Dodgers cash in on Yankees’ defensive misplays before Freddie Freeman’s walk-off in World Series Game 1

Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam will be the lasting image to come out of the Yankees’ 6-3 loss to the Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series.

But the Dodgers cashed in on multiple defensive misplays by the Yankees before then to set up Freeman’s dramatic 10th-inning game-winner.

The Yankees were charged with one error in Friday night’s loss in Los Angeles, when second baseman Gleyber Torres was unable to corral a throw from Juan Soto from right field after Shohei Ohtani’s eighth-inning double against reliever Tommy Kahnle.

With the Dodgers trailing, 2-1, Soto’s one-hop throw caromed off of Torres’ glove and skipped into the infield grass, allowing Ohtani to move to third base with one out.

“Just a tough bounce,” Torres said afterward. “I just tried to catch [it]. … I feel like if I block the ball, maybe nothing happens, but it’s part of the game. If I get another opportunity tomorrow, just try to [make] an adjustment.”

Soto was charged with a throwing error on the play, which set up Mookie Betts’ sacrifice fly against Luke Weaver that tied the game, 2-2.

“Once there’s no play, you can really retreat and give ground and get a long hop, but he still got to a short hop,” manager Aaron Boone said of Torres. “You’ve just got to secure it there.”

The Dodgers scored their first run in the fifth inning after Enrique Hernández sent a one-out line drive against Gerrit Cole down the right field line, just past the outreached glove of Soto. The ball then bounded past Soto, and Hernández got to third with a triple.

Hernández scored when the next batter, Will Smith, lifted a sacrifice fly.

And in the bottom of the 10th inning, with one on and one out and the Yankees leading, 3-2, Tommy Edman hit a grounder up the middle, which second baseman Oswaldo Cabrera got his glove on but failed to field cleanly. Cabrera had entered the game an inning earlier after Jasson Domínguez pinch ran for Torres.

That put runners on first and second with one out, and three batters later, Freeman delivered his game-winning slam.

Defense proved to be a difference-maker on a night both teams also made run-saving web gems.

Edman’s diving stop on an Austin Wells’ infield single prevented Jazz Chisholm Jr. from scoring from second base with two outs in the sixth, and the Yankees ultimately left the bases loaded.

In the bottom of that frame, third baseman Chisholm gloved a 98.6-mph grounder off the bat of Betts with one out and the infield in, preventing the tying run from scoring and preserving a 2-1 Yankees lead.

And with two on and one out in the 10th, Verdugo made a running catch on an Ohtani pop-up and managed to hold on to the ball as his momentum took him into the left-field stands.

Those memorable plays all contributed to an instant-classic Game 1, as did Torres’ two-out, ninth-inning double, which a Dodgers fan reached out for and caught on the fly as the ball neared the left-field wall.

The umpires called fan interference, which a review upheld. The moment that drew comparisons to Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS, when 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier reached over the right-field wall at Yankee Stadium and caught a Derek Jeter drive that was ruled a home run.

“We had our opportunities to put them away,” Aaron Judge said Friday. “We just weren’t able to do it, and they came up with a big, clutch hit there at the end.”