Volpe slam sparks Yankees slugfest

NEW YORK — Anthony Volpe grew up rooting for the New York Yankees and attended their last World Series parade in 2009.

Nearly 15 years later, the biggest swing of Volpe's young career prevented a Los Angeles Dodgers championship celebration.

Volpe hit a go-ahead grand slam in the third inning, helping the Yankees avoid 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 ace pitchers Jack Flaherty and Gerrit Cole oppose each other 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 into 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, New Jersey, Volpe was born in 2001, when the Yankees were three-time defending World Series champions. His family had a 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.

" (It's down to) 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 tells it, the way he got to know his father was by sitting on his lap every single night as 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 postseason with the level of at-bats he's putting out."

As Volpe rounded the bases, teammates pounded on the dugout rail and TV cameras showed New York's Juan Soto hugging teammate Jose Trevino. After crossing the plate, Volpe was greeted with a series of high-fives and handshakes.

"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, again, off the bat of Verdugo.

Before Volpe's slam, LA's 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," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

"Those guys, unfortunately, answered back. It was a good ball game 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 made the game safe with a three-run homer in the eighth, before Yankees captain Aaron Judge added an RBI single two batters later.

"They didn't make it this far by accident," Los Angeles right fielder Betts said. "They're a really good ball club and they showed it tonight."

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 a scoreless one inning and a third, 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.

REUTERS