Written by: Andre Dela Santa
On Halloween night, 31 October, the Los Angeles Dodgers overcame a 5-run deficit and spooked the New York Yankees, 7-6, in game 5 of the best-of-seven Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, winning their 8th championship in franchise history.
This highly-anticipated World Series featured a long, bitter rivalry dating back to 1941, with this series being the pair’s twelfth championship meeting. The league’s most talented and illustrious players bathed in the spotlight, from LA’s golden boy Shohei Ohtani in his first World Series, to the Yankees’ powerhouse hitter Giancarlo Stanton. This was a series billed as a “clash of the titans”; its ending looked more like a David and Goliath—though if David had a gun and not a slingshot.
It was Dodgers relieving pitcher Walker Buehler who delivered a shifty knuckle curve as a final pitch and ultimately final blow against the Yankees’ Alex Verdugo, leaving the home team Yankees incredibly humiliated and demoralised in front of their home crowd.
The Yankees, to their credit, did not go out without a fight. After blowing out the Dodgers in Los Angeles in a much-needed win in Game 4, the Yankees were fired up entering Game 5 and looked to capture a consecutive victory and keep their championship hopes alive.
New York struck early, galvanised by the hometown crowd, scoring 3 runs in the first inning off home runs from Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm, with Juan Soto delivering a run. LA’s Jack Flaherty, tipped as one of the Dodgers’ top pitchers, struggled in the first and was immediately pulled midway through the second inning. The Yankees capitalised, scoring another run off a Giancarlo Stanton home run, pressuring the Dodgers to pull another of its pitchers early. By the 4th inning, the Yankees had a 5-0 lead, and New York looked poised for victory and looked to take the series to LA for Game 6.
The Dodgers had other ideas. At the top of the 5th inning, Gerrit Cole, New York’s top pitcher, was still on the mound and had a clean slate with a no-hitter. But even his stellar performance did not stop the Yankees from committing unforced defensive errors.
Fielding errors and apparent difficulties in catching the baseball plagued its fielders, with outfielder Aaron Judge failing to catch a routine flyball, allowing LA to put a man on first and second bases. The following play, an infield fielding error to third base, led to the Dodgers loading the bases with still 0 outs. Cole struck out the next two batters, including Ohtani, but committed a fundamental first base error through a miscommunication with baseman Anthony Rizzo. To add to the Yankees’ woes, this led Kike Hernandez to run home and give the Dodgers a run. Cole was rattled—and it showed. The Dodgers ran the bases in the next few plays tying up the game at 5-5.
A professional baseball team miscommunicating and lacking fundamental baseball skills should be unheard of and is frankly embarrassing. But apparently, it shouldn’t come off as a surprise; the New York Post reported that coming into the World Series, the Dodgers believed that the Yankees were “more talent than fundamentals” and that to beat them, all they had to do was “to put the ball in play to make [them] execute.” MLB teams had deduced that despite New York’s deep talent and roster, they had no fundamental control of the game nor defensive chemistry, and were more than likely to self-inflict harm to result in losses. And it very well showed in the crucial 5th-inning defensive mishaps.
Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton scored a run in the following inning, but this was ultimately not enough to stop the Dodgers from mounting another comeback. Cole was pulled in the seventh inning, and Los Angeles capitalised by scoring two runs after they loaded the bases again. The Dodgers did not look back, staving off and dodging a Yankee comeback bringing the Commissioner’s Trophy back to the City of Angels.