Resilient to the end, Yankees' 2024 title hopes fade in Game 5

NEW YORK -- It was finally beginning to look like the World Series that the Yankees expected in the early innings of Game 5, their blend of power and patience showing up with force, fueling their surging optimism that maybe -- just maybe -- this team had all the necessary components to “shock the world,” as manager Aaron Boone had said.

Gerrit Cole had yet to permit a hit over four scoreless innings, the five-run wad in his back pocket bankrolled by home runs from Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Giancarlo Stanton. Then came Tommy Edman’s sinking liner to center field, a routine play that would change the course of an evening that sent these Yankees into winter.

“You can't give a good team like that extra outs,” Judge said after the Yankees’ 7-6 loss on Wednesday night, which sealed the Dodgers’ eighth World Series championship. “So it starts with me there, a line drive coming in. I misplayed that. If that doesn't happen, I think it's a different story tonight.”

Judge said there was nothing strange about Edman’s liner, except perhaps the fact that it wasn’t caught, clanking off Judge’s glove for his first error in 1,958 career innings as a center fielder (regular season and postseason).

With one foot seemingly already on a jet to Los Angeles, the Yankees had just opened the door for the flight delay of all delays.

This club survived a lack of fundamentals in the field and on the basepaths in the regular season because the Yankees thumped homers and worked walks more frequently than anyone else; even when those weaknesses showed up in the first two rounds of the postseason, the Royals and Guardians ultimately couldn’t contain New York’s firepower.

The Dodgers, however, would be a different story. Anthony Volpe fielded a Will Smith grounder and opted to throw to Chisholm at third base, intending to cut down Kiké Hernández. The toss was short, bouncing away from Chisholm and loading the bases with none out.

“Just trying to make a play,” Volpe said. “I figured that was my only play.”

Cole would have to dig deep for an escape, one he seemed primed for by striking out the next two hitters. Mookie Betts chopped a grounder to Anthony Rizzo at first base, and the crowd of 49,263 roared in anticipation of a stellar Houdini act; even the person at the controls of the Stadium sound system played a peppy end-of-inning ditty.

Yet as Betts busted it down the baseline, Cole halted, pointing for Rizzo to take the ball to first base himself.

“I took a bad angle to the ball,” Cole said. “I wasn’t sure really off the bat how hard he hit it. I took a direct angle to it to cut it off. By the time the ball got by me, I was not in a position to cover first. Neither of us were, based on the spin of the baseball and him having to secure it.”

Betts was safe, Hernández scored, and Cole had to go back to the mound. The sequence unraveled from there; World Series MVP Freddie Freeman stroked a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández blasted a two-run double to deep center field, tying the game.

It was arguably the Yankees’ worst defensive inning of the season, and once Cole mercifully recorded the final out, one was reminded of the scene in Anchorman when Will Ferrell’s exhausted Ron Burgundy exhales after a bloody parking-lot battle: “Boy, that escalated quickly.”

“At the end of it, it almost felt like a win to just not give up the lead and be in a position to keep going,” Cole said.

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Yes, another theme of this campaign has been an ability to punch back; the Yanks recovered from a summer swoon that lasted far too long to secure the American League East, finishing with an AL-best 94 victories.

Even a 3-0 deficit in the World Series didn’t seem to daunt them; Volpe’s starring performance in Game 4 against the Dodgers marked one of the best Yankee Stadium moments since the 2009 championship.

“I think that’s what makes it so painful,” Volpe said. “We could go back and replay every single inning of every single game. We felt like we were good enough to win the World Series.”

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So they would try once again, reclaiming the lead behind Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly. As Cole said: “When it was all said and done, the game was still in front of us with a chance to win.”

But a bullpen that exceeded expectations all postseason faltered when Tommy Kahnle allowed all three men he faced to reach in the eighth, a frame that also included a catcher’s interference error.

The clock ran out on the ’24 Yankees nine minutes before Halloween, with Alex Verdugo swinging through a Walker Buehler knuckle curve.

The Yankees steadfastly believed the talent levels between the two rosters in this dream World Series were comparable; that may be so, but the differences in execution were evident. They’ll have a long time to evaluate how it should have gone differently.

“I think falling short in the World Series will stick with me until I die, probably,” Judge said. “Just like every other loss, those things don’t go away. There’s battle scars along the way. Hopefully when my career is over, we’ve got a lot of battle scars, but also a lot of victories.”