Only One MLB Team Has Overcome a Playoff Deficit This Big

Freddie Freeman homered for the third straight game and Walker Buehler pitched another World Series gem as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday night for a 3-0 lead in the Fall Classic, the AP reports. Just one Major League Baseball team has ever overcome such a deficit to win a playoff series, NBC Philadelphia reports: The Boston Red Sox, which were down 3-0 (to the Yankees, incidentally) but won four in a row to win the 2004 American League Championship Series and advance to the World Series. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the World Series itself, NBC New York reports.

With superstar Shohei Ohtani playing despite a partially dislocated left shoulder Monday, Los Angeles moved within one victory of a surprising sweep in this much-hyped matchup between traditional powers. Buehler and six relievers combined on a five-hitter for the Dodgers, on the cusp of their second championship in five years and the eighth in franchise history. Freeman's two-run shot three batters in gave him a home run in five consecutive World Series games dating to 2021 with Atlanta, matching a major league record set by George Springer with Houston. Game 4 is Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

(More World Series stories.)