Yankees complain about fifth-inning collapse in World Series finale

NEW YORK – All year long, throughout the American League Championship Series, the New York Yankees overcame their tendency to play sloppy baseball by defeating opponents with overwhelming talent. The metrics calculated – and the eyes showed they were the worst baserunning team in the majors during the regular season. They regularly made head-scratching defensive errors. They generally weren’t as solid as you’d expect from a 94-win AL champion.

But the Yankees showcased superstars. They had Aaron Judge and Juan Soto fueling an offense that resulted in home runs. They had Gerrit Cole leading a starting rotation on the top line. Just in time for October, they discovered an effective bullpen formula. Ultimately, they outperformed talented teams. Until they couldn’t anymore.

Their deficiencies finally caught up with them on Wednesday night in Game 5 of the World Series. A total defensive collapse in the fifth inning that will be remembered as one of the worst in postseason history cost the Yankees their season with a 7-6 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium and ultimately ended their bid to win become the first club to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the World Series.

“This is as bad as it gets,” said Cole, the Yankees’ starter.

Cole was on the mound for the fifth-inning debacle. The right-hander, on four days’ rest for the fourth time this season, counteracted the disaster by holding Los Angeles scoreless in four hitless innings. Cole only threw 49 pitches. The Dodgers’ only baserunner reached him in a walk. Trouble didn’t seem imminent. Then everything fell apart for New York.

It began with Enrique Hernández breaking the modest no-hit bid with a leadoff single. Four throws later, Tommy Edman hit a routine line drive to Judge at center field. The safe Judge had made a highlight catch when he crashed into the wall to steal extra bases from Freddie Freeman an inning earlier. This time, he fumbled the liner for his first fumble of 2024 – in the regular season or postseason.

“That’s not happening, we have a different story tonight,” Judge said.

Five pitches later, Will Smith hit a ground ball to stop Anthony Volpe’s right side. Volpe, a Gold Glove winner last season and a finalist this year, threw the ball cleanly downfield, but his throw bounced short to third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was trying to grab the leadoff hitter. Chisholm failed to contain the throw and loaded the bases with no outs. Yankee Stadium went quiet.

Then Cole got to work. He struck out Gavin Lux on four pitches and finished with a 99.4 mph fastball. Next up: Shohei Ohtani. Cole also needed four pitches to beat the superstar, getting Ohtani to wave through a curveball in the bottom of the strike zone.

Suddenly an unscathed escape seemed possible. It seemed a certainty when Mookie Betts hit a 49.8 mph squibber off first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Because the ball bounced to Rizzo with so much spin, he didn’t attack it, but stayed back to make sure he hit it cleanly. That meant he needed Cole to cover first base to beat Betts to the bag. But Cole didn’t run to first base to cover the sack, and Betts reached base without throwing.

“I took a bad angle on the ball,” Cole said. “Right off the bat I wasn’t sure how hard it hit him. I chose a direct angle as if I wanted to cut him off because I just didn’t know how hard he hit him. When the ball came over.” I wasn’t able to cover first due to the spin of the baseball and the fact that he had to secure the ball.

The Dodgers scored their first run on the gaffe, which entered the box score as an infield single. It will be remembered as the beginning of the end of the Yankees’ season. Freeman, the third straight former MVP to forfeit Cole, hit a two-run single to center field. Teoscar Hernández followed with a game-winning two-run double to left center field, completing a stunning sequence that stunned the crowd.

“You can’t give teams like that extra outs,” said Judge, who hit his first career World Series home run in the first inning to give New York a quick 2-0 lead. “They’re going to capitalize, especially with their ones, twos, threes at the top. You don’t miss.”

Cole needed 38 pitches to survive the inning. He kept the game tied and recovered to get into the seventh inning. He left the game with one out and a one-run lead – Giancarlo Stanton’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning put the Yankees back on top – but the fifth inning changed the game.

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

With little room for error, Tommy Kahnle came into the game to pitch the eighth inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Enrique Hernández down the left side and lost command from there. Edman reached on an infield single. Smith was walked on four pitches. Boone decided that was enough and replaced Kahnle with closer Luke Weaver.

“I let my team down,” said Kahnle, his eyes red with emotion.

Weaver, the Yankees’ best reliever in October, delivered a sacrifice fly to Lux that tied the game again and put Ohtani ahead with runners on the corners. Weaver advanced on the first pitch and got Ohtani to foul on a changeup. But Austin Wells was called for catcher’s interference behind the plate on the swing, which loaded Betts’ bases. He delivered another sacrifice fly to give the Dodgers their first lead. It was the only clue they needed.

In the end, the Yankees made almost every mistake in the penalty area. There was Judge’s inexplicable physical mishap, Volpe’s throwing error, Cole’s mental error, Wells’ catcher interference and finally a block by Weaver in the ninth inning. The blockage had no impact on the scoreboard, but it highlighted the Yankees’ weaknesses on a night when they were there for the world to see.

“Probably capitalizing on mistakes and opportunities,” Stanton said when asked what he thought was the difference in the series.

It was certainly the difference between the two games that concluded the series. In Game 1, Gleyber Torres’ inability to block a throw from the outfield on Ohtani’s eighth-inning double allowed Ohtani to advance to third base. Ohtani then scored the equalizer with a sacrifice. The run eventually forced the game into extra innings, in which, with the Dodgers trailing, Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam.

The gut-punch loss marked the beginning of the Yankees’ 3-0 hole. On Wednesday you had the chance to continue to work your way out of the crisis. But the fifth inning changed everything. After the game, after Alex Verdugo fielded a season-ending curveball from Walker Buehler, the Yankees did not open the clubhouse to the media for 45 minutes, a time so unusually long that Boone began his press conference with an apology for the delay.

The manager explained that the players “poured their hearts out” with “warm messages.” Like the team throughout October, he emphasized the connection to this club. He said the defeat would “hurt forever.” In the clubhouse, the players said goodbye with pats on the back and hugs.

“I think not making the World Series will probably stay with me until the day I die,” Judge said.

In the end, the Yankees’ talent was more than enough to win the AL East and secure the No. 1 seed in the league. In October, it beat the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians, clubs with a fraction of the Yankees’ $300 million payroll. But the Dodgers, another high-priced squad full of star power and future Hall of Famers, were too good for that to happen again. They were the better, fundamentally healthier baseball team. The fifth inning on Wednesday showed that.