The Yankees had a huge lead when the fifth inning began Wednesday night, before the fundamental errors that had plagued them at times during the regular season swept through Game 5 and turned it irrevocably.
Although the Yanks later retook the lead after blowing an early 5-0 lead, pinstripe errors gave the Dodgers the life they took all the way to victory, capping off a World Series title.
So what happened? After the Yankees’ 7-6 loss, those involved talked in a somber clubhouse about what went so wrong at the end of a season that stretched all the way to the Fall Classic.
The judge’s first mistake
Aaron Judge hadn’t blown a ball in the outfield all year, and he’d made a sensational leap catch to steal at least a double from Freddie Vrijman in the fourth inning. But an inning later he couldn’t catch Tommy Edman‘s fly into the middle with a man first and no one out.
The judge said the ball didn’t knuckle or do anything strange, and that there was no problem with light or wind.
“I just didn’t make the play,” he said.
Said Aaron Boone: “It was like some kind of sinking liner that Judgey missed.”
It put runners in first and second place, the seeds of a rally, and set up the next blunder.
Bad throw from Volpe
Will Smith hit a grounder to Volpe’s right at the short stop and he tried to cut off the lead runner at third base, but he made a bad throw that Jazz Chisholm couldn’t handle. Volpe had a throwing error and the bases were loaded.
“The play to Volpe, the right move that clearly went to third, a little jump there to third, didn’t complete the play,” Boone said.
Chisholm said he didn’t believe it was a difficult game. “I just have to catch it and get on third base,” he said. He added: “I just feel like it was a big runner (Kike Hernández) that simply arrive at the same time.
Chisholm also added this: “Baseball, sometimes you can blink for a second and it’s all gone. For us, we were still working on it, trying to attack and trying to go against it.
Dodgers star Freddie Vrijman had a different opinion:
“I know they fouled Volpe on that play,” he said. “But if you slow down and you see Kiké running to third base, that’s what caused the play. He’s got an incredible IQ there, and just to capitalize. You have to score the big hits in the big situations, and we were able to do that in that inning.”
The squibber to first
With no one out and the bases loaded, Gerrit Kool took matters into his own hands and took out both Gavin Lux And Shohei Ohtani to almost end the Dodgers’ chance. But then Mookie Betts hit a ball off the end of his bat and it spun to first. The Yankees should have been able to get an out on the play, but they didn’t, and the Dodgers’ first run scored.
Cole didn’t cover first and Rizzo couldn’t reach base before Betts.
“Mookie hits a squibber, so Rizz can’t really run through it,” Boone said. “He basically had to stay there and make sure he secured the catch because of the spin on the ball. And I think Gerrit – everything he went through in that inning, kind of spent it and almost worked his way out of it, just didn’t react fast enough to get over it.”
Cole said: “I think I took the ball from a bad angle. I wasn’t actually sure how hard he hit it. I made a direct angle at it, as if to cut it off, because I just didn’t know how hard he was hitting it. By the time the ball got to me I was no longer able to cover first.
“I think my corner should be a little more aggressive toward first base to give myself a chance to continue.”
Rizzo called it a “messaging miscommunication” and added:
“Those cappers are the hardest balls for us… I was actually going for it, and then it kicked one way, so I really had to make sure I caught it first,” he said. “Pitchers are always taught to get over it no matter what. It was just a weird, spinning game where I really had to make sure I got it and I think even if I went first, I don’t know if I could get it would have gotten.
The aftermath
After all that, Freeman, who would later be named World Series MVP, came to the plate and hit a two-run single up center. It gave him 12 RBI in the Series, tying the record for a single Fall Classic Bobby Richardson of the Yankees in 1960. Teoscar Hernández followed by a two-run double to center to tie the score at 5.
The Yankees retook the lead an inning later, but were unable to hold on to it.
“We just didn’t take care of the ball well enough that inning,” Boone said. “Against such a great team, they took advantage.”
“You can’t give a good team like that extra zeros,” Judge added. “So it starts with me there on the line ride.”
A bigger problem?
Poor fundamentals plagued the Yankees during the regular season – their basic stats are not good and they committed the seventh-most errors in the Major Leagues and the second-most of all teams that made the playoffs.
Later in game 5, Austin Wells was called for catcher interference, extending the Dodgers’ rally in the eighth – they scored the go-ahead run immediately afterwards – and Lucas Weaver was forced to appear after three withdrawals from the mound rubber in the ninth.
Even Judge, when asked about the technique during the season, noted, “I could go back to a few games in the postseason where it was a basic mistake or, like I said, you gave a team extra outs. They are going to capitalize on it.”
Ultimately, that’s exactly what happened in the final game of the season for the Yankees. And the opportunity to seize Yankee mistakes was not lost on the Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
“I just didn’t take any action there,” Roberts said of the judge’s error. “We just got a break at first base, so we got a couple extra outs.
“It’s just good when you give a good team extra zeros. It was great for us to take advantage of this.”
