World game
In the hours after the game 5 win, there were isolated incidents in Los Angeles, such as fans spray painting graffiti on an occupied Metro bus and then lighting it on fire, and others looting a Nike store in Downtown Los Angeles. https://joeyhorn.org/ Los Angeles Police called a tactical alert. A fan sustained a serious injury to his hand lighting a firework.
The Dodgers are marking their fourth World Series appearance since 2017 and are looking for their first championship in a full season since 1988 (Los Angeles won it all in the pandemic-shortened, 60-game 2020 season). Dave Roberts’ club booked its latest trip to the World Series by defeating the No. 4 San Diego Padres in five games and winning the NL pennant over the No. 6 New York Mets in six games.
The two starters, Flaherty and Cole, kept the game scoreless through the first four innings. After Enrique Hernández hit a triple in the bottom of the fifth inning, he scored the game’s first run via a sacrifice fly by Will Smith. In the top of the sixth, Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run home run after a Juan Soto walk, giving the Yankees a 2–1 lead and knocking Flaherty out of the game. Cole was removed from the game after giving up a leadoff single to Teoscar Hernández in the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, Shohei Ohtani hit a ball off the top of the outfield wall and reached second base, but Juan Soto’s throw got away from second baseman Gleyber Torres, and Ohtani advanced to third base. The next batter, Mookie Betts, hit a sacrifice fly to score Ohtani and tie the game.
Game 2 world series
Though the Yankees struck back with a Juan Soto solo shot — the lone mistake from Yamamoto — in the top of the third, the game wasn’t knotted for long. In the bottom of the third, the loaded Dodgers lineup feasted on Rodón fastballs to mount a two-out rally.
The Orioles went on to sweep Los Angeles by shutting the Dodgers out over the next two games at home in Baltimore. Los Angeles did not score a run after the third inning of Game 1, a World Series-record span of 33 1/3 innings.
Beyond the team’s culpability, Rodón being unable to deliver on the sport’s biggest stage is a huge blow to the Yankees. Nights like Saturday were precisely why they signed him to a six-year, $162 million deal before the 2023 season. That he stayed healthy all year, ate up innings and delivered quality starts in half of his 32 outings when ace Gerrit Cole missed the first two-plus months of the season with an elbow injury was invaluable. His instability since then made him a questionable choice to start Saturday in the first place, and it now has the Yankees in a potentially insurmountable 0-2 hole. — Thosar
Given the southpaw’s turbulence this postseason, the Yankees had to know there was a fat chance that Rodón would unravel the way he did on Saturday. Aaron Boone and the Yankees’ decision-makers are just as responsible for this poor outing as the left-hander himself is. Rodón took the mound for Game 2 having surrendered seven earned runs over his previous three playoff starts (14.1 innings) this October. He spiraled against the Royals in the ALDS, then course-corrected in his first outing of the ALCS, only to struggle again in the clincher versus Cleveland.
Dodger Stadium was still rocking after Teoscar’s tater when Freeman stepped to the plate. The jersey he wore for Kirk Gibson karaoke night was freshly encased near the stadium’s suite-level entrance, but Freeman made it clear that the epic ending to Game 1 was not the end of his contributions to this cause. He worked the count full, then connected when Rodón challenged him with another high heater.
World series game 3
The last time Cortes was on the mound in the World Series, Freddie Freeman had delivered one of the greatest postseason moments of all time. Yankees fans certainly hope for a different outcome this time.
• As noted above, there has not been a sweep in 11 consecutive World Series, with the last sweep coming by the Giants in the 2012 World Series over the Tigers. Eleven consecutive World Series without a sweep is the second-longest such stretch in World Series history, behind a 12-year streak from 1977-1988.
The Yankees are up against it now. Only 15 teams in 92 tries have won a best-of-seven postseason series in which they dropped the first two games. And so, as their Game 3 starter Clarke Schmidt takes the ball opposite the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler, they’re going to need to feed off the energy of a hungry crowd that hasn’t seen a World Series home game in the Bronx since the Yanks’ 2009 title run.
“As far as test results, we’ve got doctors scrambling everywhere. I don’t have them,” Roberts said. “This is more me going by the training staff, Shohei feeling good this morning, range of motion, strength.”