The Yankees have waited 15 years to play a World Series game in the Bronx, a place that used to serve as the home office for the Fall Classic.
Now they’ll do it Monday under the worst possible scenarios: planted in a 2-0 hole by the Dodgers, who twice rallied from deficits in Game 1 — punctuated by Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning — then hit three homers off Carlos Rodon in Game 2 before barely holding on for the win.
Historically speaking, it’s not an unfamiliar spot for the Yankees, a franchise with 27 championships. This is the ninth time they’ve been down 2-0 in the World Series, and they came back to win the title in four of those trips, the most recent being not so recent: 28 years ago, when new manager Joe Torre and a rookie shortstop named Derek Jeter dropped the first two in the Bronx to NL powerhouse Atlanta (outscored 16-1) then reeled off four straight.
Back then, Torre laid out that exact blueprint for an agitated George Steinbrenner — “Don’t worry — Atlanta’s my town,” the Hall of Fame manager famously said — and his Yankees responded with the birth of a dynasty under Torre’s reign.
We’re not sure what Aaron Boone has up his sleeve for clubhouse motivation, and Hal Steinbrenner is nothing like his bombastic dad. But the Yankees’ circumstances are no less dire, even though they’re returning to the Bronx rather than going on the road to the since-demolished Fulton County Stadium.
“We’ve been through a lot of adversity, through 162 and then this postseason,” Aaron Judge said in the emptying visitors clubhouse late Saturday night. “So guys are going to step up, guys are going to do what they need to do — I’ve got to step up as well.”
No kidding. Judge’s no-show in this World Series isn’t the only reason they’re in a tough spot — past teams down 2-0 have a 19.4% success rate of overcoming it — but he’s certainly at the top of the blame list. Half the Yankees’ lineup has done virtually nothing, and their supposed rotation edge dissolved at Chavez Ravine, where Gerrit Cole’s strong Game 1 start was squandered and the besieged Rodon got hit hard in his 3 1/3 innings.
As for Judge, he’s 1-for-9 with zero walks and six strikeouts, and twice was the weak link during ninth-inning rallies that fizzled. In Friday’s Game 1, with the score tied at 2, first base open and the go-ahead run in scoring position, the Dodgers opted to intentionally walk Juan Soto for a shot at Judge, who promptly struck out against closer Blake Treinen. The next night, with the Dodgers up 4-1, but Soto on after leadoff single, Treinen whiffed Judge again. That same inning, the Yankees trimmed the deficit to 4-2 and left the bases loaded when pinch hitter Jose Trevino flied out against lefty reliever Alex Vesia.
According to MLB stat guru Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) teams are now 340-0 when taking a lead of three or more runs into the ninth inning of a World Series game. But Treinen was fading fast at the end of Game 2, and needed his 33rd pitch to whiff Anthony Volpe for the second out — a desperate sweeper that was nowhere near the strike zone. If Judge isn’t an automatic out, that could’ve been a very different ninth, and the same goes for the first two games, which were tight until the final pitches.
“This club never gives up,” Rodon said. “We’re here for a reason. It’s gonna be nice to go back home to the Bronx and feel that energy. So we’re looking forward to that.”
Let’s talk about that “energy” for a minute. Remember the 2022 Division Series, when Judge had an eerily similar start (0-for-8, seven Ks) and was booed in the Bronx during the Game 2 extra-inning loss to the Guardians? For context, Judge had just wrapped up what would be his first MVP regular-season, also breaking Roger Maris’ long-standing AL record with 62 homers. And still booed by his own fans, only a few expletives short of the Jose Altuve treatment.
One can’t help but wonder if things would flip that badly Monday night if Game 3 goes south in a hurry, and Judge continues to be the primary culprit. He’s already admitted the failure to do his part is pressuring him into bad swing decisions, and that’s been a lingering theme throughout his postseason career, as Judge’s 34.3% strikeout rate is the highest among players with a minimum of 210 plate appearances in the playoffs.
It also raises an interesting question about whether being back in the Bronx, which has been inexplicably harsh on the Yankees in recent Octobers, is going to turn up the heat for a team that was narrowly outplayed by the Dodgers out in L.A. The Yankees squeezed by the first two playoff rounds, edging the Royals by a plus-2 run differential (over four games) in the Division Series and beating the Guardians by a plus-3 (over five games). They were used to winning in these tiny margins for most of October, but the Dodgers are better (plus-5) at it so far in this World Series.
“No one said it’s going to be easy,” Boone said. “We won’t flinch. We’ve just got to keep at it.”
The Yankees definitely made their task harder by coming up empty in L.A. Better to get Monday’s Game 3 and not have to draw any inspiration from the ’04 Red Sox.
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