NEW YORK — The Yankees took you on a World Series roller coaster, climbing to baseball heaven and sinking to scorching hell. They somehow escape that shocking free fall and begin sailing all the way to Cloud 9, only to end up back in the pit.
Just when this World Series was getting interesting, the 2024 Yankees imploded.
Instead of returning to LA for Game 6, the Yankees entered the offseason with their worst loss in playoff history.
Until now!
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In Game 5, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead after one inning, and Gerrit Cole’s no-hitter pitched a 5-0 lead through four games, but they lost 7-6.
“This is the worst,” Cole said.
I had to see it to believe it.
This was pathetic.
“We definitely thought we got it,” Juan Soto said after the game before free agency.
The Yankees became a laughing stock in the fifth inning, when the Dodgers scored five runs and tied the game due to Aaron Judge’s dropped fly ball, Anthony Volpe’s bad throw, and Cole forgetting to cover first.
“You can’t give extra outs to a good team like that,” Judge said. “The line drive came in and we misplayed it. If that doesn’t happen, we’re going to be talking about a different story tonight.”
The Yankees recovered from that down and regained a 6-5 lead in the sixth inning on two walks, a fielder’s choice grounder, and a sac fly from Giancarlo Stanton.
The Yankees will survive with 9 more outs.
Cole and Clay Holmes scored three runs in the seventh inning, then Tommy Kahnle came on to add more fire.
After two singles and a walk to load the bases with no outs, Luke Weaver made his 12th appearance in 14 postseason games.
Weaver needed a strikeout, not a fly ball. Gavin Lux flew to center field to tie the score, and after Shohei Ohtani interfered with the catcher, Mookie Betts hit a single to center field to give Los Angeles the lead for the first time.
The Dodgers bullpen held the lead.
The Yankees were set up by Blake Treinen’s efforts with one out and two walks in the 8th inning, but the inning ended with Stanton flying to right and Anthony Rizzo striking out.
In the ninth inning, the Dodgers turned to Walker Buehler, who would be the starting pitcher if there was a Game 7, but Anthony Volpe grounded out to third base, and then Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo quietly retired on the downswing.
The Yankees will forever be blaming themselves after the fifth inning.
“It’s tough, but that’s part of the game,” Soto said. “We don’t want it to happen, but it’s going to happen. We tried to recover and got another point, but we couldn’t hold on.”
Quique Hernandez led off with a single, the Dodgers’ first hit, and Judge made a great catch, colliding with the wall in the first inning and dropping a fly ball to center field for his first error of the season. Then Gold Glove Award-winning shortstop Volpe put the ball in the hole and made a bad throw to third base, with no outs and the bases loaded.
From there, Cole reached back and held Lux and Ohtani to two outs, nearly ending the inning when Betts grounded out to first base.
If Cole covers first, the inning ends.
Cole started to head the ball to first, but for some reason it stopped, Betts beat it, and the Dodgers were on the board. Freddie Freeman hit another two-run double to center field, Teoscar Hernandez followed with a two-run double, and surprisingly, the game became a new 5-on-5 game.
After four innings, the Dodgers had a celebration.
“Obviously he’s stinging right now,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But this will last forever.”
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Contact Randy Miller at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.
