Freddie Freeman may be one of the most universally liked players around MLB, but he is Public Enemy No. 1 as far as Yankees fans are concerned. He opened this game with a two-run blast to tie George Springer for the most consecutive World Series games with a home run at five. The Yankees offense never appearaed capable of climbing out of that hole and in the end were beaten, 4-2, while managing just five hits to find themselves just one loss away from being the first team swept in the World Series since the 2012 Tigers.
Clarke Schmidt held the Royals and Guardians to two runs in 4.2 innings in his first two starts of the postseason, but the Dodgers filled that quota in the first inning. He certainly appeared to be over-amped out of the gate, firing four straight uncompetitive fastballs to Shohei Ohtani. You never want to walk the leadoff batter of the game, especially on four straight balls to a player who dislocated his left shoulder less than 24 hours ago. The walk came back to bite him, Freeman launching a poorly executed cutter into the seats in right to give him a home run in each of the first three games of the series.
Why Schmidt was throwing a 1-2 fastball when Freeman had hammered two bad fastballs for homers in his previous two games was a mystery, and the fact that he missed his spot so badly only made matters worse.
Meanwhile, Walker Buehler came out of the gate with a little more oomph on his fastball than his last start against the Mets, but the Yankees did him plenty of favors by missing four-seamer after four-seamer in the middle of the plate. They managed just two baserunners through the first three innings — Gleyber Torres drawing a walk both times.
With the opposing offense putting zero pressure on their starter, the Dodgers lineup looked to be playing free and easy. They struck again in the third, Tommy Edman drawing a leadoff walk and advancing to second on an Ohtani grounder. Schmidt then failed to put away Mookie Betts after reaching a two-strike count, the Dodgers right fielder winning the nine pitch battle by looping a single to right to drive in Edman as the Dodgers’ third run. Schmidt then loaded the bases with walks of Freeman and Max Muncy to force Aaron Boone to retrieve his starter after recording just eight outs. Mark Leiter Jr. entered as the fireman and somehow put out the inferno, getting Will Smith to ground out to leave the bases juiced.
Leiter’s effectiveness would be short-lived as he gave up a Gavin Lux walk and Kiké Hernández single to open the fourth with runners on the corners. The Dodgers then attempted the safety squeeze with Edman, but Leiter’s throw just beat Lux to home plate — a call that held up after review. With the lefty Ohtani due up, Boone called on Nestor Cortes just as he did in the 10th inning of Game 1. Cortes vowed that he would bounce back from the grand slam he served up to Freeman, and to his credit he fulfilled his word, striking out Ohtani and getting Betts to line out to hold the score where it was.
The Yankees had to wait until the fourth to record their first hit of the contest, Giancarlo Stanton lining a ringing double off the wall in left with one out. Stanton then failed to advance to third on a Betts diving catch on a sinking liner from Jazz, and they were immediately punished for the indecision. Third-base coach Luis Rojas made a highly questionable send call to Stanton on a Volpe single to left, and a Teoscar Hernández missile home gunned down Stanton by a step on a play you could see coming from a mile away to end the inning with the shutout intact.
Buehler’s night was over after five shutout innings, and given the impotence of the Yankees lineup and the performance of the Dodgers bullpen thus far, it was an easy choice. New York created some traffic in the bottom of the sixth on a Juan Soto walk and Stanton single, but Jazz grounded out to strand the pair and deepen the Yankees’ woes with RISP.
New York’s failure to get the big hit with runners on stood in stark contrast to their opponents. Lux was hit by a Jake Cousins fastball with one out in the sixth and then promptly stole second on a pitch that bounced. Kiké then clubbed a single to center, and despite a perfect throw home from Aaron Judge, Lux got in ahead of the tag to make it 4-0 Dodgers. Compare that to the bottom of the seventh, when the Yankees managed to put a pair on via an Anthony Rizzo single and Alex Verdugo walk, but Torres got punched out on a borderline high sinker from Anthony Banda to strand another pair.
The Yanks had their best shot with Soto, Judge, and Stanton due up in the eighth, but they only managed a Judge walk as fans began to flood for the exits. At the very least, they managed to avert the shutout, Rizzo reaching in the ninth on a one-out walk and scoring on an Alex Verdugo home run to right, but Michael Kopech recorded the final out on a Gleyber grounder to seal the 4-2 win for the Dodgers.
The Yankees will hope they can at a minimum avoid the sweep tomorrow with Luis Gil on the mound to face an as-yet unnamed Dodgers starter, likely beginning a Bullpen Game. First pitch is at 8:08pm ET with the broadcast on FOX. Will we even have baseball on Wednesday? That’s entirely dependent on tomorrow and the Yankees putting in a far better effort.
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