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Dodgers’ Mookie Betts hits game-winning sac fly for World Series title

Pabio November 2, 2024

For the third time in his baseball career, Mookie Betts is a World Series Champion after helping the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-6 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 5 Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.

Ancient Vanderbilt Pitcher Walker Buehler won his second World Series championship with the Dodgers, earning the save with a perfect ninth inning.

Betts, a former Overton High star, had the winning RBI on a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning against pitcher Luke Weaver.

Betts, 32, who played 11 seasons, is now the only active position player to win three World Series. His previous championships came with the Dodgers in 2020 and the Boston Red Sox in 2018. Dodgers relief pitcher Joe Kelly, out with a shoulder injury, also won his third ring and Royals reliever Will Smith got one. three.

“That’s why we play this game,” Betts told MLB.com. “Hopefully we can bring a few more home.”

Mookie Betts and Yankees fans

It was poetic justice for Betts, who was playing right field and had a foul ball knocked out of his glove by two Yankees fans in the first inning of Game 4 on Tuesday. One fan removed the ball from Betts’ glove while the other held his ungloved hand.

The Yankees’ Gleyber Torres, who committed the pop-up foul, was ejected for fan interference.

Both fans were ejected and barred from attending Game 5. Yankees officials released a statement describing their conduct as “egregious and unacceptable.”

Walker Buehler also won the third game

Buehler also earned the win with five scoreless innings after starting Game 3. On Wednesday, he was called up with a one-point lead.

The right-hander, who pitched at Vanderbilt from 2013 to 2015 and was on the team 2014 College World Series title teammissed all of 2023 due to injury and had a 5.38 ERA in 16 starts during the 2024 regular season, but he was much better in the postseason.

Buehler is the first former Commodores baseball player to appear on two World Series championship teams, as he was also part of the title-winning Dodgers team in 2020. David Price also received two World Series rings, one with the Red Sox in 2018 and another with the Dodgers in 2020. But Price did not make an appearance for the Dodgers that season.

He is the second former Vanderbilt player to win both a College World Series and MLB World Series title. The first was Dansby Swanson, who won the World Series with the Atlanta Braves in 2021.

Other Vanderbilt alumni who have won multiple professional titles include Will Perdue, who won three NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls and one with the San Antonio Spurs; Damian Jones, who was part of the Golden State Warriors’ title-winning teams in 2017 and 2018; and Sheri Sam, who won WNBA titles with the Seattle Storm and Detroit Shock.

Contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.