LOS ANGELES – The photos lining the corridors of the visitors clubhouse seem designed to aid the enemy at Dodger Stadium. Look at all the wondrous feats you can achieve here! Blast homers over the right field pavilion like Willie Stargell! Wrest a pennant from the Los Angeles Dodgers like Jack Clark! Twirl a perfect game like Dennis Martinez!
The 2024 New York Yankees might wind up on those walls someday. They know this much, after two dizzying Hollywood nights: to win this World Series, they will have to do it here.
The Yankees are trailing, two games to none, after a 4-2 loss to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers in Game 2 on Saturday. The Dodgers are halfway home – as Joe Davis says on every broadcast after the top of the fifth inning – but their history in these spots works against them.
In the 1956 World Series, the Dodgers took the first two games from the Yankees in Brooklyn but lost in seven. In 1978, they beat the Yankees twice in Los Angeles, then lost four in a row.
“I’m excited to get back to New York, I’m excited to get back to our fans,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. “It’s a seven-game series for a reason.”
Technically, of course, it’s best-of-seven, which means this World Series could be over as soon as Tuesday, if the Dodgers take Games 3 and 4. Hey, that happens, too – another Yankees captain, Thurman Munson, was swept in his first World Series, against Cincinnati in 1976.
Munson was the American League MVP that season, as Judge will be this year. There’s a critical difference, though: Munson was a terror that postseason, with 19 hits in 40 at-bats. This postseason, Judge has 19 strikeouts in 40 at-bats. He’s batting .150 with two home runs.
“This is baseball, this is how it goes,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “He’s our leader, he’s our captain. The narrative is whatever (it) is, but he’s a brick wall. He knows how to handle all this stuff. I’m proud of who he is as a person, as a leader, and these times right now define him even more because he comes in every day and he’s still the same as he’s ever been.”
In the postseason, at least, that’s concerning. Because for all of his otherworldly achievements in the regular season, Judge has almost always been less productive in October.
of the 70 players in baseball history w/ 200+ postseason at bats, two are hitting below .200
aaron judge
reggie sanders— Jay Cuda (@JayCuda) October 27, 2024
The strikeouts, perhaps, stand out most. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Judge now has a record 11 career postseason games with at least three strikeouts. As futile as Alex Rodriguez often was in October (he hit .240 for the Yankees in the postseason), he endured only six such games.
“Just expanding the zone, that’s really what it comes down to,” said Judge, who is batting .199 in his postseason career. “That’s really what it comes down to: get a pitch in the zone and drive it. If you don’t, it’s tough to make something happen.”
Other Yankees hitters are struggling, too. Catcher Austin Wells has hit .098 this postseason, and the right-handed Jose Trevino pinch-hit for him at the end of Game 2, flying out against lefty Alex Vesia. After excelling in the ALCS, Anthony Volpe went hitless in two games here, fouling back a hanging slider in the ninth before striking out.
The Yankees stranded runners in scoring position in the first two innings of Game 1 and the first inning of Game 2. They left the bases loaded in the sixth inning of the opener and the ninth inning on Saturday. An offense that led the majors in bases on balls has drawn just three non-intentional walks against the Dodgers.
“We’re all a little bit anxious,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. conceded. “It’s the first two games of the World Series in our careers. I feel like when we get home, we’re going to feel a little more confident and calm down.”
Then again, emotions are often retrofitted to results. In the opener, the Yankees went from winning to losing on the final pitch; had Nestor Cortes retired Freddie Freeman – instead of allowing a grand slam – it’s a different narrative.
Rizzo was a linchpin of the 2016 Chicago Cubs, who lost three of the first four games in the World Series. They rallied to win Game 5 at home, then took the last two games in Cleveland for the crown. Rizzo kept the mood light then, exhorting his teammates before the final three games with rousing clubhouse speeches – in the nude.
In the clubhouse after Game 2, at least, Rizzo kept his clothes on; if he’s planning another striptease, he didn’t mention it. But the Yankees’ attitude, he said, has to match what it was with Chicago.
“The mindset was that: we win one game, everything will take care of itself,” Rizzo said. “We have to win Monday, that’s the bottom line. We have to put pressure on them. They’re gonna enjoy a nice flight to New York tonight, and rightfully so – they’re up 2-0 in a historic World Series.
“The Dodgers have played really well, and you can’t take anything away from them. But on the inside here, the look in everyone’s eyes is: this is far from over.”
The Yankees have to play like they mean it, but they’re saying all the right things, and not just to reporters.
As Judge left the clubhouse on Saturday, he handed a tip to the attendant.
“See you soon,” Judge said.
(Top photo of Aaron Judge in Game 2: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
