Yankees lose World Series to Dodgers as fielding issues lead to Game 5 heartbreaker

The Canyon of Heroes once again is the road less traveled for the Yankees.

More specifically, since 2009, not traveled at all.

The Yankees, who received back-to-back homers in the first inning from Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. and another postseason blast by Giancarlo Stanton in the third to build a five-run lead after three innings, saw that lead vanish in a hard-to-believe fifth inning and eventually saw their season end with a 7-6 loss to the Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series Wednesday night in front of a shell-shocked crowd of 49,263 at the Stadium.

“I think falling short in the World Series will stay with me til I die, probably,” said Judge, who went 2-for-3 with a homer and a double and two walks and who was playing in his first Series after being a part of three Yankees teams that lost in the ALCS (in 2017, 2019 and 2022).

The Yankees, who may have seen the last of Juan Soto in pinstripes as the rightfielder will hit free agency in the coming days, did grab a 6-5 lead in the sixth on a Stanton sacrifice fly. But they watched Tommy Kahnle flush it in a two-run eighth that gave the Dodgers the lead for good. It was the second game of the five the Yankees had a lead that late, with Game 1, of course, the worst of those, losing that night on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning.

“You get to this point, as I said to the guys [postgame], obviously it stings now,” Aaron Boone said. “But this is going to sting forever.”

Like the Game 1 loss, this one was filled with what-ifs . . . and what-just-happeneds.

Five of the Dodgers’ seven runs were unearned as the Yankees committed three errors.

“You can’t give a good team like that extra outs,” said Judge, whose dropped line drive sparked the Dodgers in the game-turning fifth.

It had been a cakewalk for Gerrit Cole and the Yankees until then.

Dodgers righthander Jack Flaherty, who pitched well in Game 1, did not make it out of the second inning. And after Stanton’s homer in the third built the lead to 5-0, a return trip to Dodger Stadium seemed assured — which would have made the Yankees the first of 25 teams to fall in a 3-0 World Series deficit to force a Game 6 — given the way Cole was pitching.

Cole, also excellent in Game 1, was on cruise control entering the fifth, allowing two walks and no hits to that point. That ended when Enrique Hernandez led off the inning with a sharp single to right.

The inning’s devolvement began. Tommy Edman, the NLCS MVP against the Mets, sent a sinking liner to center where Judge got into position for a routine catch but flat-out dropped it to put runners at first and second (earlier, Judge had made a terrific catch crashing right-shoulder first into the wall in left-center to steal extra bases from Freeman).

“That doesn’t happen, we’ve got a different story tonight,” Judge said of his error.

Then Will Smith grounded one to short where Anthony Volpe, whose grand slam was the highlight from the Yankees’ 11-4 victory in Game 4, tried for the lead runner and threw low to Chisholm at third. He couldn’t scoop it, the error on the shortstop loading the bases. Cole struck out Gavin Lux swinging at a 99-mph fastball and got Shohei Ohtani swinging at a curveball, the crowd roaring at its apex as the pitcher escaping seemed inevitable. But Cole failed to cover first on Mookie Betts' trickler to Rizzo, the infield single bringing in Hernandez to make it 5-1. Cole got ahead of Freeman 1-and-2 before the first baseman knocked a 99.5 mph fastball to center for a two-run single that made it 5-3.

Freeman, who homered in the first four games of the series, including his walk-off grand slam in Game 1 off Nestor Cortes, was named World Series MVP. 

Teoscar Hernandez, a thorn for the Yankees from his years with the Blue Jays, then hammered a two-run double over Judge’s head in left-center, tying it at 5 and further stunning an already stunned crowd. Cole walked Muncy but Enrique Hernandez, batting for the second time in the inning, grounded to short.

“I took a bad angle to the ball. I wasn’t sure off the bat how hard he hit it,” Cole said of not getting to first. “I just didn’t know how hard he it and by the time the ball got by me, I was not in position to cover first. Neither of us were based on the spin of the baseball. Just a bad read off the bat.”

The Yankees did retake the lead on Stanton’s sacrifice fly but the first three batters reached against Kahnle in the eighth and Luke Weaver, terrific all postseason, allowed sacrifice flies to Lux and Betts — the latter preceded by Austin Wells’ catcher’s interference with Ohtani at the plate — that made it 7-6.

Walker Buehler, who threw five scoreless innings in Game 3, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first career save as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had used all of his relievers, including closer Blake Treinen, who threw 42 pitches in earning the win.

“This is as bad as it gets. It’s the worst feeling that you can have,” said Cole who, as a member of the 2019 Astros, lost in the World Series in seven games to the Nationals. “Ultimately, we came up short and it’s . . . it’s brutal.”