The Yankees needed one man to step up in their darkest hour. They spotted the Dodgers two runs — again — when Freddie Freeman planted one in the right field bleachers — again. A chilly night had turned even colder because now there was a hint of winter lurking on the other side of midnight.
Until Anthony Volpe said: Not yet.
With one swing, a glorious third-inning swat that landed in the left-field stands and cleared the bases, Volpe paved the way for an 11-4 victory that extends the Yankees season at least one more game, narrowing the gap in this 120th World Series to three-games-to-one, keeping them in play.
One thing that was certain as the Yankees reported for work Tuesday afternoon for Game 5 of the 120th World Series at Yankee Stadium: If they were going to — Aaron Boone’s words — “shock the world” in the days ahead, they were going to have to win an elimination game Tuesday night.
It was the 23rd elimination game the Yankees have faced in their World Series history. It is the 11th win. Both of those are more than anyone else. They’ll get another one Wednesday, the last of a line that looks like this:
1921 (0-1 in elimination games): Trailing 4-3 in the Series — which was best-of eight at the time — the Yankees and Waite Hoyt lose a 1-0 heartbreaker as the home team at the Polo Grounds when the Giants score a first-inning run and Art Nehf throws a four-hitter.
1922 (0-1): Once again Nehf goes the distance, beating the Yankees, 5-3, to complete a sweep for the Giants (though there was also a tie thrown into the mix; Giants won, 4-0-1).
1926 (0-1): In a do-or-die Game 7, the Cardinals’ Grover Cleveland Alexander wins his famous bases-loaded duel with Tony Lazzeri in the seventh, and the series ends, stunningly, when Babe Ruth is caught trying to steal second.
1942 (0-1): Trailing 3-1 to the Cardinals in Game 5 but tied 2-2 in the ninth at Yankee Stadium, Red Ruffing surrenders a two-run homer to St. Louis’ Whitey Kurowski that delivers the Series to the Cards.
1947 (1-0): In the first Game 7 the Yankees ever compete in, they overcome an early 2-0 Dodgers advantage in front of 71,548 at the Stadium behind key hits from Phil Rizzuto, Bobby Brown and Tommy Henrich and five innings of one-hit relief from Joe Page.
1952 (2-0): Down 3-2 to Brooklyn, the Yankees win two straight at Ebbets Field with Allie Reyolds earning the save in Game 6 and the win the next day in Game 7.
1955 (1-1): Whitey Ford throws a four-hitter and Moose Skowron hits a homer to keep the season going in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium before Johnny Podres, Sandy Amoros and Gil Hodges deliver Next Year to the Dodgers the next day.
1956 (1-0): The Yankees bomb Don Newcombe, 9-0, in Game 7 at Ebbets Field behind two home runs by Yogi Berra.
1957 (0-1): Ex-Yankee Lew Burdette wins his third game of the Series, scattering seven hits in a 5-0 win at Yankee Stadium that brought the Milwaukee Braves their only title.
1958 (2-0): The Yankees win Games 6 and 7 at Milwaukee’s County Stadium to become only the second team to overcome a 3-1 deficit in games in a World Series.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Yankees in the postseason:
1960 (1-1): Ford keeps the Yankees alive with a 12-0 shutout in Game 6 before they run into Pirates Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 at Forbes Field.
1962 (1-0): The winning run scores on a Tony Kubek double play and the Yankees survive when Willie McCovey’s two-out ninth inning rocket is torched but hit right at Bobby Richardson, saving two runs.
1964 (1-1): Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone hit home runs to back Jim Bouton in Game 6 at St. Louis’ Sportsman Park, but the Cardinals ride Bob Gibson to the finish line in Game 7.
1976 (0-1): The Series that, through three games, is eerily similar to this one. The Reds close out the sweep behind two home runs from Johnny Bench.
1981 (0-1): In a 1-1 game, Bob Lemon decides to pinch-hit for Tommy John with two on and two out in the fourth. The Dodgers beat George Frazier for the third time and take a 9-2 victory.
2001 (0-1): Luis Gonzalez punches one over a drawn-in infield off Mariano Rivera and the Diamondbacks win their only championship in Game 7, 3-2.
2003 (0-1): Jack McKeon takes a gamble and throws Josh Beckett on three days rest at Yankee Stadium and Beckett responds with a six-hit, complete-game shutout as the Marlins finish a stunning Series upset of the Yankees in six games with a 2-0 win.
2024 (1-0): So far.