Shohei Ohtani won his first World Series on 30 October 2024, as the Los Angeles Dodgers closed out the New York Yankees 4-1. The title capped a season in which he became the first player to reach 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases.
Down 5-0, the Dodgers turned three Yankee errors into a title
The clinching Game 5 at Yankee Stadium looked lost early. Before the second out of the second inning, the Yankees led 5-0, riding home runs from Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. off Jack Flaherty.
The game turned in the fifth. Gerrit Cole had not allowed a hit, but Judge then dropped a fly ball, Anthony Volpe threw wide of third, and no one covered first base. Three mistakes opened a five-run inning for Los Angeles.
Freddie Freeman drove in two with a single and Teoscar Hernández tied it with a two-run double. The Dodgers won 7-6, the largest comeback ever to clinch a World Series.
A 50-50 season, sealed by a first ring in New York
The championship was Ohtani's first World Series appearance in his first year with the Dodgers. He played through a left shoulder subluxation and a torn labrum, injuries suffered while stealing a base in Game 2, staying in the lineup to the end.
For the club it was the eighth title in franchise history and the first since 2020. The Series was only the fifth Dodgers-Yankees final in more than half a century.
"We just take advantage of every mistake they made in that inning," Teoscar Hernández told reporters afterwards. "We put some good at-bats together."
A record-setting individual season now carried a team prize. For Ohtani, the ring answered the one question his numbers had not.
