1. When I left Yankee Stadium on Monday after Game 3, I had come to terms with the Yankees’ season ending in a World Series loss to the Dodgers. The realization began when Freddie Freeman hit the two-run home run in the first inning and continued with the Yankees’ offense being retired with ease inning after inning. I woke up on Tuesday accepting of the fact that my wife and her family would be holding a Dodgers’ championship at the expense of the Yankees over me for all of time.
2. I decided to watch Game 4 from home instead of at the Stadium. If the Yankees’ season were to end on on Tuesday, at least I could turn off the TV and walk to bed to begin the five-month layoff until the next meaningful baseball game. If they were to win, great, I would get to watch at least one more game of Juan Soto as a Yankee on Wednesday.
3. They did win. And while the final score makes it look like a lopsided rout, it really wasn’t.
“It was a good ballgame,” Dave Roberts said, “until it wasn’t.”
The Yankees trailed early, made an egregious baserunning error, and then finally got the big hit they have been waiting for all series from the player who made the egregious baserunning error. That player was Anthony Volpe and the big hit was his third-inning grand slam to give the Yankees their first lead since the 10th inning of Game 1.
“I think I pretty much blacked out,” Volpe said, “as soon as I saw it go over the fence.”
4. Volpe’s blunder on the bases on Austin Wells’ double off the right-center wall was ridiculous. It’s no less ridiculous because he hit a grand slam the following inning, it just made the pain and the potential disaster of it in an elimination game go away. Later in the game, Volpe again made a baserunning mistake when he went for two and was initially thrown out by Teoscar Hernandez at second base before his head dislodged the ball on his slide. This from a player Boone called “a really good baserunner” during his in-game interview immediately after Volpe’s mistake on Wells’ double.
The Golden Boy had himself a night and it ended with David Ortiz taking a picture of Volpe and Derek Jeter together on the field after Volpe did a postgame interview with those two and Alex Rodriguez. Three men who were all part of the only 3-0 comeback in baseball history.
“We’ve been through so much the whole year,” Volpe said. “We’re not going to go down easy at all.”
5. Aaron Judge reached base three times (hit by pitch, walk and single) and drove in his first run of the series. Gleyber Torres homered and had three RBIs, Wells had a pair of extra-base hits (double and home run), Soto doubled and even Alex Verdugo had two RBIs. Every Yankee except for Anthony Rizzo reached base.
“We just wanted to go 1-0 today and win today,” Volpe said, “and see where it took us.”
6. The 11-run outburst was enjoyable as it was the Yankees’ first laugher in the postseason. Prior to Game 4, their first 12 postseason games this October were all decided by three or fewer runs. After scoring seven runs in the first three games and 28 innings of the World Series they scored five runs in the eighth inning alone. I don’t expect a similar outburst in Game 5, but the Yankees don’t need an outburst like that to win.
7. In the past, when the Yankees were on the verge of being swept in four, like they were in the 2012 ALCS or 2022 ALCS, they just rolled over and went to the offseason, so I expected a similar ending in this series, especially after the Freeman home run in the first inning. I didn’t expect a win and because I had accepted the season was essentially over, Game 4 presented an odd feeling: I was relaxed watching it. I wasn’t upset when Freeman hit another first-inning home run. I wasn’t angry when Volpe ran the bases like “he was drunk” which is how John Sterling has described the Yankees’ baserunning. I didn’t get overly excited when Volpe hit his slam or when the offense put up a 5-spot in the eighth. I wasn’t worried when the Dodgers turned a three-run deficit into a one-run deficit in the middle innings. I didn’t celebrate when they closed out the win.
That will change on Wednesday in Game 5. Now that they showed some life and some fight and some offense, it’s hard to not look at the Gerrit Cole-Jack Flaherty matchup in Game 5 and feel like this series should get to a Game 6.
8. In order to get to a Game 6 on Friday at Dodger Stadium, Cole needs to be an ace in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. I don’t trust Cole to go out and shut down the Dodgers because I don’t think he’s completely healthy (why else would he be removed after 88 pitches in Game 1?) and because he hasn’t been the type of sure-thing he should be in games like this in his career. But I have no choice. The only way the Yankees extend their season is with Cole pitching like he’s supposed to in these moments and the offense building off their Game 4 performance and not reverting back to their Games 1, 2 and 3 performances.
9. The formula in Game 5 needs to be Cole for seven and then Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver for the eighth and ninth. That’s the cleanest path to victory. I doubt it will be that easy. These Yankees never seem to make anything easy.
10. “Why not us?”
That was the moniker of the 2004 Red Sox when they began their historic comeback against the Yankees. The Yankees and Yankees fans aren’t there. Not yet. But if the Yankees are able to win Game 5, save their season for a second straight day and send the series back to Los Angeles? Then the “Why not us?” talk can begin.
The Dodgers are going back to Los Angeles after Game 5 no matter the result. I’m cautiously optimistic the Yankees will be going with them.
Nine down, Three to go.
Last modified: Oct 30, 2024
