Yankees manager Aaron Boone stressed as he must that his team could only win one game at a time. Though it seems obvious. It’s like a struggling hitter in a struggling offense trying to hit a grand slam with nobody on base.
Down three games to none there is no world series reference point. It’s never been done and when homer every day Freddie Freeman lined a 2 run shot to right in the first it looked like doom and done. The Yanks offense has seemed incapable.
However they did hit that grand slam. Anthony Volpe found himself at the plate with teamates littering the bases and unloaded against Daniel Hudson in the 3rd, turning down 2-1 to up 5-2.
Now you couldn’t say it was a walk in the park from there with the Dodgers pulling to within 5-4 with a pair in the fifth but the bottom of the Yanks line up continued some rare damage as Austin Wells went deep in the 6th.
Yankees pen shines
It may have been the Dodgers who were forced into a bullpen game but it was the Yanks pen that was near flawless, with five of them tossing 5 shutout innings to hold it before the five run eighth put it away.
Gleyber Torres hit a two run homer in that last big inning but it may be an Aaron Judge hit that leaves them hopeful. The slumping superstar with a solid run scoring single to left. The hope of course is that it’s a harbinger.
The Yankees will not be swept, so that’s one embarrassing outcome out of the way. Yankee Stadium was finally alive and will now be explosive to start game five.
Starting pitching was supposed to be the Yanks advantage and still can be and that starts with former Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole who gets the ball against Jack Flaherty in a game one rematch.
Cole was outstanding in that one but the AL champs of course were undone and stunned by Freeman’s walkoff slam.
Is that you Aaron Judge?
This might be a good time to tell you that they would have Carlos Rodon ready to go Friday at Dodger Stadium as the calender flips to November. However there is no Friday, there is no November for the Yanks unless so many things happen.
They need Cole, they’ll need some bullpen outs. Continued surprises from the bottom of the line up. They need Soto and Stanton but mostly they need Judge. It’s hard to fathom a four game win streak and an historic comeback without him.
