has been killing him. So those five games, those five days they had off to rest. That and whether they I'm sure they had already put a cortisone shot in it before that, but that enabled him to just rest it, let that medicine set into that joint and get better. The five days was huge because I mean, he hit a triple also early in the game. I know that feels like it was a week ago because we have so much to unpack through through the extra inning ballgame we just watched.
But look, this lineup's a gantlet, right? You have Shohei in the two hole and then it's or leading off and then you have oh another MVP, mookie Betts. Oh and by the way, there's a third one waiting just in case you get to him. And it's just like you've got to run out of gas as a pitching staff looking at these guys. Yeah. Freeman into third on the Verdugo mistake there. And again Verdugo made a heck of a catch on the Ohtani play. But at the end of the day it is Freddie Freeman who plays the role of hero in game one. The first walk off grand slam in World Series history. Wow. That is incredibl. Game two. Here we go. Carlos Rodon, Yoshinobu Yamamoto oh my goodness man Aaron Boone better make them forget about this quick because well that's a tough one to take on the chin as you take a look at the Dodgers last six extra inning World Series games. Look at that one. In 2018. We were thinking that maybe we would we would head to that.
The one that went 18 innings and over seven hours instead. No, they take care of business quickly. In the botm of the 10th inning, Freddie.