Yankees-Dodgers World Series Game 2 storylines

Coming in, this Dodgers-Yankees matchup made for one of the most anticipated World Series in recent memory. And then Game 1 happened and exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations. No one’s ever going to forget it. And we get to do it again Saturday. Incredible.

Here are the five biggest storylines heading into Saturday’s Game 2 at Dodger Stadium.

World Series Game 2: Yankees at Dodgers
8:08 p.m. ET, FOX
SP: Carlos Rodón (NYY) vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD)

1. Can this series possibly top that ending we just saw?
“You’re 5 years old in the backyard right there,” Freddie Freeman said on the FOX broadcast, moments after he hit a walk-off grand slam to win Game 1 of the World Series and seconds before his teammates poured a bucket of Gatorade on his head. There were immediately many comparisons to Kirk Gibson’s home run off Dennis Eckersley to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers, but, honestly, Freeman’s homer stands on its own.

Remember, not only has Freeman been hobbled by a sprained ankle for a month, but he has been through hell this year, with his son Max being hospitalized with Guillain-Barre syndrome over the All-Star Break and still on the road to recovery. There have been many moments this baseball season I’ll never forget, but Freeman’s press conference when he returned to the Dodgers, after Max turned the corner and began the long process of healing is atop the list, as it would be for any parent:

To go through that, to overcome an injury, to win a game for your team (the team you grew up cheering for) like that … that’s just the dream of what baseball — and really, sports — can be. Later in the Freeman interview, Freeman apologized to his dad for screaming in his face after hitting that homer. You weren’t the only one screaming, Freddie. That was one of the coolest baseball things we’ve ever seen.

2. Is this going to be a 90s-style series moving forward?
There was a perfect bunt! One starter made it into the sixth, and the other made it into the seventh! It was low-scoring and incredibly stressful! Most of Game 1 felt like it took place at least a few decades ago, an old-school battle between two terrific starting pitchers with a dash of small ball and a couple of big flies making all the difference. Is the whole series going to be like this? Probably not, all told.

These are two teams built on getting the games to their bullpens, and while the Yankees have more “traditional” starters — including Rodón, who looked strong in the ALCS — expecting anyone in this game to throw that many innings, particularly with an off-day on Sunday, is probably a mistake.

As for the bunts … well, Kiké Hernández dropped down a beautiful one for the Dodgers in the seventh inning, a classic deaden-the-ball-on-the-bat job, the way your high school coach taught you how to do it. It moved runners to second and third with one out exactly like it was supposed to … and then the Dodgers still didn’t score. (And may have gotten Clay Holmes settled in by giving him an out.) I know you all got excited by some 90s baseball there for a second, but this series, moving forward, will still be settled the 2024 way.

3. Stanton is the ultimate wild card
Someday, we’re going to all have a big discussion about whether or not Giancarlo Stanton, who will probably end up with 550 homers or so when it’s all said and done, is a Hall of Famer. But right now, as he plays in his first World Series for a fanbase that has not always wholly embraced him, he is exactly what you want in a tight, taut matchup like this one: A guy who can change the game out of nowhere, with one swing, at any time.

Stanton is 5-for-22 combined in the ALCS and World Series, but all five of those hits are home runs. That’s called making your hits count! There is so much going on in this series, with bullpen usage and platoon advantages and a billion other little details between two very evenly matched teams. But all those little tweaks around the edges can get blown up real quick when a huge man hits a little ball a very long way. Stanton nearly won Game 1 for the Yankees with one swing. Who’s to say he won’t do it again?

4. How much rope will the Dodgers give Yamamoto?
On one hand, we’ve all got an off-day on Sunday, and the bullpens weren’t beaten up that bad in Game 1. You’d think the Dodgers, a team always happy to empty the ‘pen when needed, would be ready to unload it in Game 2. On the other hand, they’re already planning to have a bullpen game this series (likely in Game 4), and they’ve got Walker Buehler, who has had his moments but can’t be completely counted on at this point, in Game 3. You only get so many bullets, you know?

If Yamamoto gets in trouble in, say, the second inning, will manager Dave Roberts let him figure it out or go to the ‘pen instantly? The off-day makes you think he’ll be liberal with the hook, but there’s a long series ahead. You can’t pitch the bullpen five or six innings every game, can you? It would be very helpful for the Dodgers if Yamamoto would just be the guy they thought he was when they signed him this past offseason.

5. Uh, are all the games going to be like this?
A fantastic factoid from The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner: Friday was the third consecutive World Series Game 1 to be tied in the ninth inning. That’s pretty exciting! The bad news there is that neither of those last two series ended up going the distance or even being all that dramatic in the end. But c’mon: This Game 1 sure felt like an augur for what this whole series is going to be like, right?

These are two deep teams with excellent bullpens, packed with stars, outfitted with all sorts of different ways to win a baseball game. And that’s exactly what we saw in the Game 1 thriller: A game in which every pitch felt like the end of the world. (Until one from Nestor Cortes finally was.) It was a game that required both the big things and the little things to win … which sure looks like it’s going to be the case every game this whole series. Can there please be six more games after this? Please?