Yankees-Dodgers World Series Game 2 storylines

This matchup between the Dodgers and Yankees made for one of the most anticipated World Series in recent memory. And then Game 1 happened and exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations. Nobody will ever forget it. And we get to do it again on Saturday. Incredible.

Here are the five biggest storylines for Game 2 on Saturday 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 surpass the ending we just saw?
“You're 5 years old in the back yard,” Freddie Freeman said on the FOX broadcast, just moments after he hit a walk-off grand slam to win Game 1 of the World Series and seconds before his teammates hit one Buckets of Gatorade poured on his head. There were immediately many comparisons to Kirk Gibson's home run off Dennis Eckersley that won Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers, but honestly, Freeman's home run stands on its own.

Remember, in addition to being plagued by a sprained ankle for a month, Freeman has also been through hell this year, with his son Max hospitalized with Guillain-Barre syndrome during the All-Star break and is still on the road to recovery. There were many moments from this baseball season that I will never forget, but Freeman's press conference when he returned to the Dodgers after Max turned the corner and the long healing process began is at the top of the list, as it is for any parent:

Going through that, overcoming an injury, winning a game for your team (the team you cheered for as a kid)… that's just the dream of what baseball – and sports for that matter – can be. Later in the Freeman interview, Freeman apologized to his father for yelling in his face after he hit that home run. You weren't the only one screaming, Freddie. That was one of the coolest baseball things we've ever seen.

2. Will this be a 90s style series in the future?
There was a perfect bunt! One starter made it to sixth and the other to seventh! It was a bad score and incredibly stressful! Most of Game 1 felt like it took place at least a few decades ago, an old-school battle between two great starters where a dash of small ball and a few big flies made the difference. Will the whole series be like this? All in all, probably not.

These are two teams built to take games to their bullpens, and while the Yankees have more “traditional” starters – including Rodón, who looked strong in the ALCS – everyone in this game is expected to Throwing that many innings, especially with an off day on Sunday, is probably a mistake.

As for the bunts… well, Kiké Hernández threw a beautiful ball for the Dodgers in the seventh inning, a classic dead-ball-on-the-bat job like one of the high school coaches taught. It moved runners to second and third with one out, just as it was supposed to… and then the Dodgers still didn't score. (And maybe he got Clay Holmes to settle in by giving him an exit.) I know you all were excited for some '90s baseball for a second, but this series will still be in the future Held in 2024.

3. Stanton is the ultimate Joker
One day we'll all have a big discussion about whether Giancarlo Stanton, who will probably end up with around 550 home runs, is a Hall of Famer or not. But right now, playing in his first World Series for a fan base that hasn't always fully supported him, he's exactly what you want in a thrilling matchup like this: a guy who can take the game out of it Nothing can change in one swing, at any time.

Stanton is 5 of 22 in the ALCS and World Series combined, but all five These hits are home runs. That means making your hits count! There's so much going on in this series, with bullpen usage and platoon advantages and a billion other little details between two very even teams. But all of these small changes at the edges can be undone very quickly when a big man hits a small ball very far. Stanton nearly won Game 1 for the Yankees with one hit. Who says he won't do it again?

4. How much rope will the Dodgers give Yamamoto?
On the one hand, we all had an off day on Sunday and the bullpens didn't get beat up The bad in Game 1. One would think that the Dodgers, a team always willing to empty the ball when needed, would also be willing to empty it in Game 2. On the other hand, they're already planning on having a bullpen game this year (probably in Game 4), and they have Walker Buehler, who has had his moments but can't be fully relied on at this point, in Game 3. You only get so many bullets, you know?

If Yamamoto gets into trouble, say, in the second inning, does manager Dave Roberts let him figure it out or does he immediately go to the box? The day off suggests he'll be generous with the hook, but there's a long series ahead. You can't pitch the bullpen for five or six innings everyone Game, can you? It would be very helpful for the Dodgers if Yamamoto was exactly the guy they thought he was when they signed him last offseason.

5. Uh, are all Will the games be like this?
A fantastic fact from Tyler Kepner of The Athletic: Friday marked the third straight World Series Game 1 to end in a tie in the ninth inning. That's pretty exciting! The bad news is that neither of the last two series went the distance or even reached the goal The dramatic at the end. But come on: That Game 1 really felt like a harbinger of what this whole series is going to look like, right?

These are two strong teams with excellent bullpens, full of stars, equipped with every possible opportunity to win a baseball game. And that's exactly what we saw in the thriller of Game 1: a game where every pitch felt like the end of the world. (Until one of Nestor Cortes finally did.) It was a game that required both the big and the little things to win… which certainly seems like every game in this entire series does be. Can there please be six more games after that? Please?