Dodgers’ Dramatic Game 1 Win Over Yanks Draws 7-Year Ratings High

After a 43-year hiatus, the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers have renewed their World Series rivalry, and baseball fans have turned out in force.

According to Nielsen fast-national data, LA’s 10-inning victory over the Yanks averaged approximately 15.2 million viewers on Friday night, making this the most-watched opener for a Fall Classic since the Dodgers and Astros scared up 15.3 million on Oct. 24, 2017. The preliminary data, which includes deliveries via the Fox flagship as well as the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision and various streaming outlets, will be updated early next week.

Per Nielsen, 57% of all TVs in use in the LA market were tuned to Fox last night, while the broadcast did a 38 share in the New York DMA. New York is home to 7.49 million TV households, while No. 2 LA includes 5.84 million residences that are equipped with at least one television set. All told, the two markets account for 10.6% of all U.S. TV homes.

If the early audience data holds up—if anything, there is likely to be a slight uptick in overall deliveries once the final live-same-day numbers are issued—this will mark the first World Series game to earn bragging rights as one of the year’s top 100 broadcasts since 2019.

Game 1 peaked with 17.8 million viewers at around the same time Yankees manager Aaron Boone made the quizzical decision to send in long-dormant starter Nestor Cortes to face Shohei Ohtani with one out in the bottom of the 10^th. Cortes, who’d sat out the last five weeks with an elbow injury, retired the Dodgers’ superstar with one pitch before New York intentionally walked Mookie Betts to load the bases with two outs.

LA’s hobbled first baseman Freddie Freeman stepped up to pull a Kirk Gibson, hitting the first-ever walk-off grand slam in World Series history to give the hometown team a 6-3 victory. Freeman, who sat out three playoff games with a gimpy ankle, stole the thunder from the Yanks’ Giancarlo Stanton, who’d knocked in a two-run homer to left in the top of the sixth to give New York a 2-1 lead.

After the game, Yankees legend Derek Jeter questioned Boone’s decision to pull ace Gerrit Cole, who’d been dealing all night before the ball was taken out of his hands in the seventh. Cole had given up just four hits and one run on 88 pitches before Boone brought out the vaudeville hook.

“Gerrit Cole was dominating this game,” Jeter said in a postgame segment. “He was dominating the game! And if you take him out after 88 pitches for I-don’t-know-what-reason, it’s a domino effect on not only this game tonight, [but] tomorrow’s game and the rest of the series.”

To Jeter’s point, the Yanks burned through three pitchers—Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver—before Boone put in Cortes. If the Yankees go on to lose this series, Boone’s characteristic over-thinking will leave a bitter taste in an awful lot of loudly cursing mouths, although the manager wasn’t alone in his haplessness. Juan Soto made a key fielding blunder in the bottom of the fifth that turned a Kiké Hernández double into a three-bagger, and Aaron Judge’s bat continues to be a non-factor in this postseason.

After going 1-for-5 with three whiffs in Game 1, Judge is batting 6-for-36 (.167) with 16 strikeouts since the Yankees began their World Series run against Kansas City.

New York has a chance to redeem themselves tonight as the southpaw Carlos Rodón takes the hill against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The first pitch is expected to hit the pocket of Austin Wells’ glove at 8:08 p.m. ET on Fox.