The Yankees break out with 11 runs and win Game 4 of the World Series

NEW YORK – To extend their season another day, the New York Yankees needed that big, momentum-boosting hit that had eluded them in the first three games of the World Series. They were on the verge of elimination in Game 4 at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.

Anthony Volpe hit a go-ahead grand slam in the third inning, Austin Wells added a solo shot three innings later, and Gleyber Torres put the finishing touches on an 11-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers with a three-run home run in the eighth inning, as the Yankees avoided elimination for at least one night.

Volpe's breakthrough came on a first-pitch slider by Daniel Hudson, the second reliever the Dodgers used on their scheduled bullpen day, with two outs and a 2-1 Dodgers lead. The grand slam, which landed a few rows behind the wall in left field, electrified a sellout crowd that had been nervous after Freddie Freeman's two-run home run in the first inning.

It was Volpe's first career grand slam and the first by a Yankee since Tino Martinez in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series against the San Diego Padres. At 23 years, 184 days, Volpe became the youngest Yankee with a grand slam in the World Series since Mickey Mantle in 1953.

It wasn't a promising start for the Yankees. Freeman's home run – a laser beam over the short porch in right field off Yankees starter Luis Gil that extended his home run streak in the World Series to a record six games – immediately disheartened the crowd. That left the Yankees, who hadn't led since Freeman's walk-off grand slam in Game 1, in an early hole for the third straight game. But the Dodgers' relief carousel couldn't suppress the Yankees.

Five Yankees relievers, meanwhile, were not charged with a run scored over the final five innings of the game. The quintet of Tim Hill, Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza held the Dodgers hitless after the fifth inning. It was the formula the Yankees were looking for in this series. It saved their season on Tuesday.