Table of Contents
He yankees They held a huge lead as the fifth inning began Wednesday night, and then the pivotal lapses that had at times plagued them during the regular season swept through Game 5 and tilted it irrevocably.
Although the Yankees later retook the lead after blowing an early 5-0 lead, streaking errors gave the Dodgers life they carried to the victory that culminated in a World Series title.
So what happened? after the Yankees defeat 7-6Those involved spoke in a somber clubhouse about what went so wrong at the end of a season that went all the way to the Fall Classic.
The judge’s first mistake
Aaron Judge hadn’t missed a single ball in the outfield all year and had made a sensational jumping catch to rob him of at least a double. Freddie Freeman in the fourth inning. But, one inning later, he didn’t catch Tommy EdmanWe flew to center with a man on first and no one out.
Judge said the ball didn’t hit his knuckles or do anything strange, and there were no problems with the lights or wind.
“I just didn’t make the play,” he said.
Saying Aaron Boone: “It looked kind of like that sinking ocean liner that Judgey overlooked.”
He put runners on first and second, the seeds of a rally, and set up the next mistake.
Volpe’s bad launch
Will Smith hit a grounder to the right of Volpe at shortstop and tried to cut off the lead runner at third, but made a bad throw that Jazz Chisholm I couldn’t drive. Volpe was charged with a throwing error and the bases were loaded.
“The play to Volpe, the right move obviously to third, a little jump to third, didn’t complete the play,” Boone said.
Chisholm said he didn’t think it was a difficult play. “I just have to catch it and step on third base,” he said. He added: “I feel like he was a great runner (Kike Hernandez) just coming in at the same time.”
Chisholm also added the following: “Baseball, sometimes you can blink for a second and it can all be gone. For us, we were still going deep, trying to attack and trying to make it.”
Dodgers star Freddie Freeman I had a different vision:
““I know they gave Volpe a mistake on that play,” he said. “But if you stop it and see how Kiké ran toward third base, that’s what set up that play. He has an incredible baserunning IQ there, and just capitalizing. You have to get big hits in big situations, and we were able to do that in that inning.”
The squibber first
With no one out and the bases loaded, Gerrit Cole took matters into his own hands, striking out both Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani one step away from crushing the Dodgers’ opportunity. but then Mookie Betting He hit a ball with the end of his bat and spun toward first. The Yankees should have been able to get out of the play, but they didn’t, and the Dodgers’ first run scored.
Cole didn’t cover first and Rizzo couldn’t reach base ahead of Betts.
“Mookie hits a firecracker and Rizz can’t get through it,” Boone said. “He had to stay there and make sure he made the catch because of the spin on the ball. And I think Gerrit just…everything that happened in that inning, kind of spent and almost coming out of it, he just didn’t react quick enough to get over it.”
Cole said: “I think I took a bad angle on the ball. I wasn’t sure, really from the beginning, how hard it hit him. I took a direct angle at him, as if to cut him, because I just didn’t know how hard I hit him. When the ball passed me, I was not in a position to cover first.
“I think my angle should be a little more aggressive toward first base to give myself a chance to continue through the bag.”
Rizzo called it a “miscommunication in coverage” and added:
“Those balls are the hardest for us… I was going for them and then he kicked in one direction, so I had to make sure I caught them first,” he said. “Pitchers are always taught to overcome it no matter what they go through.” that. It was just a weird, spinning play that I really had to make sure I made and I think even getting to first would have been, I don’t know if I would have made it.”
the aftermath
After all that, Freeman, who would later be named World Series MVP, came to the plate and hit a two-run single to center field. It gave him 12 RBIs in the Series, tying the record for a single Fall Classic set by Bobby Richardson of the Yankees in 1960. Teoscar Hernandez followed by a two-run double to center field and the score was tied at 5.
The Yankees regained the lead an inning later, but were unable to maintain it either.
“We just didn’t take care of the ball well in that inning,” Boone said. “Against a great team like that, they took advantage.”
“You can’t give a good team like that extra outs,” Judge added. “So it all starts with me there on the driving line.”
A bigger problem?
Poor fundamentals plagued the Yankees during the regular season: Their baserunning metrics are poor, and they committed the seventh-most errors in the Major Leagues and the second-most of any team that made the playoffs.
Later in Game 5, austin wells was called for catcher’s interference, prolonging the Dodgers’ comeback in the eighth – they scored the go-ahead run right after – and Luke Weaver He was penalized for a hurdle after three disconnects from the mound in the ninth.
Even Judge noted, when asked about the technique during the season, “I could go back to a couple of games in the postseason where it was a baserunning error or, like I said, you give a team extra outs. They will take advantage of it.”
In the end, that’s exactly what happened in the Yankees’ final game of the season. And the Dodgers manager did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the Yankees’ mistakes. David Roberts.
“I just didn’t make a play there,” Roberts said of Judge’s poor play. “We just had a break covering first base, so we got a couple extra outs.
“It’s just nice when you give a good team extra outs. “It was great for us to take advantage of it.”