NEW YORK – You have to hand it to Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And not just because the Yankees certainly did.

When New York left LA behind in Game 5 of the World Series, the Dodgers did what they had done all year – they moved on.

After taking advantage of three errors to erase a five-run deficit in the fifth inning during one of the most memorable midgame collapses in baseball history, the Dodgers took advantage of eighth-inning sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts to lead New York by 7 :6 to beat on Wednesday evening.

“In spring training we said it and we did it,” Betts said, champagne stinging his eyes.

Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning for New York. Alex Verdugo's RBI single chased Jack Flaherty in the second inning, and Giancarlo Stanton's third-inning home run off Ryan Brasier gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead.

The Dodgers remained focused in the dugout.

“We just wanted to get one, hit it, hit it,” Freeman said.

Errors by Judge at center and Anthony Volpe at shortstop, as well as pitcher Gerrit Cole's failure to cover Betts' grounder to first, helped Los Angeles score five unearned runs in the fifth.

Of the 234 teams to trail by five or more runs in a Series game, the Dodgers became only the seventh to win.

“This is going to hurt forever,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I am heartbroken.”

After Stanton's sacrifice fly in the sixth inning gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead again, the Dodgers loaded the bases in the eighth against loser Tommy Kahnle before the sacrifice fly was batted away by Luke Weaver.

Judge doubled winner Blake Treinen with one out in the bottom half and Chisholm walked. Manager Dave Roberts took Treinen to the mound after 37 pitches.

“I looked him in the eyes. I said, how do you feel? “How much more did you get?” Roberts recalled. “He said, 'I want it.' I trust him.”

Treinen retired Stanton on a flyout and struck out Anthony Rizzo.

Walker Buehler, making his first appearance as a reliever since his rookie season in 2018, pitched a perfect ninth in his first major league save.

When Buehler struck out Verdugo to end the game, the Dodgers streamed onto the field to celebrate between the mound and first base. This capped a season in which they had won 98 games.

With several thousand Dodgers fans still remaining in a mostly empty stadium, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred presented the trophy on a platform quickly erected over second base.

Ohtani, the Dodgers' record-breaking $700 million signing and baseball's first 50-homer, 50-steal player, went 2 for 19 with no RBI and had a single after reaching on a stolen base attempt in the game 2 had his left shoulder severed. Ohtani walked around the clubhouse, pouring champagne and splashing his teammates

“I believe we were able to get through the regular season because of the strength of this team and this organization,” Ohtani said through a translator. “The postseason success is very similar.”

Freeman hit a two-run single, tying the Series record of 12 RBI set by Bobby Richardson in seven games in 1960, and was voted Series MVP. After the Dodgers lost Friday's opener by just one point, Freeman hit a game-ending grand slam reminiscent of Kirk Gibson's home run off Oakland's Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of 1988, giving Los Angeles the title.

The Dodgers won their eighth championship and seventh since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles – their first in a non-shortened season since 1988. They won a neutral-site World Series against Tampa Bay in 2020 after a 60-game regular season and made it not holding a parade because of the coronavirus pandemic.

These Dodgers of Ohtani, Freeman and Betts joined the Duke Snider and Roy Campanella Boys of Summer of 1955, the Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale era that included the three titles from 1959 to 1965, the Tommy Lasorda-led groups of 1981 and 1988 to Betts and Clayton Kershaw are 2020 champions.

Ending a season that began with a gambling scandal involving Ohtani's interpreter during the opening series in South Korea, Roberts won his second championship in nine years as Dodgers manager, tied with Lasorda and behind Walter Alston's foursome. The Dodgers won for the fourth time in 12 Series meetings with the Yankees.

New York has remained without a title since its record-breaking 27th place finish in 2009. The Yankees acquired Juan Soto from San Diego in December, knowing he would be eligible for free agency after the 2024 Series. The 26-year-old star went 5-for-16 with one RBI in the series in an auction that will be hotly watched on the open market.

“I will listen openly to every single team,” Soto said. “I don’t have any closed doors or anything like that, so I’ll be available to all 30 teams.”

Judge finished 4-of-18 with three RBI.

“You can’t give a team that good extra outs,” Judge said. “It starts with me standing there in line and coming in, misunderstood. So if that doesn’t happen, then I think we have a different story tonight.”

Cole didn't allow a hit until Kiké Hernández singled in the fifth. Judge, who an inning earlier made a jumping catch against the left-center wall to deny Freeman an extra-base hit, dropped Tommy Edman's fly to center. Volpe then threw a throw to third base on Will Smith's grounder, allowing the Dodgers to load the bases with no outs.

Cole struck out Lux and Ohtani, and Betts hit a grounder to Rizzo – a slow grounder off a 1986 World Series-turning Mookie Wilson by the Mets against Boston.

Cole didn't cover first and pointed to Rizzo, who didn't attack for fear the spinning ball would get past him. Betts outran Rizzo to the pocket.

“I took a bad angle on the ball,” Cole said. “I wasn't sure from the start how hard he hit. … When the ball got past me, I wasn’t able to cover first.”

Freeman followed with a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández hit a tying two-run double.

“When you get extra outs and capitalize in a game like that, it’s huge,” Freeman said. “For us to get it back on track, you could just feel the momentum building.”

Stanton's sacrifice fly in the sixth inning off Brusdar Graterol gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead, but the Dodgers rallied one last time in the eighth inning after Kiké Hernández Kahnle struck out, Edman followed with an infield hit and Smith on four pitches went.

“We faced all kinds of adversity and overcame every single one,” said Freeman, who won his second title with Atlanta after 2021 and recovered from a sprained ankle to hit a home run in each of the first four games of the series.

The Dodgers were purchased by Guggenheim Baseball Management in 2012 and two years later hired Tampa Bay native Andrew Friedman to head their baseball operations. He bolstered the front office with a variety of analytics and performance science staffers, and the owners supplied the money.

Los Angeles went on an unprecedented $1.25 billion spending spree last offseason on contracts for Ohtani, pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and James Paxton, and outfielder Teoscar Hernández. Much of the money was for future obligations, increasing the Dodgers' deferred compensation to $915.5 million owed from 2028 to 2044.

Given the injuries, the Dodgers brought in Flaherty, Edman and reliever Michael Kopech before the trade deadline, and all became key cogs in the title race. The increases pushed the payroll to $266 million, third behind the Mets and Yankees, plus a projected luxury tax of $43 million.

Los Angeles celebrates the 64th birthday of Dodgers star Fernando Valenzuela, who died three days before the series opener, with a parade on Friday.

“It’s going to be emotional for all of us,” Roberts said.

NEXT

Los Angeles opens its spring tournament on February 20 against the Chicago Cubs at Camelback Ranch, and the Yankees begin the next day against Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB