LOS ANGELES — Hey Yankees, you are not in Kansas City anymore.
Or Cleveland.
The lightweight portion of the postseason program is gone and on the other side of the World Series field is a mirror image of the Yankees — just one that plays the game cleaner. One certain to make the Yankees pay for transgressions in a way that the less star-studded, less powerful Royals and Guardians could not.
The Yankees made mistakes in the field and on the bases and could not overcome it. Not in the wall of noise that was Dodger Stadium in World Series Game 1. Not when the Yankees could survive a bottom-of-the-10th plate appearance by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts and then the Dodgers still had Freddie Freeman to do a Kirk Gibson imitation.
The Yankees had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th thanks in large part to Jazz Chisholm’s legs. But Jake Cousins walked Gavin Lux with one out in the bottom of the inning. Tommy Edman then hit a grounder toward the middle. Oswaldo Cabrera had come in to defend in the 10th after Gleyber Torres had been pinch-run for in the ninth. It was a tough backhand, but if Cabrera makes it, he gets an out somewhere. But the ball trickled away from him.
That brought up Ohtani with two on. Nestor Cortes, who had been put on the World Series roster after not pitching since mid-September due to an elbow injury, entered. Ohtani sliced a ball toward the left-field line and Alex Verudgo made a sensational play lunging into the left field corner seats to catch it. But because he was out of play, the runners were allowed to move up a base.
So Betts was walked to set up a lefty-vs.-lefty duel against Freeman. The Dodgers first baseman had not played in two of the final three NLCS games against the Mets — both started by lefties — as he nursed a sprained right ankle.
Los Angeles had won Game 1 of the 1988 World Series when Kirk Gibson homered to right field off Dennis Eckersley here at Dodger Stadium and then famously hobbled around the bases. Freeman crushed the ball to the same direction off of a first-pitch Cortes fastball for a grand slam.
That made the final 6-3 in Game 1 of the 120th World Series — a heartbreaker for the Yankees, who helped the Dodgers to this victory.
The Dodgers’ first two runs came on gifts.
Juan Soto could not corral a ball twisting away from him in the fifth inning that if played properly is either caught and held to a double, but went for an Enrique Herndnez triple and Torres allowed a throw from Soto to kick away from him to permit Ohtani to add an extra base to his double on the eighth-inning error. Because they were on third, both were positioned to score on sacrifice flies.
In the top of the 10th, Chisholm singled, stole second, Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked and Chisholm stole third. Anthony Volpe then hit a slow grounder that shortstop Tommy Edman bobbled as Chisholm scored the tie-breaking run. But for some reason Rizzo stopped before second base and allowed himself to be easily forced out. Would the Yankees have scored more if he just slid in safely – we will never know.
But between the mistakes and Aaron Judge still not hitting — items the Yanks navigated against softer AL Central foes — the Yankees advanced. But can they do that here.
Judge was 1-for-5 and struck out his first three at-bats. He came up with two out and two on in the ninth and a chance to break the tie after Soto was intentionally walked in front of him. But he popped out.
And the Yankees simply cannot outdo their mistakes if Aaron Judge is going to continue to fail on a large scale in the postseason.
Remember when the question was how much he would be intentionally walked. The answer is once so far this postseason. But on Friday night, Dave Roberts ordered Soto walked in front of Judge with two out and a runner on second.
So Judge was up with a chance to break the tie, but he lifted a skyscraper pop out to shortstop. Judge is 6-for-36 this postseason with 16 strikeouts. He is hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position.
If Judge was hitting like Giancarlo Stanton this October, the Yanks would just put Judge in Monument Park.
Stanton seemingly changed another postseason game as he has been doing throughout this October. Jack Flaherty, the nearly Yankee, was outdueling a game Gerrit Cole. The Yankees were down 1-0 in the sixth. And Dodger Stadium — where one celebrity after another comes on the scoreboard to implore sheer loudness — was on tilt.
But no one blocks out noise quite like Stanton. Verbal. Written. Crowd.
He fell behind 0-2 with one out and one on in the sixth – a Soto single leading off and a third Judge strikeout in three at-bats followed. Flaherty then dangled a curve that hovered on the inner-third too delectably. And Stanton did Stanton — producing the hardest-hit World Series ball since tracking began in 2016: 116.6 mph. It went 412 feet deep to left.
This time, though, Stanton’s might could not make the difference. Because the Yanks continue not to get enough from Judge. They persist in playing a sloppy style. And because they are not in Kansas City or Cleveland any longer.
They are in Los Angeles against another superpower that is going to make the Yankees pay for not mistakes.