The Dodgers defeated the Yankees to win the 2024 World Series, winning Game 5

NEW YORK – It had felt so close and yet so difficult to hold on to.

For more than a decade, the Dodgers had sought more than just regular-season success. More than just repeated trips to the late season. More than just a lone COVID bubble championship in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

This was to be, as President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman had repeatedly declared, a “golden era of Dodgers baseball,” a generation of organizational excellence unparalleled in the century-old franchise's storied but often tortured history.

The fact that this had not yet happened caused internal consternation every year. So much so that even Friedman's wealthy bosses were fed up.

When the Dodgers courted then-free agent Shohei Ohtani over the winter, offering the two-time star and two-time MVP as the missing piece of the team's still-incomplete legacy, it was the club's ownership group, led by Mark Walter, that delivered the most clear message.

“They said that when they look back over the last 10 years, even though they've made the playoffs every year and won a World Series ring, they think it's a failure,” Ohtani later said at his introductory Dodgers press conference. “When I heard that, I knew they only cared about winning.”

In fact, after the fires of past failures, the Dodgers forged a new resolve in October this year.

And in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, it led them to a championship in stunning fashion.

Despite trailing the New York Yankees by five runs through the first three innings on Wednesday night, the Dodgers staged a title-winning rally. They scored five times in a fifth-inning rally powered by shockingly poor Yankees defense, including a drop-line drive to center field by Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole's baffling decision not to cover first base.

The Dodgers' final win in Game 5 over the New York Yankees secures the 2024 World Series title.

After falling behind again in the sixth inning, the Dodgers found a different answer. In the bottom of the eighth, they loaded the bases against Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle and then hit two sacrifice flies from closer Luke Weaver to take the lead.

The final six outs were stressful, as Blake Treinen pitched in the eighth and, in another unthinkable twist, starter Walker Buehler came in for the save in the ninth.

As the final game was taped, a club eager to add to its 2020 title streamed out of the dugout and harassed Buehler on the mound.

They had finally crossed the threshold of baseball immortality. They confirmed the golden age they had long sought.

They became baseball champions again with a 7-6 victory over the Yankees and a 4-1 victory in the series.

Fight, scratch and scratch until the end.

This Dodgers team always seemed destined to reach the mountaintop. They made sure of that over the winter, as a squad already led by former MVP winners Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman added the additions of Ohtani, Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, expected star Tyler Glasnow and veteran outfielder Teoscar Hernández was reinforced; and the re-signing of the franchise's most important figure in recent history, future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

They led the majors with 98 wins in the regular season, won the National League West for the 11th time in the last 12 years and watched Ohtani make history with a historic 54-homer, 59-steal season that included This will certainly be his third MVP award.

However, it wasn't easy to cap the franchise's recent streak of regular-season dominance with another World Series title.

A scandal erupted at the start of the season when Ohtani's former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was fired by the team and later arrested for stealing nearly $17 million from the slugger to cover game losses.

Injuries have cropped up throughout the season, from Betts' broken hand in June to Freeman's broken finger in August to a litany of pitching losses that sidelined Yamamoto for three months and Glasnow, Kershaw and rookie standout Gavin Stone for the postseason let.

There was also adversity in October. Freeman was limited by a severe right ankle sprain. Both Betts and Ohtani struggled early in the playoffs. And in the NL Division Series, the club was eliminated after just three games against the rival San Diego Padres.

World Series MVP Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman celebrates immediately after the team's title-clinching victory over the Yankees in Game 5.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

“Having to go through the Padres in that DS,” Roberts said, “was just kind of an ordeal.”

However, nothing felt as difficult as winning the title on Wednesday.

After sweeping the Padres and then defeating the New York Mets in six games to win the pennant, the Dodgers used the momentum of Freeman's walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series to lead early three games to one Wednesday night.

And after already missing a close-out chance in Game 4, they seemed headed for another missed chance early on.

Four batters into the bottom of the first, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead on home runs by Judge and Jazz Chisholm off starter Jack Flaherty. At the end of the third period the score was 5-0, with the Dodgers still waiting for a strike against Cole, the Yankees' ace.

But everything changed at the start of the fifth inning.

After a leadoff single by Kiké Hernández, the Yankees' defense suffered a complete surrender.

Judge fired a full-throttle line drive off Tommy Edman's bat, but then failed to throw in time to Hernández, who made a heads-up turn to get safely into the game.

Next, shortstop Anthony Volpe made an error by sinking a throw to third on a Will Smith groundball to load the bases with no outs.

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1. Freddie Freeman runs past third base and scores in the fifth inning. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) 2. New York Yankees star Aaron Judge celebrates after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 3. Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen beats his chest after the bottom of the seventh inning in Game 5 of the World Series against the Yankees. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) 4. Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty sits in the dugout after being pulled in Game 5. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) 5. Mookie Betts celebrates with his teammates after leading off the go-ahead run in the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Cole was close to escaping the inning after striking out Gavin Lux and Ohtani in consecutive at-bats. But when Betts first hit a slow grounder to Anthony Rizzo, Cole didn't run over to cover the base. Hernández scored. Everyone else was safe.

With the comeback window suddenly cracked open, the Dodgers made sure to take advantage right away.

Freeman hit a two-run single up the middle and tied a World Series record with his 11th and 12th RBI of the week. Teoscar Hernández tied the game in the next at-bat, blasting a two-run double over Judge's head in left-center.

The Yankees would take the lead again after Giancarlo Stanton hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

But in front of a stunned crowd of 49,263, they never fully recovered.

Kahnle delivered the series-winning jam in the top of the eighth, giving up singles to Kiké Hernández and Edman before walking to Smith to load the bases. The Yankees turned to Weaver, their closer, to try to escape the jam. But he delivered sacrifice flies to Lux and Betts to give the Dodgers a 7-6 lead.

Even though the Dodgers had almost no substitutes left, they didn't want to give up the lead again.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani celebrates in the locker room with his teammates while holding the World Series trophy after their victory over the Yankees.

In his third inning, Treinen ran into trouble in the eighth inning when two Yankees reached base with just one out. Buehler was warm at this point. That also applied to experienced right-hander Daniel Hudson.

But when Roberts went to the mound, he decided to leave Treinen out there. The decision was rewarded. Treinen got a fly ball from Stanton and a swinging strikeout from Rizzo to end the inning.

That left ninth-place Buehler, who was just two days removed from a winning five-inning start in Game 3.

It was his first postseason relief appearance in his career. And as an impending free agent, possibly his last appearance with the team.

Sixteen pitches later, he threw his arms in the air as Alex Verdugo whiffed a curveball for the third hit that secured the championship — and cemented the golden era.

Highlights from the Dodgers' title victory over the Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series.