The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series by a score of 7-6 to win their second title in five seasons. Although the series only went five games, it was far from a dominating performance from Los Angeles, as the Yankees had several opportunities to win multiple games, but failed to capitalize.
The Series
The Yankees had several golden opportunities to take control of this series and failed to do so. Game 1, one out away from taking home field advantage away from LA, Aaron Boone makes his first managerial error, putting in Nestor Cortes to face Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, rather than Tim Hill. Cortes would retire Ohtani, and after intentionally walking Betts, Freeman would hit his game-winning grand slam.
That grand slam would have lasting effects over the next two games, as the Yankees offense failed to have any consistency, and they dropped Game 2 in Los Angeles and Game 3 in New York. Freddie Freeman continued his hot streak, homering in the first four games of the Series.
With their backs against the wall, New York dominated Game 4. Anthony Volpe awakened the Yankees bats with a grand slam of his own, and it seemed their confidence was renewed heading into the final game of the season at Yankee Stadium, trying to get everyone on a plane back to LA.
The collapse in Game 5 was nothing short of historical. A five run lead with your ace on the mound should be more than enough to win any baseball game, but the Yankees didn’t play clean at all. 5 of the 7 Dodger runs were unearned; the mistakes cost the Yankees dearly.
The Dodgers only outscored the Yankees 25-24 through the entire series, but they played cleaner baseball. Should the Yankees have made the routine plays, this could be a completely different series. But they didn’t, so it isn’t. The Dodgers absolutely deserved it.
Game 5
Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisolm Jr. opened up the scoring early against Jack Flaherty with back-to-back home runs in the first. Giancarlo Stanton also homered in this game, and the Yankees had a 5-0 lead early with their ace, Gerrit Cole, on the mound. Things were looking up for New York, until that dreadful 5th inning. It started with Judge dropping a routine fly ball in centerfield. Then, Anthony Volpe bounced a ball to Chisolm at third base that he couldn’t handle on a difficult play trying to get a force out. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Cole proceeded to pick up his teammates, striking out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani. The Yankees were almost out of the inning. Cole induced a ground ball from Mookie Betts to first base in what should have been the final out of a tough inning, but Cole didn’t cover first base, and the first Dodger run scored.
You could almost feel the energy shift as soon as LA scratched across that first run. Cole did an amazing job to almost get out of the inning; and when that ball was hit on the ground he was probably so relieved, so relieved that he didn’t run to first because he assumed Rizzo was going to be able to beat Betts to the bag. Freddie Freeman would continue to kill the Yankees with a two RBI single, and then Teoscar Hernandez doubled off the wall to tie the game.
Somehow, the Yankees were able to bounce back from that enough to regain a one run lead, although it felt like that simply was never going to be enough. In the top of the 8th, Boone made yet another incorrect bullpen decision by putting in Tommy Kahnle. Kahnle has been pretty good for NY, but he only throws changeups now (for some reason). It’s a great pitch, but against this Dodgers lineup, only throwing one pitch is a death sentence. They waited out Kahnle, drawing walks and loading the bases with nobody out. Boone went to closer Luke Weaver, asking him to get out of an impossible situation. Weaver actually did a great job limiting what could’ve been a brutal inning. He allowed no hits in a bases loaded jam with no one out, but two sacrifice flies from Lux and Betts gave the Dodgers the lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees had their heavy hitters of Soto, Judge, and Jazz (plus Stanton) due up. A one out Judge double, and a follow up walk by Jazz, gave the Yankees some hope. Stanton, who had come up clutch so many times before, failed to do so this time. Rizzo would then strike out to end the threat, and you felt like that was the Yankees season. Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler came out of the pen to finish the game, and he was dominant. He set the bottom of the Yankees order down 1-2-3 to clinch Game 5, and the series, for LA.
The Yankees are the only MLB team to:
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) October 31, 2024
blow a 5+ run lead
allow 5+ unearned runs
commit 3+ errors
commit catcher's interference
commit a balk
...all in the same game, regular season or postseason (since earned runs became an official stat in both leagues in 1913).
Gerrit Cole pitched 12.2 innings in his two World Series starts. He allowed one earned run. The Yankees lost both games.
— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) October 31, 2024
The Yankees played statistically one of, if not the, worst game of professional baseball you could possibly play. Everything was lined up for them to send this series back to California. Which is not to say the Dodgers could have easily gone back home and beaten the Yankees, but that’s irrelevant. What happened in this game was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. A total nightmare. It’s still actually quite hard for me to wrap my head around what happened.
World Series MVP
Freddie Freeman ran away with the World Series MVP award. He batted .300 with 4 HR and 12 RBI in the five games. The 35-year-old first baseman was battling a bad ankle that kept him extremely limited in the NLCS against the Mets; but he dominated the Yankees. The grand slam to win Game 1, and then home runs in the next three games, propelled the Dodgers to a controlling 3-0 series lead. Although he didn’t homer in Game 5, his two RBI single was clutch in the Dodgers 5th inning rally.
The Offseason
Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo, Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle are unrestricted free agents; Rizzo has a club option that will most likely be declined; Luke Weaver has a club option that you would expect the Yankees to pick up. Despite a run to the World Series this year, there is some serious change coming in New York. Will they move on from Torres? Will Soto sign with the crosstown rival Mets? Will he sign with someone else? Or will he remain in Pinstripes for the rest of his career?
Let the sweepstakes begin.
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