The New York Yankees aren’t ready to call it a summer just yet.

Backs to the wall after dropping the first three games of the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the American League champions overcame Freddie Freeman’s latest October heroics and an unruly fan’s misbehavior to stave off elimination with a 10-4 win in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night in the Bronx.

The Yankees still trail three games to one in the best-of-seven Fall Classic but their flickering championship hopes will live at least one more day. Game 5 is Wednesday night in the Bronx.

The Dodgers appeared bound for the first World Series sweep in 12 years when Freeman drove a two-run shot into the right-field stands in the first inning, making him the first major league player to homer in the first four games of a Fall Classic. The 35-year-old first baseman also set a record by homering in a sixth straight World Series game dating back to Atlanta’s last two games against Houston in 2021.

But from there a dormant New York lineup that had been held to four runs and nine hits in Games 2 and 3 burst to life. After scratching one back on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second inning, the Yankees kicked in the door in the third when shortstop Anthony Volpe launched a down-and-in slider 390 feet into the left-field bleachers.

Leading for the first time in the series since Game 1 on Friday night, when Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in Fall Classic history, the Yankees held on as home runs by Austin Wells and Gleyber Torres put the contest out of reach. Tim Hill, Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr, Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza put together five innings of one-hit relief with seven strikeouts.

It didn’t take long for Tuesday’s contest to drift into the unexpected. Shortly after Freeman’s home run in the first, a spectator iYankee fan was ejected from the stadium for prying the ball from the glove of Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts.

Betts leaped at the wall in foul territory and initially caught Gleyber Torres’ pop up in the bottom of the first, but a spectator in the first row wearing a gray New York road jersey grabbed Betts’ glove with both hands and pulled the ball out. Torres was immediately called out on fan interference.

History suggests the Dodgers will be OK. None of the 23 previous teams to have faced a 3-0 deficit in the World Series have managed to extend it to a Game 6 much less win the title. The Yankees are only the first team in 54 years, and fourth overall, to avoid a sweep and force a fifth game, joining the 1970 Cincinnati Reds, the 1937 New York Giants and the 1910 Chicago Cubs.

Full report to follow.