The Los Angeles Dodgers are one win away from clinching their second World Series in five years, after a 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees in the Bronx gave them a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
There were few home comforts to be found at Yankee Stadium as the Dodgers again proved superior at the plate and on the mound, taking an early lead which they never surrendered.
With the Yankees trailing 4-0 and down to their last strike in the bottom of the ninth inning, Alex Verdugo’s two-run homer threatened an incredible comeback – but it was too little, too late.
The Dodgers had sprinted out of the starting gate with a 2-0 advantage in the top of the first as Shohei Ohtani, nursing a shoulder injury from game two, drew a leadoff walk and Freddie Freeman smashed his third home run of this World Series.
And after Mookie Betts drove in Tommy Edman for 3-0, Yankees starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt was pulled before the end of the third inning.
The hosts kept themselves in the contest by stranding five Dodgers baserunners in the next two innings, and finally registered their first hit with a Giancarlo Stanton double in the fourth.
But a terrific throw from Teoscar Hernandez in left field nailed Stanton at the plate when he looked set to score on an Anthony Volpe line drive.
The Dodgers, boosted by five scoreless innings thrown by starter Walker Buehler, added another run in the sixth when Gavin Lux was hit by a pitch, stole second base and was batted in by Enrique Hernandez.
And just as they had in the first two games in California, the Yankees continued to struggle until Verdugo’s late effort, with star batter Aaron Judge hitless once again.
The series continues on Tuesday evening, again at Yankee Stadium, with the hosts needing to win to avoid a humiliating 4-0 sweep.
No team has ever come from 3-0 down to win a World Series. Indeed, only once has a team trailed 3-0 and won any MLB seven-game play-off series, when the Boston Red Sox overhauled the Yankees 4-3 in the 2004 American League Championship Series.