NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.
October 30, 2024: Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium started out so well for the New York Yankees. It ended as one of the worst performances in the team's history, a set of 4 innings that were worse than the first 3 games combined, as bad as those were.
It started out so well. Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm hit back-to-back home runs in the 1st inning, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Alex Verdugo singled Anthony Volpe home in the 2nd, to make it 4-0. Giancarlo Stanton hit one out in the 3rd, making it 5-0. And through the 1st 4 innings, Gerrit Cole had allowed no runs, no hits, just 2 walks. He wasn't overpowering, but he was getting the job done beautifully.
And then came the top of the 5th inning. Yankee Fans who saw this inning will see it in their nightmares until they die:
* Kike Hernández singled to right.
* Tommy Edman hit a fly ball to center field, and Judge dropped it.
* Will Smith grounded to short, but Volpe can't make the double play. Bases loaded, nobody out.
* Cole struck Gavin Lux out.
* Cole struck Shohei Ohtani out. He got to within 1 strike of getting out of it with no runs.
* Mookie Betts grounded to 1st. But 1st baseman Anthony Rizzo was too far from the base to make the play. And so was Cole, so Rizzo couldn't throw to him. It was like Bill Buckner and Bob Stanley in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, except that, this time, the 1st baseman did get the grounder. Stanley often gets blamed for not covering 1st, but Cole wouldn't have made it in time, either. This was not bad defense, it was just bad luck, and good hitting by Betts. Kike scored. 5-1.
* Freddie Freeman, who seemed to be out-hitting not just the Yankees but his own teammates, singled to center, scoring Edman and Smith. 5-3.
* Teoscar Hernández doubled to center, scoring Betts and Freeman. 5-5.
* Max Muncy drew a walk.
* And Kike batted again, grounding to short, and Volpe stepped on 2nd base to force Teoscar out, and finally end the inning. That's 5 runs on 4 hits (1 of them an infield hit), 1 walk and 2 errors.
It would have been understandable if the Yankees were shellshocked by this. But they loaded the bases in the bottom of the 5th -- but couldn't score. Somehow, Cole survived all this, and pitched a 1-2-3 6th inning. He went 6 innings, allowing no earned runs -- 5 unearned.
In the bottom of the 6th, Juan Soto and Judge walked, Chisholm grounded into a force play that eliminated Judge and moved Soto to 3rd, and Stanton flew to center to sacrifice Soto home. Rizzo drew a walk, but Volpe grounded out to end the rally.
It was 6-5 Yankees, and there was hope again. But the shadow of that 5th inning was too large: It didn't feel like all we had to do was get 9 more outs.
Cole and Clay Holmes got through the 7th. But manager Aaron Boone did not leave Holmes in to pitch the 8th, and Tommy Kahnle allowed singles to Kike and Erdman, and walked Smith. Again, bases loaded and nobody out. Boone brought the closer in, Luke Weaver. Lux hit a sac fly to center, scoring Kike. Ohtani was awarded 1st base on a very dubious catcher's interference call. And Betts flew to center, scoring, Edman. 7-6 Dodgers.
Dodger fans have ripped their manager, Dave Roberts, for the Dodgers' shortfalls over the last few years, with their only World Series win being in the "COVID Bubble" year of 2020. But with this "bullpen game," he outmanaged Boone -- or, rather, Boone let Roberts outmanage him.
The Yankees had men on 1st & 2nd with 1 out in the 8th, but didn't score. And they went very quietly in the 9th, with Walker Buehler striking Verdugo out swinging for the final out. The Dodgers had won the World Series in 5 games, despite Clayton Kershaw being injured and unavailable for the postseason. Freeman, of course, was named the Series Most Valuable Player.
For the Dodgers, a glorious moment, an 8th World Series win, 7 if you properly do not count the 1955 title in Brooklyn. For Roberts, total redemption, and putting himself in the conversation for election to the Hall of Fame once he retires. For Ohtani, a title that cements him as a baseball legend, though his own World Series performance was awful. For Freeman, who had previously won the Series with the 2021 Atlanta Braves, and Betts, who had previously won it with the 2018 Boston Red Sox *, possibly raised to the status of future Hall-of-Famer. (They might have gone on to make it, anyway.)
For the Yankees, a season of big moments, including the 1st American League Pennant in 15 years. And yet, it cannot be termed anything other than a failure. They scored just 7 runs in the 1st 3 games, won Game 4, took a big lead in Game 5 to forge some hope of the greatest comeback in baseball history... and then had the nightmare inning. Once again, the fundamentals were bad. The Yankees took out the fun, and left "da mentals."
*
October 30, 2024 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games in the NBA:
* New York had considerably more success in basketball on this night than in baseball, as both of their NBA teams won. The New York Knicks beat the Miami Heat, 116-107 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. Karl-Anthony Towns led all scorers on the night with 44 points.
* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 119-106 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 105-95 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Washington Wizards beat the Atlanta Hawks, 133-120 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Toronto Raptors, 138-133 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 134-110 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics, 135-132 in overtime at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Orlando Magic, 102-99 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-93 at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-105 at the new Intuit Dome outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 104-89 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
And there were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-0 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-2 at the Ball Arena in Denver.
* The Utah Hockey Club beat the Calgary Flames, 5-1 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Vegas Golden Knights, 6-3 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
No comments:
Post a Comment