In late October, the Yankees faced the Dodgers in the 2024 World Series. Two games were at Dodger Stadium and three at Yankee Stadium. The Dodgers won the series 4-1.
The Dodgers came into the series by FAR the best team (not an opinion) in the league, as they had been in recent years. Unlike the Yankees, the Dodgers faced more difficult and stiff competition on the road to the World Series, facing the Padres in the divisional series and barely advancing, then playing the Mets in the NL Championship series and beating them quicker but still only winning in one less game than the max. The Yankees, on the other hand, faced two teams, the Royals and Guardians, that had just barely gotten by their opponents, and were just off of rebuilds. To just about no one’s surprise, the Yankees pretty much walked past the two teams.
This lopsided affair led to many fans disliking the series. “This World Series was honestly very boring. The Mets should have made it and the series ended in five games, so it wasn’t really close,” my cousin stated.
The series started on the 25th of the month, with game 1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Despite holding the lead for most of the game, the Yankees blew the first game of the series in the last inning. Down 3-2 but with the bases loaded, Freddie Freeman won the game with a grand slam (worth 4 runs), the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. (You’ll later see that this wasn’t the only blunder the Yankees made.)
“This World Series was bad, the Dodgers shouldn’t have won- they didn’t deserve it. All those mistakes shouldn’t have been how it ended. Either way, game 1 was the confirmation of the entire series,” said fellow classmate, Carter Nannery, 8th grade.
The next day, game 2 was played, a much less exciting experience. Yet again the Dodgers were able to defeat the Yankees, putting them in a 2-0 series hole going back to New York.
At Yankee stadium in game 3, the Yankees would initially not do any better at home than on the road, and would yet again fall to the Dodgers.
Now in a 3-0 deficit and one loss away from the title slipping away, game 4 would fare differently. This time, the seemingly lazy Yankees finally decided to wake up, blowing the Dodgers out 11-4.
With plenty of life off the recent win, the Yankees would go to work in game 5, the last game at Yankee Stadium for the rest of the season, win or lose.
However, after scoring five runs early in the game, the top of the fifth inning would prove a huge embarrassment for the Yankees. Up 5-0, the Yankees would completely collapse to the Dodgers, almost entirely due to their own mistakes. The most misplays being when Aaron Judge dropped a lazy fly ball (just look at this photo!) without getting an out, and when pitcher Gerrit Cole completely forgot to run to 1st base for the 1st basemen to throw him the ball and end the inning, emphasizing a complete lack of thought from the pitcher. After the Dodgers tied the game 5-5, the ballgame would go back and forth with the Yankees taking back the lead and losing it – again – to the Dodgers. After striking out the final batter, the Dodgers celebration began and the social media posts came pouring in with the embarrassing feats from the Yankees. Judge would say in a later interview that his error was something that would haunt him for the rest of his career.
