For the first time since 1981, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees met in the World Series. This rivalry spans back to 1941, the first time these two baseball teams met in the original Subway Series.
The 2024 World Series did not disappoint with all the excitement and thrills we’ve come to expect from these juggernauts. As a native New Yorker, I was very excited to watch the World Series. It was very interesting to begin with because these two teams have a very storied history. When the Dodgers used to play in Brooklyn, New York, they played seven Fall Classic games before they would dart off to California.
The Yankees won six of the seven World Series titles while they were still in New York, and this matchup was exciting due to the sheer amount of talent on both rosters. This was the first appearance for L.A.’s two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani in the postseason and the first World Series for Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.
This is a far cry from the matchup that we got last year. The Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks were both Wild Card teams last year, while the Yankees and the Dodgers were the best in the league all year.
Game 1 was very exciting, but it felt like it might have deflated the Yankees out of the series before they even got a chance to get started. It was a classic 10-inning thriller, capped off by a Freddie Freeman walk-off grand slam off of a fastball from Nestor Cortes — the first-ever walk-off grand slam in the World Series.
The grand slam by the later World Series MVP Freeman left the Yankees seeing ghosts and playing catch up with the Dodgers for the rest of the series.
The Yankees made poor mistakes that led to their five losses. The Dodgers ran the bases with purpose and forced the Yankees to make quick plays that became detrimental for their fielders. The Yankees failed to compete with the Dodgers’ offense and their quickness and ability to think on their feet.
The Yankees’ weaknesses shined through in the top of the fifth inning in Game 5. They entered the inning leading by five runs. Their ace, Gerrit Cole, was on the mound to maintain the lead. A Kiké Hernández single started the inning with a single, and Tommy Edman popped up a routine fly ball to center field Judge, who dropped the ball, taking his eyes off it.
The Yankees’ poor fundamentals kept shining. Will Smith hit a ground ball to shortstop Anthony Rizzo, and he spiked the ball into the ground, loading the bases. Cole did what he does best, striking out Gavin Lux and Ohtani.
Soon after, former MVP Mookie Betts hit a ground ball to Rizzo. It would have been the end of the inning if Cole had covered first base, but his mind was in a different place. Instead of ending the inning, the Yankees would extend it.
After another at-bat by Freeman and Teoscar Hernández, the game was tied five runs apiece. The Dodgers would complete the largest comeback to clinch a World Series win since 1925.
The Yankees’ performance was poor on the field. Judge, the Yankees hitting star, did not come to play in the five-game series. He only had a .222 batting average, four hits and one home run in Game 5 when the Yankees were eliminated. It became very interesting for opponents to face the Yankees because they would rather walk Juan Soto and pitch to Judge. Remember, this is Aaron Judge. He led the league in home runs with 58 and just could not figure it out when it mattered most.
Arguably, one of the biggest issues the Yankees faced was their inability to run the bases in the postseason and during the American League Championship Series. When Rizzo got caught stealing, Yankees broadcaster John Sterling voiced his concerns about this long-standing issue with the Yankees. “Boy, if that wasn’t the Yankees, that’s what they do,” said John Sterling on WFAN radio. “Run the bases like a bunch of drunks.”
The writing was on the wall. Anthony Volpe somehow did not score from second after a ball bounced off the wall. Then, Giancarlo Stanton was tagged out at home after third base coach Luis Rojas sent him home when T. Hernández had the ball in his glove. It was a mix of poor performance and poor guidance from the coaches, and it just further exemplified the Yankees all talent and no fundamentals baseball the Dodgers took advantage of.
Aaron Boone, the Yankees manager, is as much to blame for this World Series loss as anyone else on the team. Many blunders could have been avoided. One huge mistake was putting Cortes in at the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 1 when he hadn’t pitched since Sept. 18, leading to him giving up the grand slam.
The Dodgers played their best baseball possible and clearly shined when the Yankees floundered. Profiting from the Yankee errors and performing when the lights were the brightest from pitching to hitting is what the World Series boils down to errors.
The Dodgers proved to be the better team. October is the time to show if you got what it takes and the 2024 champion Dodgers proved they were posited and gritty enough to get over the Yankees and hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy.
