The Yankees will lose the 2024 World Series to the Dodgers

NEW YORK – It finally looked like the World Series the Yankees expected in the first innings of Game 5. Her mix of strength and patience was powerful and fueled her growing optimism that perhaps… just maybe – This team had all the necessary components to “shock the world,” as manager Aaron Boone had said.

Gerrit Cole had yet to allow a hit in four scoreless innings, the five-run bundle in his back pocket fueled by home runs from Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Giancarlo Stanton. Then came Tommy Edman's sinking liner to center field, a routine play that would change the course of a night that sent these Yankees into winter.

“You can't give a team that good extra outs,” Judge said after the Yankees' 7-6 loss Wednesday night that gave the Dodgers their eighth World Series title. “So it starts with a line drive coming in for me. I misunderstood that. If that doesn’t happen, I think it’s a different story tonight.”

Judge said there was nothing strange about Edman's liner, except perhaps the fact that he was not caught when he clinked Judge's glove for his first error in 1,958 career innings as a center fielder (regular season and postseason).

Since the Yankees seemingly already had one foot on a jet bound for Los Angeles, they had just opened the door to the flight delay of all delays.

This club endured a lack of fundamentals in the field and on the basepaths during the regular season, as the Yankees hit home runs and drew walks more often than anyone else; Even when those weaknesses became apparent in the first two rounds of the postseason, the Royals and Guardians ultimately couldn't contain New York's power.

The Dodgers, however, would be a different story. Anthony Volpe fielded a grounder from Will Smith and elected to throw to Chisholm at third base to plate Kiké Hernández. The throw was short, bouncing away from Chisholm and loading the bases with no one out.

“I’m just trying to make a play,” Volpe said. “I thought it was my only game.”

Cole had to dig hard to escape and he seemed prepared, striking out the next two batters. Mookie Betts hacked a grounder to Anthony Rizzo at first base, and the crowd of 49,263 cheered in anticipation of an outstanding Houdini move; Even the person running the stadium sound system played a lively ditty at the end of the inning.

But as Betts shot the ball down the baseline, Cole stopped and pointed to Rizzo to take the ball to first base himself.

“I took a bad angle on the ball,” Cole said. “I wasn't sure from the start how hard he hit. I took a direct angle to cut it off. As the ball passed me, I was unable to cover first. Neither of us based on the spin of the baseball and his need to back it up.”

Betts was safe, Hernández scored and Cole had to go back to the mound. From there the sequence unfolded; World Series MVP Freddie Freeman hit a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández blasted a two-run double to deep center field to tie the game.

It was arguably the Yankees' worst defensive inning of the season, and when Cole mercifully recorded the final out, one was reminded of the scene in the third Moderator as Will Ferrell's exhausted Ron Burgundy exhales after a bloody parking lot fight: “Boy, that escalated fast.”

“It almost felt like a victory at the end, just not giving up the lead and being able to keep going,” Cole said.

Yes, another theme of this campaign was the ability to fight back; The Yanks recovered from a summer swoon that lasted far too long to clinch the American League East, finishing with an AL-best 94 wins.

Even a 3-0 deficit in the World Series didn't seem to intimidate them; Volpe's outstanding performance in Game 4 against the Dodgers marked one of the best moments at Yankee Stadium since the 2009 championship.

“I think that’s what makes it so painful,” Volpe said. “We could go back and replay every single inning of every single game. We felt like we were good enough to win the World Series.”

So they would try again and regain the lead behind Stanton's sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. As Cole said, “When it was all said and done, the game was still in front of us and we had a chance to win.”

But a bullpen that exceeded expectations all postseason fell apart when Tommy Kahnle allowed all three men he faced to reach in the eighth, a frame that also included an interference error by a catcher.

Nine minutes before Halloween, the '24 Yankees' time expired when Alex Verdugo made a Walker Buehler knuckle curve.

The Yankees firmly believed that the talent levels of the two squads in this dream World Series were comparable; That may be so, but the differences in execution were obvious. You will have to think long and hard about how things should have been different.

“I think not making the World Series will probably stay with me until the day I die,” Judge said. “Just like any other loss, these things don’t go away. There are battle scars along the way. When my career is over, hopefully we will have a lot of battle scars, but also a lot of victories.”