Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, bottom 1

Flaherty falls behind the bat – it’s 3-0 to Soto before the right-hander fires a strike.

Then Soto puts a pitch deep and away – that’s ball four! One for Aaron Judge. Half a city awaits!

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, bottom 1

OK, Cole did his thing, how about Flaherty?

He’s up 2-0 against Torres before throwing the ball into the dirt. The 1-2 slider is bounced to second base – this is routine for Lux, who fires to first base on the first out.

Now Juan Soto steps into the batters box in what could be his final game as a New York Yankee.

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, first

Freeman hits a fly ball from the opposite field that is well below the fence. The catch is made, the page is withdrawn!

It’s a 1-2-3 inning with no major stress pitches for Cole. It’s exactly what he had to do.

Now come the Yankees!

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, first

Betts hits a little roller up the first base line. Rizzo picks it up, steps to first base and that’s the second out.

Freddie Feeman isn’t dating anyone, which is the best course of action for New York.

First pitch!

Prediction time

For those of you keeping score at home, I picked the Dodgers in five games. Since this is Game 5, this is my moment! Tonight my choice comes true: the champions and the game total – nice! The score? 6-4, of course.

National anthem

Tonight it’s babyface! And he really shines in his black jacket – I like the look. Very calming and solid performance: I give it a score of 8/10, which I think puts it at the top of the 2024 World Series national anthem rankings.

This is what he sounded like at the NBA All-Star Game, but there was no guitar tonight.

Tweet in…

FF = Freddie Freeman, who hit a home run in six straight World Series games. Lucky Seven for FF tonight?

Readers say…

David Athya writes:

“It’s unthinkable that the Dodgers don’t win the big prize, but tonight at least it’s harder to decide, and if the Yankees even make it to Los Angeles, the drama continues!” Looks like a head-to-head matchup between Cole and Flaherty out; Depending on which man stands the longest, the better chance his team has of winning. The Yankees should have gotten a morale boost with last night’s batting performance. Everyone expects Judge to produce at some point, but I think Stanton is the man to keep an eye on.”

Well, I don’t know what’s unthinkable. You can imagine a scenario where Cole delivers tonight and sends everyone back to Los Angeles. Then LA would absolutely destroy Carlos Rodon while Yoshinobu Yamamoto kept the Yankees’ bats at bay in Game 6.

If Judge acts as a producer on this series, he’ll be running out of time.

Lineups!

I’m surprised the Yankees didn’t put Stanton back where he belongs, right behind Judge. Tommy Edman moves up in the lineup for LA, which makes sense since he is the NLCS MVP.

Bronx Zoo update

By now you may know the Austin Capobianco and his friend who practically attacked Mookie Betts as he chased a foul ball near the right-field bleachers on Tuesday. Well, they’re out of Game 5, which makes sense. In fact, ESPN reported that the perpetrators were told they would be arrested if they even tried to get into Yankee Stadium for Game 5. The amazing thing is that the duo was initially told they could actually come back and watch World Series baseball. At some point, someone from somewhere told the Yankees to lock these gentlemen out.

Oh, and it turns out that Capobianco was friends with Rob Gronkowski in college and spoke glowingly about his pal on Wednesday.

Only in America!

Hello!

Welcome to our live coverage of Game 5 of the 120th World Series! The Dodgers are in the Bronx and want to make sure they don’t leave for Los Angeles without the trophy. To do that, they have to beat New York one last time at Yankee Stadium.

How did we get here? Well, in Game 4, the Yankees finally put some big runs on the board while recovering from the ground, defeating Los Angeles 11-4 in a close game until New York erupted with five runs in the eighth inning. Do the Yankees and their fans feel better now that they haven’t been swept away by LA? Oh yes, definitely. Some of their hitters woke up: Anthony Volpe hit a dramatic grand slam and Austin Wells smashed a hit off the fence before launching a home run in the eighth inning. Even Aaron Judge showed some signs of emerging from his long-term slump.

The problem is that LA threw out the rest of their bullpen in a game designed to ensure their best relievers didn’t have to pitch to ensure they were fit for Game 5. So even if the Yankees hit double figures on Tuesday, it wasn’t against LA’s top talent, and they probably won’t see arms that vulnerable again for the rest of the series.

Now if the Yanks can put on some real Dodger pitching and win this Game 5, things will get serious in this series. It means a troubled Dodgers team is trudging west, not for a parade, but for a decisive Game 6.

Whether or not that happens is largely in the hands of their star player, Gerrit Cole, who was given a nine-year, $324 million contract in 2020 for this very moment. Cole needs to carry New York deep into this ballgame, and he needs to be well above average: He needs to dominate. This is the game that will define him in the future, and in a situation as big as this, with an arm that may not be the healthiest, I’m not sure I believe in a Cole having one this season suffered a setback. A Power Blitz from Judge would also be useful.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are looking forward to a big night for their starter Jack Flaherty. The former Tiger, acquired from LA at the trade deadline, was great in Game 1, hitting a pitch in the sixth inning before making a bad pitch to Giancarlo Stanton. Will we get the good Flaherty who dominated the Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS and was strong against the Yankees on Friday, or will we see the hurler who was completely beaten by the Mets in Game 5 when the Dodgers were there? Exactly the same situation: you want to win and avoid traveling home to play more baseball.

There are many questions that need to be answered. And you may have questions, comments, thoughts or feelings that you would like to include in our live coverage. If so, feel free to tweet or email me and I will do my best to make you famous.

There will be more live coverage of the World Series – stay with us!

David will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a look back at Tuesday night’s Game 4, in which the Yankees avoided elimination.