Dodgers Hold Serve as World Series shifts to Big Apple

Late-inning tension highlights compelling matchups

An accepted baseball axiom states there is no clear advantage in a seven-game series until the home team loses its first game. What the Dodgers did at Chavez Ravine in Games 1-2 of the 2024 World Series, winning 6-3 and 4-2 in dramatic fashion, therefore, was simply about holding serve. But there is no doubt now that the pressure is on the Yankees to fulfill their part of the bargain as the series shifts to the Bronx for three games. How will the Bombers react? Can they hold serve, three times?

Home teams winning first five games: Over the lengthy history of World Series play, there have been nine series, in this best-of-seven format, in which the home team has won each of the first five games. The home Dodgers won the first two. In those nine previous, home-dominated World Series, the teams that won the first two games at home, before losing the next three on the road, are 2-7 at the end of those series.

The first time it happened where there were five straight home wins to open a Wor…