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We had two very Dramatic plays and a scary moment for Shohei Ohtani, but… are the Yankees going to make this a series or what? I am Levi Weaverhere with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!

Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images

Weekend update: The Dodgers appear to be dominant at 2-0

By now you’ve no doubt seen some comparisons between Kirk Gibson and Freddie Freeman. In Game 1, the Dodgers trailed by two outs in the ninth and the left-hander with a lower-body injury hit a walk-off home run.

The similarities were uncanny — right down to the fact that both events occurred at 8:37 p.m. PT.

One difference: Freeman’s walk-off grand slam was the first of its kind in World Series history. The fact that this came after such a difficult 2024 season for Freeman and his family gave the moment even more gravity.

Game 2 wasn’t it quite just as dramatic (although the Yankees barely managed it in the ninth; more on that later). Yoshinobu Yamamoto appeared to be every bit the big signing that he was, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing just one run on one hit (a solo home run by Juan Soto). Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ offense wasn’t overpowering, but it didn’t have to be. A 4-2 finish isn’t a slam dunk, but the Dodgers look a lot like the juggernaut we expected them to be after last offseason’s spending spree.

Just to be a contradiction since these are historical parallels: Here’s what happened in the last two meetings between these teams in the World Series:

• 1981: The Yankees take a 2-0 lead, the Dodgers win the next four.
• 1978: Dodgers take a 2-0 lead, Yankees win the next four.

Ken’s Notebook: Ohtani’s injury update, outlook

We won’t know for sure until later today that Shohei Ohtani will be in the Dodgers’ lineup for Game 3 of the World Series. But all signs continue to be good and suggest that what Ohtani experienced Saturday night was not as serious as it seemed.

To recap: Ohtani apparently suffered an injury and slid into second base on an attempted steal in the seventh inning of Game 2, with the Dodgers leading 4-1. He was in obvious pain, rolling around on the dirt and then slowly standing up before an athletic trainer helped him off the field and supported his left arm.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani has a subluxation in his left shoulder, a condition that occurs when the ball at the top of the humerus comes out of the socket only partially rather than completely, which is the case with a dislocation.

Speaking to reporters yesterday at Yankee Stadium, Roberts again spoke positively, saying Ohtani continues to show good range of motion and strength. Roberts warned that Ohtani still had to practice that evening and that the Dodgers still didn’t have the results of his MRI. But Roberts clearly expected Ohtani to play.

“I think he’s obviously very aware of himself and his body,” Roberts said. “So if he feels well enough to go then I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be in there.”

Roberts said the question for Ohtani is pain tolerance, adding that he can’t compromise on his hitting. Ohtani is a left-handed hitter, so his left shoulder is his back shoulder. The front shoulder is more important to a hitter’s swing.

“Subluxation” is a scary-sounding word, but it entered the baseball lexicon in 2021 when the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. reportedly popped his shoulder at least four times. Tatis initially did not have surgery because he believed his shoulder was stable. But in September 2022, he changed course and served an 80-game suspension for using a banned performance-enhancing substance. Doctors repaired the labrum in his left shoulder. Tatis recovered until his reinstatement in April 2023. He played 141 games that season.

Could Ohtani eventually suffer the same fate? Maybe if he endures repeated subluxations. Treatment for shoulder instability includes both nonsurgical and surgical options, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Ohtani, of course, is still recovering from major surgery on his right elbow and expects to be pitching again in 2025. But even after stealing 59 bases as a full-time designated hitter this season, he will almost certainly limit his attempts once he returns to the mound, thereby reducing the wear and tear on his body.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images

Mood check: All is not well in the Bronx

It’s not like the Yankees looked terrible in the first two games. In the first game they were just one out away, and in the second game they had a chance for a symmetrical response when the bases were loaded in the ninth inning. But they fall short and no longer have time to remedy the situation.

There are two main issues that seem to be bothering the Yankees:

• Aaron Judge has problems. Despite it. It’s also not specific to this World Series. His career regular season line is .288/.406/.604 (1.010 OPS). In the postseason they are .199/.304/.436 (.740). He is 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in the first two games of this series. It’s not unprecedented for stars to struggle in the World Series, but that’s hardly comforting to Judge or Yankees fans right now.

  Judge has won three Silver Sluggers and seems almost certain to win his second MVP this year. With a 2-0 deficit, the Yankees need him as a player, and quickly.

• Aaron Boone’s decisions didn’t work out. It’s easy to anger a manager in hindsight, but — even though Nestor Cortes was added to the roster specifically to deal with the Dodgers’ left-handed hitters — it was certainly a risk that this Game 1 situation was a man’s first game action in 37 days.

  Then, in the ninth inning of Game 2, with the bases loaded, Boone Pinch struck out relief catcher Jose Trevino for Austin Wells. Trevino is a career .243 hitter against lefties (Wells: .181). But he is the defense-first catcher and has hit just .189 against them this year. Didn’t the Yankees have a better option?

  Not really. Jasson Domínguez is a switch-hitter, but hit just .111 against lefties this year (and .185 in the minors). Trent Grisham? .211 (and he’s left-handed). Even Oswaldo Cabrera, whom Boone pinch-hit for Rizzo, hit just .190 against southpaws that year. It’s not Boone’s fault that Jon Berti (.259) suffered a hip flexor strain in the ALCS. (But it’s a sick irony that Berti is the guy whose place was taken by Cortes, isn’t it?)

  Question the decisions or defend them as you see fit, but neither worked and the Yankees are now in a bind.

Game 3 is tonight as Clarke Schmidt gets the nod for the Yankees at home while Walker Buehler gets the nod for the Dodgers (8:08 p.m. ET, Fox or Fubo).

In other news: Manfred on Rays etc.

For those who work in baseball, there really isn’t a point in the calendar where they can take an extended break. Maybe in the first or second round of the playoffs, but even now teams are preparing contract offers and putting the finishing touches to their free agency plan as that process begins with the end of the World Series.

The Rays have one more important task to add to the whiteboard: figuring out where they will play their home games next year after the roof of Tropicana Field was destroyed by Hurricane Milton.

What we already knew: It probably won’t be Nashville or Salt Lake City. What we learned over the weekend: Commissioner Rob Manfred expects the team to have this problem resolved by Christmas.

It seems like an awfully quick change, but it makes sense. There are so many logistics involved in a big league season. Travel, lodging, vendors, marketing…not to mention that any ballpark capable of hosting a major league baseball game will almost certainly have an existing tenant.

So of course – there are only two months left until Christmas. However, there are just over three months until opening day.

Manfred also talked about TV ratings (they’re good), revenue (that World Series match helps), the Olympics (no updates), the pitch in Sacramento (a “modest” investment) and Taco Bell. Yes, Taco Bell. Evan Drellich has it all here.

Handshakes and high fives

MLB veterans Jameson Taillon, Tucker Barnhart, Max Stassi and Rob Refsnyder joined The athleteis the live blog for Games 1 and 2. Here’s what we learned from them.

Stranger Things Have Worked: The Yankees are hoping that wearing the 1990s turtlenecks — the real ones — can give them a bit of postseason magic.

So far, the MLB definition of a check swing in practice is, “ehhhh, yeah, looked like that to me?” But they’re testing a new system in the Arizona Fall League. However, there are no plans to implement it in the major leagues yet. It is “currently nothing more than a proof of concept”.

A few World Series notes off the field: We power-ranked the Yankees and Dodgers die-hard celebrities and asked players to prepare for the games by who they’re listening to in their earbuds – there’s a whole playlist.

Most clicked on in Friday’s newsletter: Reader poll reveals whether this World Series matchup is good for baseball. Come for the voting numbers and stay for the selection of thoughtful answers.

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(Top photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)