LOS ANGELES — After a 15-year wait, the Yankees returned to the World Series with the Classic.
And with the emotional roller coaster and dizzying destruction that only October can offer.
The Yankees, playing in the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009, squandered one-run leads in the eighth and 10th innings and let Game 1 slip through their fingers on a Freddie Freeman swing that sold out Dodger Stadium on Friday night. .
The Yankees were shocked when Freeman jumped out on the first pitch he saw from Nestor Cortes to start the World Series heavyweight 6-3.
“It was tough. We played a good ball game,” Gerrit Cole said after pitching six one-run innings. “Obviously, they did enough to win the game.”
The Yankees pulled ahead in the top of the 10th behind a Jazz Chisholm Jr. single, two steals and an RBI groundout by Anthony Wolfe, but any blowout was a slap in the face.
In the 10th, Jake Cousins walked Gavin Lux before Tommy Edmon singled.
Cortez, fresh off a flexor strain, did his job against Shohei Ohtani with help from Alex Vertugo.
The left fielder hit the foul wall and fell on it for a remarkable catch.
“We got a big guy there, we’ve got to get one more,” Verdugo said of his thought process. “We got the bases-loaded, left-handed matchup we wanted.”
But their desired match backfired. Aaron Boone’s decision to go with Cortez over Tim Hill didn’t pay off when Freeman threw Cortez’s fastball in the Los Angeles night.
“Loved the match,” Boone said of the result. “The truth is [Cortes has] He has bowled well over the last few weeks as he prepared for it.
Cortez said he was ready, and his pace remained the same.
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But he wanted the four-seamer 2 or 3 inches higher, and instead it was low enough for Freeman to clear.
“I knew this runway was for me,” Cortes said of her relief appearance, “I just didn’t do it tonight.”
This all-timer includes: a Cole-Jack Flaherty classic pitchers’ duel; Juan Soto’s defensive lapses led to the Dodgers’ first run; a Giancarlo Stanton two-run moonshot; An Ohtani double led to the tying run; A Kleiber Torres deep drive turned a fan into Jeffrey Meyer, reaching out and gloved a ball that was ruled a double; And Aaron Judge got his chance and let it go before a 10th-inning uppercut.
Yes, it was delivered and delivered competitively in one of the most exciting Fall Classic plays in recent memory: two seemingly evenly matched star teams.
In such a tight contest, small mistakes are magnified, and the Yankees made those small mistakes.
The Dodgers tied it in the eighth with sloppy defense.
Ohtani sent a double off Tommy Conley and the right-field wall that Soto handled and threw to second.
The ball bounced off Torres’ glove and into no-man’s land, allowing Ohtani to take third.
The extra 90 feet was crucial when Luke Weaver stepped in and allowed Mookie Betts to sacrifice fly.
The Yankees were one out shy of taking the lead in the ninth when Torres smashed a deep fly ball to left-center.
It took a chance and ended up in the glove of a fan – who reached out to the sports department for a souvenir.
With Torres only given second base and stranded at third, Judge walked out with the bases loaded.
The Yankees’ offense was frustrated all game except for Stanton, who blasted a two-run homer in the sixth, the only runs the Yankees’ staff would need.
Kohli was much smarter than dominant in six innings in which he allowed four hits, walked none and struck out four.
The Dodgers’ run came against the ace in the fifth when Kike Hernandez sent an extra-base hit into the right-field corner.
Soto goes for the catch ahead of Carrom, the ball is out of reach and Soto runs past it.
Overrun Hernandez took third with an out triple.
Will Smith lifted a fly ball down the right-field line that became a sac fly, and Soto drove home a two-hop throw that came too late to score the first run of the game.
The last four runs are the most painful.
“We’ve already talked about it,” Boone said of the smash. “We’re fine.”
