LOS ANGELES – After a 15-year wait, the Yankees returned to the World Series with a classic.

And with an emotional rollercoaster and dizzying devastation that can only be experienced in October.

Playing in the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009, the Yankees blew a lead in the eighth and 10th and let Game 1 slip through their fingers with a Freddie Freeman hit.

The Yankees were stunned by a walk-off grand slam by Freeman Nestor Cortes in a 6-3 loss in Game 1 to open a heavyweight World Series.

The Yankees stormed ahead in the 10th with a single by Jazz Chisholm Jr., two steals and an RBI groundout by Anthony Volpe, but every exhale was followed by a slap in the face.

In the bottom of the inning, Jake Cousins ​​walked Gavin Lux with one out before Tommy Edman's ground ball was knocked down by a flying Oswaldo Cabrera, who got two outs. There came Cortes, fresh from a flexor muscle strain, doing his job against Shohei Ohtani with the help of Alex Verdugo, with the left fielder hitting the foul wall and tripping over it to make a remarkable grab.

But that only set the stage for the end: Freeman sent Cortes' first pitch into the Los Angeles night.

This all-timer included: an old-fashioned pitchers' duel between Gerrit Cole and Jack Flaherty; Defensive deficiencies from Juan Soto led to the Dodgers' first run; a two-run moonshot from Giancarlo Stanton that seemed to score all the points the Yankees needed until it didn't; an Ohtani destroyed the double that led to the decisive run; a deep drive from Gleyber Torres that turned a fan into Jeffrey Maier, who reached out and gloved a ball that was ruled a double; Aaron Judge took his chance and let it go before the uppercut in the 10th inning.

Yes, the most hyped fall classic in recent memory delivered drama and competition: the two star teams that seemed about equal certainly seemed about equal.

In such close contests, small mistakes are magnified, and the Yankees made those small mistakes that led to two runs.

Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver combined to equalize in the eighth, helped by sloppy defense. Against Kahnle, Ohtani smashed a double off the right field wall that Soto handled and hurled to second base. The ball bounced off Torres' glove and landed in no man's land in the infield, sending Ohtani to third.

The extra 90 feet counted as Weaver stepped in and allowed Mookie Betts to make a sacrifice fly.

The Yankees were just shy of regaining the lead early in the ninth when Torres hit a deep fly ball to left-center. It had a chance and ended up in the glove of a fan who had apparently reached into the field for the souvenir. Torres was only given second base and Soto was intentionally walked to bring out Judge. But Judge, who finished 1-for-5 with three strikeouts, emerged in what has been a poor October so far.

The Yankees failed to break through for five innings against Flaherty, who was given a one-run lead in part due to poor play by the Yankees defense. But as has happened so often this month, a Stanton turnaround offered hope.

The DH, down 2-0 against Flaherty, watched as a knuckle curve dropped but didn't drop – a pitch that was below the strike zone but at least in the same area. If Flaherty had intended to bury the offering, Stanton buried it in a very different manner.

Stanton bent his left front leg to jump in front of the court and played golf, turning his club into a 9-iron that sent a 412-foot rocket to the moon. As is often the case with this hitter, there was no doubt: Stanton admired his work in the batter's box for a few seconds before beginning his slow trot around the bases for his sixth home run of the postseason and fourth straight game with a dinger.

For a long time it seemed as if that was the only momentum needed.

Cole was more brilliant than dominant in six one-run innings in which he allowed four hits, did not walk and had four strikeouts. He survived early hard contact and produced surprises for the Dodgers, including a sinker that Ohtani fouled out – a pitch Cole threw only 12 times all season.

The Dodgers' run ended against a rolling Cole, who had allowed just one hit in the first four innings. With one out in the fifth, Kiké Hernandez sent an 0-2 four-out to the outside corner down the right field line. Soto wanted to catch the ball rather than the carom throw, the ball was just out of his reach and Soto ran past it. The overrun allowed Hernandez to reach third with a one-out triple.

Will Smith then lifted a fly ball down the right field line that wasn't hit particularly far. Soto ran hard and caught it on the run before slamming home a two-jump throw that came too late to catch Hernandez on the game's first run.