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Poor fundamentals plagued the Yankees all season long and ultimately led them to defeat in the World Series
Frisco

Poor fundamentals plagued the Yankees all season long and ultimately led them to defeat in the World Series

The Yankees had a huge lead entering the fifth inning on Wednesday night, and then the fundamental errors that had plagued them at times throughout the regular season carried through Game 5 and tipped it irrevocably.

Although the Yanks later regained the lead after blowing an early 5-0 lead, pinstripe errors gave the Dodgers life, which they held on to the victory that gave them the World Series title.

So what happened? After the Yankees’ 7-6 loss, those involved talked in a somber clubhouse about what had gone wrong at the end of a season that extended to the Fall Classic.

The judge’s first mistake

Aaron Judge hadn’t botched a ball in the outfield all year and made a sensational diving catch from which he was able to steal at least one double Freddie Freeman in the fourth inning. But an inning later, he didn’t catch Tommy Edman‘s flies into the middle, with man first and no one out.

The judge said the ball didn’t bend or do anything strange and there was no problem with light or wind.

“I just couldn’t do it,” he said.

said Aaron Boone: “It looked like some kind of sinking ship that Judgey missed.”

It put runners in first and second place, the foundation for a rally, and set the stage for the next faux pas.

Volpe’s bad throw

Will Smith He hit a grounder to Volpe’s right at shortstop and tried to knock down the leadoff man at third, but he made a bad throw Jazz Chisholm Couldn’t handle it. Volpe was charged with a throwing error and the bases were loaded.

“The play on Volpe, the obvious right play on third down, a little jump over there on third down, didn’t complete the play,” Boone said.

Chisholm said he didn’t think it was a difficult game. “I just have to catch it and step to third base,” he said. He added: “I just feel like it was a great runner (Kike Hernandez) are coming in at the same time.”

Chisholm also added, “Sometimes in baseball you could blink for a second and everything was gone. “For us, we still went in, tried to attack and tried to go for it.”
Dodgers star Freddie Freeman had a different opinion:

I know they gave Volpe a mistake on that play,” he said. “But when you slow down and see Kiké running to third base, that’s what started the play. He’s got an incredible base-running IQ there, and he can just take advantage of that. You have to get the big hits in the big situations, and we did that in this inning.”

The Squibber first

With no one out and the bases loaded, Gerrit Cole took matters into his own hands and crossed both out Gavin Lux And Shohei Ohtani to narrowly thwart the Dodgers’ chance. But then Mookie Betts He hit a ball with the tip of his racket and it spun forward. The Yankees should have been able to get out of the game, but they didn’t, and the Dodgers’ first run scored.

Cole didn’t cover first and Rizzo couldn’t reach base before Betts.

“Mookie hits a squibber, so Rizz couldn’t really run through it,” Boone said. “He had to kind of stay there and make sure he secured the catch because the ball was spinning. And I think Gerrit just didn’t react fast enough to get over what he went through in that inning, kind of exhausted and almost fighting out of it.”

Cole said: “I think I took a bad angle to the ball. Right away I wasn’t sure how hard he hit. I took a direct angle at it as if I was going to cut it off because I just didn’t know how hard he hit it. As the ball passed me, I was unable to cover first.

“I guess my angle to first base should be a little more aggressive to give me a chance to continue through the bag.”

Rizzo called it a “miscommunication in terms of reporting,” adding:

“Those cappers are the toughest balls for us… I was trying to catch them and then he shot one way, so I had to really pay attention to catch him first,” he said. “Pitchers are always taught to get over it, no matter what.” What. Just a weird, turning play where I had to really pay attention to get it, and I think even if I had been there first, I don’t know if I would have gotten it.”

The aftermath

Then Freeman, who was later named World Series MVP, came to the plate and hit a two-run single up the middle. It gave him 12 RBI in the series, tying the single-Fall Classic record Bobby Richardson of the Yankees in 1960. Teoscar Hernandez He then hit a two-run double up the middle and the score was tied at five.

The Yankees took the lead again an inning later, but couldn’t hold on to it either.

“We just didn’t take care of the ball well enough in that inning,” Boone said. “They took advantage against such a great team.”

“You can’t give a team that good extra outs,” Judge added. “So for me it starts there on the line.”

A bigger problem?

Poor fundamentals plagued the Yankees during the regular season – their base-running metrics are not good and they made the seventh-most errors in the major leagues and the second-most of any team that made the playoffs.

Later in Game 5, Austin Wells The catcher’s intervention was called for, which extended the Dodgers’ rally in the eighth – they scored the go-ahead shot right after – and Luke Weaver was called for a block after three slips from the mound rubber in the ninth.

Even Judge noted when asked about the technique during the season, “I might come back to a couple games in the postseason where it was a base-running error or, like I said, giving a team extra outs.” . “They’re going to capitalize on it.”

Ultimately, that’s exactly what happened in the Yankees’ final game of the season. And the Dodgers manager didn’t miss the chance to take advantage of the Yankees’ mistakes Dave Roberts.

“I just didn’t play right there,” Roberts said of Judge’s misplay. “We just took a break to cover first base, so we got a few extra outs.

“It’s just good when you give a good team extra outs. It was great for us to take advantage of that.”

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