Dodgers' Tommy Edman builds on NLCS MVP performance by doing the little things

Fresh off his MVP-winning performance against the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series, Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman opened the World Series against the New York Yankees on Friday night with a … clank!

The first ball hit to him in Game 1 in Dodger Stadium, a 93.5-mph grounder off the bat of slugger Giancarlo Stanton, went off Edman’s glove for an error, allowing the Yankees to put two on with two outs in the first inning.

The rare miscue from the sure-handed utility man did not cost the Dodgers, as the next batter, Jazz Chisholm Jr., grounded out to end the inning, and Edman’s evening got progressively better from there.

Edman turned a double play on Juan Soto’s grounder up the middle in the third inning and saved a run in the sixth with a diving stop that prevented Austin Wells’ ground-ball single with two on from reaching the outfield.

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Then, in the bottom of the 10th, Edman followed Gavin Lux’s one-out walk with a single off the glove of diving second baseman Oswaldo Cabrera, and Edman was on second when Freddie Freeman sent a crowd of 52,394 into a frenzy with a walk-off grand slam that gave the Dodgers a come-from-behind, 6-3 win.

“I don’t know, I kind of blacked out,” Edman said when asked to describe his reaction to the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. “I’m sure I screamed pretty loud and jumped up and down.

“I was trying to get a huge secondary lead to score on a single. I knew their outfielders were playing in, because they didn’t want anyone to score. I was trying to get way off the base, and fortunately I didn’t have to run very hard.”

Edman hit .407 (11 for 27) with a 1.023 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, one homer, three doubles and 11 RBIs in the NLCS, including a two-run double and a two-run homer in a series-clinching 10-5 win over the Mets last Sunday night.

But those good vibes didn’t seem to carry over to the World Series when Edman misplayed Stanton’s first-inning grounder.

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“It was Stanton,” Edman said of baseball’s exit-velocity king, whose towering, two-run homer to left field in the sixth gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. “Not many people hit the ball as hard as he does, and he just top-spinned one like crazy. But it was good to get that one out of the way and make a couple of good plays after that.”

After Gleyber Torres led off the third with an infield single, Edman fielded Soto’s grounder behind second base, scooted to the bag and touched the base as he threw firmly to first for a double play.

Chisholm followed Stanton’s homer in the sixth with a single to right off reliever Anthony Banda. Anthony Rizzo struck out for the second out. Chisholm stole second, and Anthony Volpe was intentionally walked.

Wells hit a grounder that appeared headed for center field, but Edman smothered it with a diving stop on the second-base side of the bag, holding Wells to a single that loaded the bases. Banda struck out Alex Verdugo with a 98-mph fastball to end the inning.

“That’s one of those plays that are underrated, that people aren’t going to talk about,” second baseman Lux said. “But I’m glad someone else saw that and recognized it as a huge play, because it saved a run.”

Had Wells’ grounder reached the outfield, the speedy Chisholm would have scored from second for a 3-1 lead. Instead, the score remained 2-1. The Dodgers tied it on Mookie Betts’ sacrifice fly in the eighth, but without Edman’s play in the sixth, the Yankees might have won in regulation.

“In a game like this, with all the big moments, those things are definitely going to go unnoticed, except to the guys on the field,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “Tommy making that stop was gigantic.”

Edman’s play was one of several little things that went right for the Dodgers but were overshadowed by Freeman’s big thing.

Reliever Brusdar Graterol, pitching for the first time in a month and the eighth time this season, gave up one hit and struck out one in a scoreless seventh, his sinking fastball averaging 98.9 mph and topping out at 99.6.

With two on and no outs in the bottom of the seventh and Rizzo crashing in from first base, Kiké Hernández dropped a perfect bunt toward third, a sacrifice the Dodgers were unable to cash in on.

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Left-hander Alex Vesia, who missed the NLCS because of a rib-cage injury, struck out two in a 1-2-3 eighth, an indication he could play a significant role in the best-of-seven series.

Shohei Ohtani alertly took an extra base in the bottom of the eighth when, after he doubled off the right-field wall, Torres, the Yankees second baseman, couldn’t handle the short-hop on Soto’s throw from right field and the ball trickled toward the mound. Ohtani took third and scored on Betts’ sacrifice fly for a 2-2 tie.

Graterol missed most of the season because of shoulder and hamstring injuries, but if the right-hander can regain something close to his 2023 form (4-2, 1.20 ERA in 68 games), he would ease the loss of injured setup man Evan Phillips.

“We’re betting on Brusdar’s heartbeat, the stuff,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He hasn’t pitched in forever, but we put him in a big spot, he threw up a zero and kept us in the ballgame. He was lights out tonight.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.