NEW YORK – Shohei Ohtani’s dog may be named Decoy, but Juan Soto was the real decoy on Friday night.
The supersonic slugger was held out of the lineup after discomfort in his left forearm forced him to leave Thursday night’s game against Minnesota. For sixteen hours, YankeeLand sweated bullets and gnawed fingernails, but the worst-case scenario didn’t come to pass. Imaging revealed that Soto’s pain was simply inflammation and not structural damage. The team, the fans and Soto collectively breathed a sigh of relief. Still, Yankees skipper Aaron Boone decided a day off wouldn’t be the worst idea.
And so the most anticipated showdown of the regular season, a potential World Series preview, went ahead without one of its biggest stars.
For ten innings, the Yankees and Dodgers traded outs despite a starting pitching matchup that, on paper, looked like a mismatch. It was Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the $325 million Dodgers taking on a gentleman named “Cody Poteet” who was thrust into service by a wave of ill-timed Yankee injuries. Yamamoto was overwhelming, Poteet was cautious, but the result was the same: a goose egg run.
But in the top of the eleventh, after some tense bullpen moments, Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandéz broke things open with a two-run, gap-splitting double to left field. The Yankees took the lead in the bottom half on an Aaron Judge single, but neither Giancarlo Stanton nor the scuffling Anthony Rizzo could find success against Los Angeles reliever Yohan Ramírez.
The Dodgers escaped the opener of this three-game set with a nail-biting 2-1 victory.
“It was a great ballgame,” Boone admitted afterward during his summary press conference. “Good pitching, good plays, tough at-bats. Both teams had a few chances to break through, but they couldn’t, it was just a very well played game.”
When asked if his ailing superstar had been available for a pinch-hit, Boone smiled coyly, shook his head and said, “not tonight.”
Juan Soto was a fixture on the top step of the Yankee dugout all evening, occasionally wearing batting gloves and carrying a bat. Ultimately, it’s clear that Boone, Soto and the Yankees had no intention of involving the soon-to-be free agent in the game under any circumstances. The season is long and full of horrors. Soto needed a day, the Yankees didn’t want the Dodgers to know that.
“We have a plan.” Soto told reporters after the game, implying that his in-game turmoil was just his way of staying healthy. Boone revealed that Soto didn’t even take a swing or warm up during the game. It was all fugazi, not that it mattered in the end. The Dodgers won because they executed. This was also a match that called for Juan Soto. Several things could be true.
The whole scene, Soto or not, was certainly unique.
This marks only the third time the Los Angeles Dodgers have ever traveled to The Bronx for a regular season series since interleague play began in 1997. Going forward, MLB’s new balanced schedule will make these homecoming trips a biennial event for the Dodgers. Perhaps over time the frequency will reduce the shine. But for now, there’s still something new about the spectacle.
For a century, the baseball story flowed through these two franchises, both before and after the Dodgers left Brooklyn for SoCal in 1957. For the next forty summers the two clubs never saw each other as they made history in their own leagues and their own competitions. own sides of the country. Every now and then, the baseball gods would send the two powerhouses to the same World Series for a high-stakes bicoastal reunion.
This current series, given the current state of these franchises, has a bit of a Fall Classic feel to it. The Yankees and Dodgers entered Friday night with the top two championship odds, according to FanGraphs, and any sportsbook worth a damn. Calling this matchup a potential preview of the World Series is both sensational and sensible. The Yankees have the best record in the MLB. The Dodgers have the best roster in the MLB. No one would be surprised.
An announced crowd of 48,048, the Yankees’ largest paid attendance of the season, packed into The House That Jeter Built. Just minutes before the first pitch, long lines snaked around outside the yard’s home plate gate. Crowds of guests and several lookie-loos lingered on the warning track in the field during batting practice. An overwhelmingly large media contingent filled the press box to the brim. A late night wind, with a very light freshness, evoked thoughts of autumn weather.
But the decisions made that night reminded us that it’s still June and these games still mean relatively little. In October, Soto would be in the starting lineup, his inflamed arm full of medical remedies. At the very least, he would pinch hit for Rizzo in the 11th. But even if Soto had been available, it’s unlikely Boone could have made such a brutal statement, replacing what should have been one of his most important players.
There is such a thing as living for tomorrow.
Whether Soto will play when these two clubs turn things around for Game 2 on Saturday night is a whole other story.
Boone said, “We’ll check in tomorrow and see where we are.”
