Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman launches himself into history with dramatic grand slam to win Game 1 of the World Series

With one swing of the bat, Freddie Freeman ensured the most anticipated World Series in years would live up to the hype.

With one swing of the bat, Freddie Freeman ensured the most anticipated World Series in years would live up to the hype. With his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th inning, down to their last out, Freeman took the first pitch he saw into the right field grandstand at Dodger Stadium and sent more than 50,000 fans into delirium as the Dodgers took Game 1 of the World Series by a score of 6-3. It was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. It was a moment that echoed one of the most famous swings in baseball history – Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series at the same ballpark. The parallels were uncanny: Freeman, like Gibson, is hobbled by a leg injury that has nagged him throughout the playoffs and the ball landed in the exact same grandstand that Gibson’s home run landed 36 years ago. Freeman yelled “I like that” as teammates dumped cold water on him to celebrate the victory. “That’s stuff [when] you’re five years old in the backyard right there,” Freeman told the FOX broadcast. “That’s a dream come true, but that’s only one. We got three more.” It was a magical October moment that capped off a tense affair that couldn’t be settled in nine innings.