World Series debacle shows everything wrong with Aaron Judge-era Yankees
The Yankees played two different games on Wednesday night.The one where they hit homers and Gerrit Cole dominates and you can convince yourself they are the type of team that should win a World Series.And the one in which they botch and bumble and you can convince yourself the whole group met in the parking lot before the game.It should be put in a time capsule to describe the 2024 team.In the end, the Yankees could not homer their way beyond superior competition.
They had control of both the first game of this World Series and the last game of the 2024 season.They lost both.
Two of the most inexcusable, painful defeats in their history.They never cleaned up all their issues of poor fundamentals and execution that so plagued them all year.
So their season ends not with a 28th championship, but misery of what could have and should have been.The Dodgers beat the Yankees 7-6 to win their eighth World Series and celebrate on the Yankee Stadium field.The Yankees lost because stars Cole and Aaron Judge were both G-O-A-Ts and goats in this clincher.Because they had a fifth inning that boggled the mind for ineptitude — except if you watched the Yankees all year.
And because when the Dodgers hit back, the Yankees could not counter enough.Sound familiar?It should.This is the story of the Judge Era.When the AL Central is in the way, the Yankees are world-beaters.
When sturdier competition gets in the way, the Yankees do not win the World Series.The Yankees were 31-9 (.775) against the AL Central (postseason included) this year and 71-65 (.522) against everyone else.They have played seven rounds against the AL Central in the playoffs since Judge’s first full season in 2017, including two to win the AL pennant this year, and advanced through all seven.
They have played eight rounds against everyone else and won one, the one-game wild card in 2018 vs.the A’s, who kind of spiritually (if not geographically) belong in the AL Central.They won one World Series game this ...