NEW YORK — Anthony Volpe grew up rooting for the New York Yankees and attended their most recent World Series parade in 2009.
Nearly 15 years later, the biggest swing of Volpe’s young career prevented the Los Angeles Dodgers from planning a championship celebration.
Volpe hit a go-ahead grand slam in the third inning and the Yankees avoided a World Series sweep by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-4 in Game 4 on Tuesday.
Los Angeles leads the best-of-seven series 3-1 but was unable to complete the 22nd sweep in World Series history. The Dodgers will attempt to secure their second title in five years and eighth in franchise history on Wednesday when Jack Flaherty opposes Gerrit Cole in a rematch of Game 1.
The Yankees loaded the bases with one out in the third against Daniel Hudson (0-1) when Aaron Judge was hit by a pitch, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and Giancarlo Stanton walked. After Hudson retired Anthony Rizzo on a popup, Volpe drove a first-pitch slider a few rows back in the left-center-field seats for a 5-2 lead.
“I think I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence,” Volpe said.
A New York native and the Yankees’ first-round pick in 2019 out of Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., Volpe was born in 2001 when the Yankees were three-time defending World Series champions. His family had partial season tickets, and when the Yankees advanced to this year’s World Series, his father posted a picture on Instagram of an 8-year-old Volpe standing in the first row of the 2009 parade in Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes.
“My grandfather, the Yankees are more than just a team or an organization for him because his father fought in World War II when he was little, and by the time he got back, his mom basically told him, like, this is your dad,” Volpe said. “He didn’t know him, didn’t recognize him.
“The way he says it, the way he got to know and get to know his father was, he sat on his lap every single night and they listened to the Yankees together. So for him, it’s more than sports.”
At 23 years, 184 days, Volpe became the fourth-youngest player with a World Series grand slam according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only Mickey Mantle (1953 Yankees), Addison Russell (2016 Chicago Cubs) and Gil McDougald (1951 Yankees) were younger when they achieved the feat.
“He’s had his ups and downs offensively,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Volpe, who is hitting .273 (12-for-44) in his first postseason. “I’m convinced that some of the adjustments he made this year will serve him well in the long term. I think we’re starting to see that here in the playoffs with the level of at-bats he’s putting out.”
As Volpe rounded the bases, teammates pounded on the dugout rail and FOX cameras showed New York’s Juan Soto hugging teammate Jose Trevino. After crossing the plate, Volpe was greeted with high-fives.
“That was sick,” said Austin Wells, the Yankees catcher and Volpe’s close friend. “When he hit that ball, I knew it was hard off the bat and we were going to score some runs.”
Volpe entered the at-bat 1-for-12 in the series, though he had scored New York’s first run on Alex Verdugo’s groundout in the second after drawing a walk. Volpe also doubled in the eighth, took third on the front end of a double steal and scored on a fielder’s-choice grounder by Verdugo.
Before Volpe’s slam, Los Angeles’ Freddie Freeman set a pair of records by hitting a two-run homer off rookie Luis Gil in the first inning.
After a double by Mookie Betts, Freeman lined a 2-1 slider into the right field seats, becoming the first player to hit home runs in the first four games of a World Series and the first to homer in six straight World Series games overall.
“We were excited,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “Those guys unfortunately answered back. It was a good ballgame until it wasn’t.”
Freeman wound up driving in three runs, as he beat out a potential double-play grounder in the fifth to get the Dodgers within 5-4. Will Smith homered earlier in the inning off Gil.
Wells went deep in the sixth for the Yankees, who haven’t been swept in the Fall Classic since 1976 against the Cincinnati Reds. Gleyber Torres hit a three-run drive in the eighth.
“They didn’t make it this far by accident,” Betts said. “They’re a really good ballclub and they showed it tonight.”
Judge added an RBI single two batters after Torres homered.
Gil allowed four runs on five hits in four-plus innings. He was lifted after walking Tommy Edman, and Tim Hill gave up Freeman’s third RBI. New York’s Clay Holmes (3-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, and Mark Leiter Jr. got the first two outs of the seventh.
After Leiter fanned Shohei Ohtani on a splitter, Luke Weaver got the next four outs before Tim Mayza finished up with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Los Angeles used a bullpen game for the fourth time in the postseason and fell to 2-2 when doing so. Ben Casparius allowed a run on one hit and three walks in two innings before Hudson served up Volpe’s grand slam.
–Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media
