No team had ever come back from down five in a clinching series game until these Dodgers. They certainly didn’t do it by themselves. A littany of Yankee mistakes paved the way. The Yankees lost because they deserved to.
The Yankees had an 89% win probability in game one before Freddie Freeman’s grand slam. In game five it was 96%. Everything looked so good for the Yankees before the Dodgers came to bat in the 5th. They had built a 5-0 lead.
Aaron Judge was Aaron Judge, at the plate and in the field. His two run homer in a 3 run Yankee first did as hoped, getting him going, not to mention the crowd at Yankee Stadium.
When he robbed Freddie Freeman of extra bases in the 4th it was now bedlam in the Bronx.
Yankees starter Gerrit Cole was cruising. He entered that fifth inning not having allowed a hit. That ended when Enrique Hernandez singled to open the inning, then the Yanks fell apart.
First Judge dropped a routine flyball. Then shortstop Anthony Volpe threw a ball in the dirt to 3rd, another error to load the bases with nobody out. Cole worked his way to the edge of picking up his suddenly woeful defense.
He struck out both Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani but then joined the Yankees series of unfortunate events by forgetting to cover first on what should have been the inning ending out.
Baseball has a way of making you pay for allowing teams six outs in an inning and it was swift and painful. Freddie Freeman followed with a two run single. Teoscar Hernandez with a two run double and it was suddenly 5-5.
An in control Gerrit Cole was forced to throw a ton of extra pitches on a night when he might have had enough to go the distance. He stayed in for two more shutout innings and for a second time left with a lead when the Yanks scored in the sixth.
The Yankees however were not done doing themselves in. The mistakes continued. After the Dodgers tied the game in the 8th, a catchers interference call helped the Dodgers to their first lead, one they wouldn’t give up.
The Dodgers used eight pitchers in this game and they have to be thankful this one didn’t go to extra innings. They needed starter Walker Buehler to get the last three outs, two days after starting, winning and throwing 76 pitches in game three.
Walker Buehler who wasn’t a sure thing at most times this season. He was everything for the Dodgers in the post season and turned out to be the right guy to finish it.
The Yankees threw away two wins in five games. They seemed on the verge of sending it back to L.A. for a game six but they piled mistakes on top of mistakes and will have to wait for their record 28th title.
Meanwhile the Dodgers win an eighth. Half have come against the Yankees. 1955, 1963, 1981 and this one. One the Dodgers wanted badly as they felt disrespected for the Covid bubble series in the shortened 2020 season.
Dave Roberts was vindicated as well. The target of Dodger fans for what they felt were questionable moves over the years. He pushed all the right buttons for his second managerial championship.
No surprise that Freddie Freeman was named series MVP. After homering in each of the first four games including the walkoff slam in game one, His two key RBI’s in game five gave him a record tying twelve.
Bobby Richardson did that in seven games for the Yankees in a losing cause in 1960.
