Yankees drop Game 3 to Dodgers, face being swept
The Yankees were on the losing end of a classic Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night, falling in the bottom of the 10th inning on Freddie Freeman’s stunning walk-off grand slam.
Whether permanently deflated by that one swing — or perhaps it’s just that the Dodgers are better — the Yankees have simply been outclassed in the two games since.
And as a result, when they take the field at the Stadium on Tuesday night, they will be trying to avoid an embarrassing four-game sweep.
With Aaron Judge continuing to have a poor postseason, the Yankees fell to Los Angeles, 4-2, in Game 3 of the World Series in front of 49,368 at the Stadium on Monday night.
“It’s not going to be easy for sure,” Anthony Rizzo said. “But we have to pull some inspiration from somewhere. It’s happened before. Teams have come back before.”
It — meaning a team coming back from a three-games-to-none deficit — has happened only once before, but never in a World Series. The 2004 Red Sox are the only team to come back from that deficit in a best-of-seven series in MLB history, doing so against the Yankees in that year’s ALCS (with current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts contributing a key stolen base in Game 4 to ignite the comeback).
“We all know our backs are up against the wall,” Judge said. “We have to get it going our way, that’s what it comes down to. It just takes one game.”
Judge is hoping for that kind of quick turnaround when it comes to his work at the plate, which continues to be subpar, to say the least.
The Yankees’ captain, expected to be named the American League MVP in a runway after a 58-homer season, went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout to fall to 6-for-43 (.140) with 20 strikeouts this postseason. He is 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the World Series.
Does Judge think he’s letting the team down? “Yeah, definitely,” he said. “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 right now. I’ve got to pick it up.”
The Yankees were in need of a pickup throughout the night Monday and never really got it. Down 4-0 entering the ninth inning and with only four hits, they closed within 4-2 on Alex Verdugo’s two-run homer on an 0-and-2 pitch from Michael Kopech. Gleyber Torres then grounded to short to end it.
The crowd, in a fever pitch well before the game in celebration of the first World Series game at the Stadium since 2009, was quickly taken out of the game by Freeman’s two-run homer off Clarke Schmidt in the first inning.
At that point, the Dodgers had hit five home runs that accounted for all 10 of their runs in an 11-inning span, beginning with Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning of Game 1 and concluding with his two-run shot in Game 3.
Meanwhile, the Yankees have scored five runs in the last 22 innings. They have gone 9-for-62 in the last two games and have struck out 31 times in three games.
Walker Buehler and six relievers deployed by Roberts limited the Yankees to five hits (the same number as the Dodgers). Two of those hits were by Giancarlo Stanton (2-for-4), who is 4-for-12 in the World Series and 14-for-47 with six homers and 14 RBIs in the 12 postseason games.
Buehler allowed two hits and two walks in five innings, striking out five.
The Yankees will send AL Rookie of the Year candidate Luis Gil to the mound on Tuesday night to try to extend their season. The Dodgers, as they have three previous times in this postseason, will counter with a bullpen game.
“Their pitchers have done a good job against us, limiting baserunners,” Verdugo said. “When we get guys on base, they’ve made their pitches.”
Schmidt, who struggled with his command from the start, allowed three runs, two hits and four walks in 2 2⁄3 innings. Seven relievers followed him.
Schmidt walked Shohei Ohtani, questionable for Game 3 after dislocating his left shoulder while trying to steal second in the seventh inning of Game 2, on four pitches to start the night. Ohtani, who stole 59 bases during the regular season, stayed close at first during the ensuing at-bat of Mookie Betts, a likely indication of the condition of his shoulder — good enough to play but not good enough to take any chances.
Schmidt quickly got ahead of Betts 0-and-2, eventually retiring him on a soft fly to left. Freeman, who also homered in Game 2, lined a 1-and-2, 93-mph cutter 355 feet into the seats in right for a 2-0 lead.
It continued a remarkable World Series for Freeman, who hadn’t homered in his first eight postseason games (he missed three because of lingering effects from a sprained ankle suffered toward the end of the regular season). He hadn’t homered since Sept. 16 and had one home run in his final 21 regular-season games.
The Dodgers pushed their lead to 3-0 in the third on an RBI single by Betts. Enrique Hernandez’s RBI single in the sixth off Jake Cousins made it 4-0.
“I don’t think it’s impossible,” Cortes, who allowed Freeman’s grand slam in Game 1 but pitched 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings Monday, said of coming back from 3-0 down. “I know the numbers don’t back it up, I know there hasn’t been a World Series team that’s come back from a 3-0 deficit, but we have an opportunity to write our own story.”
