NEW YORK – Walker Buehler pitched five scoreless innings, Freddie Freeman hit a two-run home run and the Los Angeles Dodgers continued to act like the deeper, better and healthier team in this World Series, beating the New York Yankees 4-2 Monday night by one to achieve a commanding three-game lead. Now, to somehow win it all, the Yankees must become the second team ever – after the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series – to win four straight games with the season on the line in a best-of format stands -seven series.

The Dodgers immediately applied pressure. Shohei Ohtani, who suffered a slightly dislocated left shoulder, issued a four-pitch walk early in the game. Two batters later, Freeman, who had battled his own injuries throughout October, hit a two-run home run into the short porch in right field. It was Freeman’s third home run in a string of six at-bats, immediately after he went 32 straight at-bats in the postseason without hitting an extra-base hit. It became quiet in the sold-out Yankee Stadium – and Bühler let it stay that way.

“The conversation (initially) was about Clarke Schmidt,” Freeman said in his post-game interview on FOX. “Many of us have never played against him before, so a lot of emphasis was placed on game planning. …And when you come to a street park, of course you want to strike early and calm the crowd down. And we did that.” Do that in the first inning.

Buehler allowed just two hits and two walks while recording five strikeouts and producing six swings and misses on his fastball – his most since 2021. The 2024 season had been a struggle for Buehler. He came back from a second Tommy John surgery without his all-powerful fastball, struggled through 16 regular-season starts to a 5.38 ERA, battled a hip injury in the middle, and had to constantly reinvent himself along the way. But Buehler found an effective curveball when he pitched four scoreless innings against the New York Mets in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, and finally got his lively fastball back in the World Series, a stretch in which he dominated.

The Yankees had a chance to score in the fourth when Anthony Volpe hit a two-out single to left field, but Giancarlo Stanton was thrown out trying to score from second base. Teoscar Hernandez made a perfect one-hop throw to hit Stanton, who is one of the slowest players in the sport. Just before that, Mookie Betts made a wide catch in right field to rob Jazz Chisholm Jr. Two innings later, Tommy Edman, who had made a perfect read to score on Betts’ base hit in the third inning, stretched for a force out at second base.

The Dodgers – who were plagued by injuries to their starting players throughout the regular season – now have five shutouts in these playoffs, tying them for the most shutouts in a single postseason with the then-2016 Cleveland Indians. The Yankees were last defeated in Game 6 of the 2016 playoffs Excluded from the 2003 World Series when the then-Florida Marlins secured a title behind Josh Beckett’s mastery. The Dodgers, who haven’t won a season-long title since 1988, are one win away from doing the same.

At the very end, the Yankees gave one last gasp when Alex Verdugo hit a two-run home run off Michael Kopech with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, cutting the deficit in half. But Kopech came back to throw out Gleyber Torres on a slow groundout. The Dodgers — who were plagued by injuries to their starting players throughout the regular season and survived untimely injuries to Freeman and Ohtani in October — are now just one win away from their first championship in four years and their first full-season title since then 1988.

“I was able to work on my swing, and that’s the key,” Freeman said. “I just found my cue and saw the ball pretty well.”