NEW YORK (AP) — Fifteen years after little Anthony Volpe watched the Yankees parade with the World Series trophy, he saved their season and kept alive hopes for an improbable title.
New York had moved closer to getting swept in the World Series when Freddie Freeman hit another first-inning home run.
Volpe, a New York native whose family idolizes the pinstripes going back generations, turned on a knee-high slider and perhaps reshaped the Series, too. His third-inning grand slam sparked the Yankees to an 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night that forced a Game 5.
“The place was shaking. I felt the ground literally shaking,” Yankees catcher Austin Wells said.
Wells and Gleyber Torres added homers for the Yankees, who broke open the game with a five-run eighth.
New York, which had scored just seven runs in the first three games, had some of its swagger back. Wells spoke after the game wearing a “Fully Operational Death Star” Yankees T-shirt, referring to general manager Brian Cashman’s 2018 quip.
Fans in the sellout crowd of 49,354 chanted Volpe’s name during the ninth inning.
“It’s like you finally got to see the top blow off Yankee Stadium in a World Series game,” Aaron Boone said after his first World Series win as New York’s manager. “When Anthony hits that ball, it was like fun to see Yankee Stadium erupt.”
Wells said the dire situation after Monday’s loss had relieved the pressure.
“Why not go out tomorrow and have fun?” he described as the mood.
Freeman homered for his sixth straight Series game when he deposited a slider from rookie Luis Gil into the right-field short porch following Mookie Betts’ one-out double. He became the first player to homer in the first four games of a World Series and his streak of long balls in six straight games is one more than Houston’s George Springer 2017 and ’19.
“I’ll look back on it after hopefully we win and get this thing done tomorrow,” Freeman said. “Pretty cool. Obviously, hopefully I can keep it going tomorrow.”
Game 5 is Wednesday night, with the Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of Game 1.
Seeking to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 Series deficit, New York surged ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second and Volpe’s drive against Daniel Hudson.
“All it takes is just one swing,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said.
