World Series outcome helped along by Yankees mental miscues
Dave Roberts fundamentally out-managed Aaron Boone
It’s two days after the champagne, in what should be the hours leading to a scheduled Game 6 at Dodger Stadium … and the 2024 World Series is over. But the Yankees, in Games 1-5, blinked twice and, now, the only worry for the Dodgers is a championship parade route, the first allowed in L.A. since 1988. How did they end it in five?
These teams were acknowledged as the two best in baseball in 2024 and whenever two teams, seen as equal in talent and payroll are competing for a championship in any pro sport, the result is most often determined by execution and fundamentals. Such was the case here with no Cinderella stories to cheer for.
So, what were those moments that separated these teams over the course of the series, leading to a 5-game Dodgers win?
Game 1 … Dodgers 6 - Yankees 3: The visiting Yankees were presented a great chance to win the opener at Chavez Ravine, leading two separate times in late innings, with manager Aaron Boone’s restructured bullpen recording two blown saves leading to an eventual 6-3 loss in 10 innings.
The series’ first fundamental Yankees failure in that game was one that contributed to the Dodgers’ tying run in the eighth. Shohei Ohtani (pre-shoulder injury), lined a ball to the gap in right centre. He hustled a single into a double, even as it was cut off by Juan Soto, who turned and fired slightly late to the bag at second.
Second-baseman Gleyber Torres attempted to glove the one-hop throw, even though Ohtani was clearly already safe. The ball bounced off leather to the middle of the infield, just to the right of the mound. Ohtani paused from his hip-swinging celebration towards the dugout, regrouped and raced to third, as the ball nestled in the grass. More than the throw, the glaring Yankee mistake was that Anthony Rizzo should have been in the middle of the diamond backing up the play, to prevent the extra 90-feet and the exact eventuality that happened. Runner on third, one out.
Closer Luke Weaver entered for a potential five-out save, but Mookie Betts responded with a game-tying sacrifice fly to Aaron Judge. Weaver worked a scoreless ninth to send it to extras. But, not done with questionable decisions, the Yankees had another chance to clinch the win, after Jazz Chisholm had manufactured a go-ahead tally in the top of the 10th on two stolen bases and a run-scoring groundball.
Bottom 10, up a run, Boone brought in RHP Jake Cousins for the save, crossing his fingers, knowing that Cousins had to face three batters and that if the inning went any deeper, he would need a lefthander to face Ohtani. With an out, a walk and an infield single, it ended the night for Cousins.
Then came the head-scratching decision by Boone. Instead of lefty Tim Hill, with his sweeping sidearm delivery and experience in leverage moments down the stretch and the playoffs, Boone went to his lefty starter Nestor Cortes. The 29-year-old, who had not appeared in a real game in 37 days, due to a flexor strain, had been warming up side-by-side with Hill. The post-game explanation from Boone was that Hill was there in case Cortes bullpen did not go well. Perplexing and here’s what happened
With the tying run at second and the winning run at first, Ohtani lofted the first Cortes pitch to left field with Alex Verdugo racing over and reaching out in foul territory. His full-speed momentum, post-catch, flipped him over the thigh-high fence into the stands. Carrying the ball out of play, by rule, allows runners to move up 90-feet. With two outs, first base open and the dangerous Betts stepping in, the correct move was to issue the four-fingers-in-the-air intentional walk, which Boone did.
One out away from Game 1 victory, on just his second pitch since September 18, Cortes threw a fastball down and on the inside half of the plate. Freddie Freeman turned it into a left-on-left crime, launching a grand slam into the right field seats for a walk-off, the first such walk off homer in World Series history. With talent in both dugouts being even, the first unforced error was the difference for the Yankees.
Game 5 Dodgers 7 – Yankees 6: The Bombers fired the home crowd up, just three batters into the game, as Judge homered into the right-centre stands, continuing a Game 4 surge in both stroke and pitch recognition. The Bombers extended the lead to 5-0, thus, as they took the field for the top of the fifth, plans were already being made for the charter to LAX for Thursday’s off-day. But a series of mostly mental Yankee mistakes inexorably spiralled into a disastrous three outs and 38 pitches for Cole. A fifth inning that, upon further review, would have included six outs, was painful to watch. It may be the worst defensive inning in recent Series history and it tied the game 5-5, dampening the celebratory mood of fans and home dugout alike.
Cole, to his credit, pitched like a true ace who knows his team’s back is to the wall. He had allowed just a pair of walks through four innings and it was apparent he was intent on going as long as he could, likely well over 100 pitches and 7-plus innings. Then he shot himself in the foot.
Pleading the top of the fifth, Kike Hernandez led off with a single to centre. Tommy Edman hit a non-threatening line drive to centre field that hung up as Judge loped in, seeming to size up Kike at first base to see if he should throw behind the runner after he made the catch. In that moment of taking his eyes off the ball, it bounced to the turf and rolled away. It was a hand-wringing moment, but not yet foreboding.
Will Smith pulled a groundball into the hole at short, not hit hard enough to turn two, but an easier force out at third. Jazz Chisholm raced over to his base as Volpe fielded it cleanly. The out was there for the taking, but Volpe rushed the play, maybe in a moment of high anxiety. His footwork was abysmal and off balance as he sped through the process and bounced the throw. Chisholm got a glove on it but was unable to control for the out. Bases loaded nobody out, still 5-0. Theme from Jaws.
Cole, over the next 10 pitches, proved why he is the ace of this Yankees rotation and the defending Cy guy. He struck out Gavin Lux and Ohtani on eight pitches, setting up a chance to escape without a run, if only he could simply retire Betts.
Cole then made the most egregious mental error of the series, a gaffe for which he can never point a finger at teammates. Betts squibbed a groundball off the end of the bat towards Rizzo, who was playing deep at first base. Cole initially sprinted off the mound towards first base, to take a Rizzo flip, a play teams practice for hours and days every spring. However, Cole inexplicably stopped his sprint and stared at his first-baseman expecting him to field the ball and make the play himself. However, the ball was spinning and so Rizzo took his time, surrounding it to make sure. As Rizzo looked up ready to flip to Cole, he saw his pitcher was not there as Betts raced across the bag producing the first run of the game. Instead of an escape from New York, it became a stunned sense of impending doom for 26 players and 50,000 fans.
Still alive, with bases loaded, down four, the series MVP, Freeman fought off an inside pitch and lined a soft, 2-run single to centre. Then with two men on, Teoscar Hernandez lifted a deep flyball that bounced on the warning track, a game-tying two-run double. A subtle observation, the only thing allowing the limping Freeman to score from first was a one-hop bounce that short-hopped the fence and rose high into the air, forcing Judge to wait for it to come back to earth. If it had hit the fence on the fly, Freeman would not have scored. But he did and it was tied.
Cole, the warrior, went back to the hill and recorded four more outs, carrying the game into the seventh having regained a one-run lead. Setup man, Tommy Kahnle failed to retire any of his three batters in the eighth and Weaver gave up two sacrifice flies handing the Dodgers their final lead. Dodgers win game! Dodgers win Series!
These two teams were equally matched. Payrolls, managers, lineups, pitching. It seemed the difference was always going to come down to who made the most mistakes. And miscues did make a difference. Boone, the manager’s mistake in Game 1, and Cole, the starting ace’s fielding brain cramp in Game 5, are easy, and rightful targets for why a series that was expected to go back to L.A. wrapped in the Bronx.
Would the Yankees have won the Series if Hill had entered to face the Dodgers in the 10th inning of Game 1 or if Cole had completed his fundamental path towards covering first-base in Game 5? We will never know, but it would have been more fun to find out, with the series shifting back to L.A.
Congratulations for their World Series title and kudos to the decision which led, in the first-year of Ohtani’s contract to the Dodgers’ brand penetrating deep into the Japanese market with the largest contract in MLB history, already paying for itself.
Now, for the 29 other major-league teams, it’s time for the plaintive plea made famous by the Dodgers when they were still in Brooklyn, “Wait until next year.”