MLB Postseason 2024 World Series

I covered Game 1 in an Aggie Volleyball post.

I got home in time to see the end of the Dodgers/Yankees World Series Game 1.  I wasn’t enthusiastic about this matchup of two teams and their giant salaries.  I have to admit, it was a very tight, close game.  The Dodgers were down a run and tied it late.  The Yankees took a one run lead into the tenth.  With bases loaded and two out in the bottom, Freddie Freeman took the first pitch he saw into the right field stands.  Dodgers win 6-3. 

 

Game 2

The Yankees and Dodgers played some home run derby with solo home runs.  Freddie Freeman was in on that action. The Dodgers hit more homers and led 4-1 going into the top of the ninth.  With a Yankee run in, bases loaded, and one out, the Dodgers took out closer Blake Treinen to get the final out.  Dodgers win, 4-2.  However, Shohei Ohtani was hurt sliding into second during the game.  (He kept playing the rest of the series, but wasn’t the same afterward.) 

 

Game 3

Are you kidding me?  Freddie Freeman hit another home run in this Dodger victory!  They were now up 3-0 in the series.

 

Game 4

Yankee fan interference did not change the outcome of this resounding Yankee victory, but it did ensure I would be rooting against the Yankees at this point. 

 

Game 5

I started listening to this game from the beginning.  The Yankees took a quick lead and the Dodgers had no response in the bottom of the first.  I stopped listening, but kept track of the game.  As the score became 5-0 Yankees, I felt good about my decision.

 

Wait?  What?  I looked at the score later and suddenly it was tied.  (Apparently, many people had dipped out of the game early and had this reaction.)  Since I was at work, I wasn’t in a position to sit down and listen at that moment.  I saw that the Yankees retook the lead, but I had feeling that wasn’t going to hold up.  Finally, I picked the game back up, just in time to hear a Catcher’s Interference call put Shohei Ohtani on base, right before Mookie Betts drove in a run and put the Dodgers back up.  From there, the Blue crew held on and won, 7-6 and 3-1, and took the 2024 World Series.

 

I still didn’t know what had happened.  I knew Gerrit Cole was the starting pitcher for the Yankees tonight.  I was confused as to how he had given up 5 runs in the fifth, but was still pitching later in the game.  Was manager Aaron Boone doing heroin in the dugout during this game? 

 

MLB posted the entire top of the fifth inning on Youtube, which I watched after the game.  I started watching only knowing the result, not the events.  Clank!  Aaron Judge, a normally good centerfielder, closes his mitt prematurely on a looping liner.  Oops!  Anthony Volpe tries to throw out a lead runner at third in front of him, but the runner is safe on a bad throw.  The bases were loaded with no outs.

 

Gerrit Cole, steely-eyed and determined, calmly strikes out the next two batters and induces a ground ball to first.  He swaggers off the mound undamaged by his idiot teammates’ blunders and . . . Oh sh*t!  He didn’t cover first!  Cole nonchalantly motions to Anthony Rizzo, You got this, pal.  He didn’t got it.  Mookie Betts was safe and a run scored.  This was followed by four more runs.  Score tied.

 

I think this inning will analyzed in excruciating detail far into the future.  I’ll throw in my two-cents now.  Judge’s error could have happened to anybody.  It was just bad timing.  Volpe’s error, given where he fielded the ball, throwing to third was likely his best option, but Kike Hernandez was in motion and almost there.  I’m not sure Volpe could have gotten anybody out on that play without making a great play.

 

Lastly, Rizzo probably would have beaten Betts to the bag, if he’d run for it right after fielding the ball, but normally a first baseman would have been looking for the pitcher to cover in that situation.  In fairness, Cole might not have beaten Betts to the bag if he’d run for it immediately.  The point is that he should have tried.  Cole making no effort was what made that play look so bad.  Somebody made a Bill Buckner comparison, but at least he tried to make the play. 

 

What is the saying?  Once is happenstance.  Twice is coincidence.  Three times is deliberate action.  (And a Catcher’s Interference call on top of it?)  The next time the Yankees win a World Series will be the only possible exorcism of this demon, because it will haunt them from here on out.      

 

Heh, heh, heh.  I really enjoyed this game for three reasons.  One, I got to watch the Yankees humiliate themselves in front of their fans.  After the fan interference yesterday, this was wonderful.  Two, I got to watch Gerrit Cole, a sourpuss mercenary and one of the highest-paid pitchers in the game, make a mental mistake in a crucial situation.  Three, the Dodgers have now vindicated themselves after their asterisk-marked 2020 championship . . . err . . . except that the Yankees basically handed it to them in a manner that almost suggests that they threw the series.  I wonder if there will be a tell-all book that comes out 20 years from now saying that Yankee pitchers were grooving balls to Freddie Freeman.

 

(Claps hands.)  Oooh, ooh, ooh!  How delightful!  This was literally the best case scenario for my enjoyment of this series between two teams I dislike.  I looked it up afterwards.  The Yankees were number one in payroll this season, but the Dodgers were actually number nine.  That surprised me.  (Actually, this is only because Ohtani has deferred a lot of his salary until after he’s done playing.)  So this wasn’t exactly a battle of the budgets (sort of). 

 

One thing this series did was highlight the possible irrelevance of starting pitching.  The Detroit Tigers made it to the postseason by relying on relievers in the latter half of the season and one great starting pitcher.  The Dodgers were piecing together their pitching during the postseason.  In Game 5, as they burned all of their relievers, broadcasters were wondering how they were going to make it through the game.  In the ninth, they used projected Game 7 starter, Walker Buehler, to finish off the game.  The big salaried Gerrit Cole-type starters aren’t going away, but anybody below that just became a piece in filling in the puzzle of today’s pitching matchup. 

 

This was the match up that the Media and a lot fans wanted and we got a good show out of it.  The MLB, casual fans, and the Media are okay with the Dodgers and Yankees always being in the playoffs (along with the fans of those teams).   However, the league sells completion.  I’m concerned most of the owners are going to start being content with just making sure their teams make money and will only make an occasional run at a championship. 

 

The usual criticism is that these owners are all rich and they should just spend more to improve their teams.  The flaw in this reasoning is that no matter how much money you pump into the players, that doesn’t create more great players, it just drives up their salaries.  Without a cap, the playoffs are a battle between budgets and media market sizes, just as much as between the teams, which is who the fans actually show up to see compete.  We’ll see if this battle of behemoths will start a trend or if this is just an aberration.