Three takeaways from Yankees' World Series Game 3 loss to Dodgers
It’s three games into one of the most star-studded World Series in the last century — juggernaut against juggernaut, MVP versus MVP — and the Yankees still haven’t held up their end of the bargain.
Their 4-2 loss to the Dodgers on Monday night at Yankee Stadium put them in a nearly insurmountable 3-0 hole, one that’s been overcome only once in a seven-game series, when the Red Sox charged back to defeat the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.
Here are three takeaways from a backbreaking loss:
1. The 2024 Yankees need to reclaim what makes them the 2024 Yankees, and fast.
If they’re going to have a prayer at staging a historic comeback, they need to play to the strengths that had so many pundits predicting a long series. But the Yankees aren’t hitting against the Dodgers' supposedly weak starting pitching (little evidence of that this postseason), and their own starting pitching isn’t going deep into games.
Clarke Schmidt lasted only 2 2/3 innings in Game 3 (after Carlos Rodon lasted only 3 1/3 innings in Game 2), and the offense has struggled as Aaron Judge’s bat remains dormant. He was 0-for-3 with a walk on Monday night and is hitting .140 in the postseason. The team is 4-for-20 with runners in scoring position in this series and left eight men on base Monday.
“We’ve just got to go back to playing our game,” Judge said.
Asked if he felt he was letting the team down, he responded, “Yeah, definitely . . . You want to be getting the hits, you want to be going out there and doing your job, but I’m not doing my job.”
2. The Dodgers will attempt to clinch Tuesday via a bullpen game. That’s not a good thing for the Yankees.
In the olden days (OK, a few years ago), a bullpen game too often was synonymous with waving the white flag. Not for the Dodgers, and certainly not with how they’ve managed their relievers in the playoffs. The Dodgers have thrown three traditional bullpen games this postseason (not counting some abbreviated outings from their typical starters) and have won two of them. It's been a strength all season, and manager Dave Roberts has done an excellent job deploying his relievers to avoid the sort of fatigue that can plague the unit this deep into October.
Going into Monday, no reliever had thrown 10 innings total in the last four weeks, and three of their relievers haven’t thrown in this series at all. Dodgers relievers have a 3.16 ERA in 68 1/3 postseason innings.
Still, Aaron Boone sees an opportunity there.
“Hopefully [seeing six relievers Monday] helps us a little bit,” he said. “If nothing else, I think we extended their guys quite a bit. Like most of their bullpen guys came in and threw a lot of pitches. Hopefully that little bit of familiarity serves us well going into tomorrow, but it's going to be a challenge with all their arms.”
3. It’s going to take a miracle.
Or close to one. Forget the 2004 Red Sox (Roberts was on that team, for what it’s worth) — besides them, only one other team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit to even force a Game 7, and that was the 2020 Astros, who fell to the Rays in the ALCS.
The Yankees didn’t think they’d be able to get the ace version of Gerrit Cole on three days' rest, so the ball goes to Luis Gil, who’s pitched once in the last month.
Boone almost sounded resigned in his postgame news conference but showed some fire when he was asked about the team’s chances at a comeback.
“We're trying to get a game tomorrow, OK?” he said. “That's where our focus lies. Hopefully we can go be this amazing story and shock the world. But right now it's about trying to get a lead, trying to grab a game and force another one, and then on from there. But we've got to grab one first.”
Roberts, understandably, didn’t like talking about the Red Sox comeback, even if he was a part of it (with the Yankees three outs away from a sweep, his stolen base in the ninth inning of Game 4 got the ball rolling). He also didn’t much entertain the idea that this Dodgers team was going to let that happen.
“I think that they're very familiar with 20 years ago and what can happen,” he said. “I mean, anything's possible. Our guys are very heady, very hungry for a championship, a parade. So nothing is going to get in the way of that. Nothing."
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
