Yankees maul Dodgers 11-4 to keep World Series alive

Anthony Volpe's grand slam overcame Freddie Freeman's record-setting home run as New York avoided a World Series sweep with an 11-4 win over Los Angeles.

The Yankees' win at home on Wednesday (AEDT) meant they avoided being swept in a World Series for the first time since 1976. No team has recovered from 3-0 down to win Major League Baseball's title.

Freeman homered for his sixth-straight World Series game, hitting a two-run drive in the first inning for the second-straight night and again stunning the Yankee Stadium crowd.

New York then surged ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo's RBI grounder in the second and Volpe's homer off losing pitcher Daniel Hudson in the third.

"I was hustling. I didn't know I got it," Volpe said. "And then I blacked out."

Volpe had scored the Yankees' first run when he walked after falling behind 0-2 in the count in the second inning. He also doubled and stole two bases.

Austin Wells and Gleyber Torres added homers for the Yankees, who broke open the game with a five-run eighth. New York had scored just seven runs in the first three games.

"Good night for us and we get another opportunity tomorrow," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Los Angeles closed within 6-4 in a two-run fifth that included Will Smith's homer off starter Luis Gil and an RBI grounder by Freeman.

Despite a sprained right ankle, Freeman beat a relay throw to avoid an inning-ending double play on what originally was ruled an out, but was reversed in a video review.

Wells hit a second-deck homer in the sixth against Landon Knack, and Verdugo added another run-scoring grounder in the eighth ahead of Torres's three-run homer off Brent Honeywell.

After Gil lasted four innings, Tim Hill, winning pitcher Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza strung together five innings of one-hit relief with seven strikeouts.

Game five is on Thursday (AEDT), with Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers' Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of game one.

New York star Aaron Judge drove in his first run of the series with an RBI single in the eighth and is hitting two for 15 in the four series games.

Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani also is two for 15 after going one for four in game four with a single, his first hit since partially separating his left shoulder in game two.

History is heavily against the Yankees going on to a 4-3 series triumph. Of the three previous teams who were 3-0 down and won game four, all lost the series in game five.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox, sparked by a stolen base from current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, are the only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in any post-season round, beating the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

New York stopped a seven-game series losing streak against the Dodgers dating to 1981.

Freeman's first-inning shot meant he also became the first player to homer in the first four games of a World Series and his streak of long balls in six straight games is one more than Houston's George Springer in 2017 and '19.