LA Dodgers win 2024 World Series championship against NY Yankees: Live updates and reactions

It's all over.

Dodgers vs. Yankees. Los Angeles vs. New York. Shohei Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge.

The Dodgers came back against Yankees star Gerrit Cole and capitalized on several defensive errors to win Game 5 7-6 and secure their eighth World Series championship. A sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night ensured the Dodgers weren't the first team to blow a three-game lead in the World Series.

If the Dodgers felt shortchanged in any way by their shortened title in 2020, there will be no doubt here. The best baseball team this regular season is also its champion in 2024.

While Judge Freddie Freeman robbed extra bases with a sensational catch early in the fifth, Freeman's two-run single in the Dodgers' fifth gave him 12 RBIs in the series and tied the Yankees' Bobby Richardson for the World Series record in 1960. Freeman, now a two-time World Series champion, will certainly be selected for World Series MVP.

Betts is a three-time champion. Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have their first ring.

But this World Series was a roller coaster ride until the end.

The Yankees got off to a dream start in Game 5. Cole was tactical over seven pitches in the first inning. Judge announced his arrival in that World Series by hitting the first pitch he saw for a two-run home run, his first extra-base hit in 13 days. Then Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked a mile-high solo shot back into the right field seats. Yankee Stadium shook.

Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty lasted just four outs and retired after Alex Verdugo's RBI single in the second. In the third, Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run for the seventh time this postseason – a Yankees record – and extended the lead to five runs. Cole seethed. The Americans were in charge.

All of that was more or less moot in the fifth inning when the Yankees learned what it cost to give the Dodgers three extra outs.

What previously consisted of Judge crashing into the center field wall to steal extra bases led to Judge routinely dropping a fly ball. What had been a Cy Young winner, cool, confident and carefree, turned into an ace, shaken and sweating, looking for a way out. The initial no-hit bid turned into a five-run, three-error, 38-pitch inning. After a 5-0 lead, there was now a 5-5 draw. The Yankees defense failed Cole in the fifth inning, but he did his part by refusing to cover the ball on a squibber to first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Somewhere, Tom Emanski looked on in horror.

However, the Dodgers weren't in charge yet. After leaving the bases loaded in the fifth, the Yankees took the lead again in the sixth on Stanton's sacrifice fly.

It was unlikely that Cole would continue until the seventh round. He threw 108 pitches over 6 2/3 innings, allowing five runs, none earned, on four walks and four hits.

But the Yankees' loaded bullpen couldn't defend the lead. Since manager Aaron Boone needed six more outs, he called on reliever Tommy Kahnle. Two singles and a walk later, Boone motioned to closer Luke Weaver to put out a fire. In the previous no-out, bases-loaded scenario in the fifth, Gavin Lux struck out. This time he lifted a sacrifice fly to midfield. Then, after a collapsing Ohtani reached base through the catcher's interference, Betts hit a sacrifice fly of his own and then ran fist-pumping down the line as the go-ahead shot rang out.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts granted reliever Blake Treinen a second inning in the eighth inning and even stuck with him after Judge hit a double and Chisholm walked. Treinen repaid that trust by inducing a weak fly ball from Stanton and picking off Rizzo with a nasty sweeper. Treinen bent over, pointed two index fingers at the sky and walked away exhausted after 42 pitches.

Walker Buehler, the Dodgers' postseason hero, came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning. He beat Verdugo in the final and the celebration began.