Yankees self-induced World Series gaffes had crushing domino effect
For all the hype surrounding the first Yankees-Dodgers World Series since 1981, Game 1 immediately delivered a classic — or, depending on your view, an epic gut punch.Nestor Cortes, who had not pitched since Sept.18, was one out away from a save.
Instead, on his second pitch of the night, he left a fastball in Freddie Freeman’s bread basket and allowed the injured first baseman to enter Dodgers lore with a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning for the 6-3 win Friday at Chavez Ravine.For just one game, there’s a heck of a lot to unpack.Here’s a rundown:— Aaron Boone might never have had to make a decision between Cortes and Tim Hill if his club had done a better job of not giving the Dodgers an extra 90 feet multiple times.
It happened too often during the season and now is magnified on the biggest stage, with the Yankees doing it twice before they arrived in the 10th inning.In the fifth inning, Kiké Hernandez roped a fly ball to right field that Juan Soto had to run a long way for.Instead of pulling up and playing it for the double, Soto kept the gas on and still could not reach it, but could not stop himself quickly enough as the ball bounced past him, allowing Hernandez to reach on a triple.Then in the eighth inning, Shohei Ohtani crushed a double off the right-field wall against Tommy Kahnle.Soto fielded it and fired a one-hop throw to second base that Gleyber Torres tried to backhand, only for the ball to ricochet off his glove toward the mound, allowing Ohtani to take third.Both times, the Dodgers cashed in with a sacrifice fly.In the 10th, Oswaldo Cabrera (who had entered at second base in the ninth after Jasson Dominguez had pinch-run for Torres in the top of the inning) could not come up with a diving stop on Tommy Edman’s ground ball up the middle. But the two miscues before it were more preventable.
And at this time of year, when every game is tighter, the little things add up. — Would Boone have had to decide between Cortes and Hill i...