NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani didn’t look comfortable in Game 3 of the World Series After shoulder injury in game 2.

That didn’t matter much to the Dodgers.

Instead, it was Great start from Walker Buehler and Ohtani’s two timely strikeouts from fellow MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman proved to be the difference in Los Angeles. 4-2 win Monday against the Yankees in the Bronx. This is Game 3 of the World Series. On top of that, the Dodgers Gained a 3-0 series lead.

While it wasn’t the most explosive showing from the Dodgers’ offense — just four runs on five hits — Game 3 exemplified how exhausting it is for a starting pitcher to try to navigate the Los Angeles lineup. Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt walked Ohtani on four pitches to start the game; It was an instant reminder that Ohtani is a threat every time he steps into the box, despite his shoulder injury and limited success in the series so far.

What followed was the first of two long contests between Schmidt and Betts, with Betts fliing out to left field on Schmidt’s seventh homer. Here comes Freeman, ready to further strengthen his claim as World Series MVP.

“Luckily he made all three shots in the first three innings,” said Freeman, who had never faced Schmidt in his career before Monday. “He went to sweeper in the first pitch, then went to cutter and then threw the knuckle curve. So I saw all three pitches. “I didn’t mind scoring two goals because I got a chance to see everything he had.”

In the fourth inning, Schmidt came back to the cutter, a spot very similar to the one where Freeman got a 97 mph fastball from Carlos Rodón. Out to right field to score in Game 2.

“I don’t think he was trying to throw that cutter to that spot,” Freeman said later.

But that’s where the cutter went and Freeman once again connected on a big one. The ball flew off his bat and enjoyed the short journey to the short porch in Yankee Stadium’s right field before crashing into the crowd. Seven minutes into Game 3, the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead and any positive vibes that had built up in the Bronx disappeared.

At the beginning of the third quarter, it was Betts’ turn to take the lead, albeit with a much different level of offensive excellence. After drawing a leadoff walk, Tommy Edman advanced to second on an Ohtani groundout, bringing Betts to face Schmidt with a runner in scoring position. Monday’s match was also the first time Betts faced Schmidt in his career. Although Schmidt got Betts flying with his first shot, he failed to get a single whiff from the stingy Betts, whose exceptional contact skills remain a key feature of his elite offensive profile.

This trend continued in their second, drawn-out encounter. Schmidt quickly fell behind 2-0 with a high cutter and a low running sinker for the second ball. But the right-hander returned to offensive mode, launching his entire arsenal into different parts of the zone in search of a much-needed outlet as his pitching count increased. In the ninth over, Schmidt used his high-spin knuckle curve, but instead of dropping sharply below the zone, he dropped back to the inside half where Betts could handle it.

It wasn’t the clean contact Freeman got against Schmidt, but Betts still connected and lofted the ball over first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s head, and then the ball fell into the grass just inside the right field line in front of Juan Soto and was cleared by Edman. It allowed him to run around. and score the Dodgers’ third run.

Schmidt had tried everything and even made poor contact with Betts — his RBI single had a slight exit velocity of 71.2 mph — but it wasn’t good enough. Of the 68 pitches Schmidt threw in his shortened outing in Game 3, 16, or 23.5% (three sweepers, four sinkers, four curveballs and five cutters), were deployed in his two matchups with Betts.

“That was one of those innings that set the tone,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterward. “Tommy did a great job reading the ball with the stick, making contact and scoring there. But winning pitches in the inning, going down with two strikeouts, and continuing to fight to keep the run going — we did that all night long.

“I thought we had a really good run in the at-bats. Mookie sets the tone for that.”

It was Betts’ glove late in the fourth quarter that once again left the Yankee Stadium crowd looking for any reason to be excited to be disappointed. Jazz Chisholm Jr. with Giancarlo Stanton at second base. He hit a line drive to Betts in right field. Betts’ initial dive indicated he was expecting the hard-hit ball to be carried further into the right-center field gap, but the ball’s massive amount of topspin caused it to plummet to the ground with unusual speed.

This forced Betts to make a last-second decision; It forced him to either stay up and make a leaping play with the ball, take the shot, or make a desperate diving attempt to grab the ball – he ran the risk of the ball bouncing off him and no one to support him.

With six Gold Gloves and a remarkable combination of athleticism, coordination and confidence, Betts opted for the latter, diving forward and grabbing the ball just off the turf for a stylish second.

With two championships and many accolades to his credit during his 11-year career, Betts has little left to prove; He is one of the best players of his generation, and his status as a future Hall of Famer is firmly secure. But for a player aware of sky-high expectations for both himself and his high-profile team, Betts’ standout performance in the postseason was refreshing redemption after his last two outings in October were hardly a reflection of his talent.

Betts went 2-for-14 in the Dodgers’ NLDS loss to San Diego in 2022 and 0-for-11 against Arizona in Los Angeles’ shocking NLDS exit in 2023. It’s certainly not fair to hold such a small sample against the superstar, but one of the faces of this franchise, whose ineffectiveness over the last two Octobers continued into the winter following disappointing Dodgers campaigns.

This current run of Los Angeles getting one win in a World Series is even more reminiscent of Betts’ first October in the Dodger Blue in 2020, when the team stormed into the expanded postseason and won the franchise’s first championship since 1988 . Corey Seager’s epic performance earned him MVP honors in both the NLCS and World Series. Betts has been a steady and productive presence as Los Angeles’ leadoff man, slashing .296/.378/.493 with two home runs in 18 games, both in the World Series. against Tampa Bay.

This October, Betts is hitting .291/.394/.582 with more walks than strikeouts while consistently showing off top-level glove work in right field. He hit four home runs in 13 games; That’s the same number he hit in 58 career postseason games before 2024. Thanks to Tommy Edman’s breakthrough NLCS and Freeman’s World Series power surge, Betts is unlikely to collect any postseason hardware. But his constant contributions on both sides of the ball are a big reason why the Dodgers are one win away from the only prize anyone in the clubhouse cares about.

“He’s Mookie Betts,” Freeman said after Game 3. “After the first couple of games at LDS in San Diego, I think everybody was a little worried” — when Betts went 0-for-6, which was another minor underachievement, an indication of the standard he was held to — “but we all know he , Mookie Betts is one of the greatest players of all time.”

Betts understood the 2024 Dodgers’ mission from the beginning. At the team’s FanFest early februaryAfter a historic offseason filled with big-name acquisitions, Betts didn’t shy away from what one would expect from a team with a roster featuring so much star-caliber talent.

“It’s the World Series or nothing,” he said at the time. “You know it’s going to be tough. Every game is going to be the other team’s World Series. It is, but we’re resigned to it. We’ve got to embrace it.”

Of course, there have been some twists, turns and turbulent times along the way. But the 2024 Dodgers have baseball’s best record in the regular season and are on the verge of sweeping the team with the best record in the American League to reach that lofty goal they set for themselves months ago.

It was World Series or nothing for Betts, and if his last game was any indication, nothing was ever really an option. For Freeman, the reigning World Series MVP, if the Dodgers do indeed pull off a fourth and final victory in the coming days, adding to his personal trophy collection means little compared to the collective goal that lies ahead of his team.

“I really want to lift that trophy,” he said. “I don’t care how it happened. I don’t care if I go 0 for the next 70 with 70 strikeouts. As long as we win, that’s all I care about.”