At its core, baseball is a sport defined by numbers. Here are the three that mattered from the 2024 MLB postseason: 5, 11 and 1.
Over the 4,860 games that were played during the 2024 MLB regular season, 12 teams were selected to play for, the five games that the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers ultimately battled in, the World Series. After the Dodgers rolled out to a 3-0 lead, the Yankees pulled off a historic Game 4 win by scoring 11 runs to LA’s four. A day later, the Dodgers lifted the Commissioner’s Trophy for the eighth time in franchise history. The story of what transpired in that time starts and ends with many players, but it ultimately centers around one man: Yankees captain Aaron Judge.
Game 1 saw Freddie Freeman, Dodgers first baseman and former Atlanta Braves superstar, step up to home plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the tenth with the team down 2-3. With no margin for error in his first appearance since Sept. 18, Yankees left-handed pitcher (LHP) Nestor Cortés Jr. threw a 93 mile-per-hour (MPH) four-seam fastball to the inside of the strike zone — Freeman clobbered the ball 409 feet at 103 MPH for the first walk-off grand slam in World Series History.
The Dodgers continued rolling in Game 2. After Los Angeles’ center fielder Tommy Edman and New York’s right fielder Juan Soto exchanged solo homers in the bottom of the second and top of the third, respectively, left fielder Teoscar Hernández sent a two-RBI shot over the fence to put the Dodgers up 3-1, sending himself and right fielder Mookie Betts around the bases. Freeman was next at-bat and hit his second home run of the series. Six scoreless innings later, Yankees designated hitter (DH) Giancarlo Stanton sent Soto home on a lucky bounce off third base. New York loaded the bases after a hit-by-pitch and a single but ran out of luck as Dodgers right-handed pitcher (RHP) Blake Treinen collected a strikeout and his relief LHP Alex Vesia forced a flyout on his first pitch to end the game.
In his first at-bat of Game 3, Freeman hit another home run to score arguably the greatest talent to step foot on a baseball field in generational DH/ LHP Shohei Ohtani. With this home run, Freeman tied a MLB record with a five-game streak of homering in a World Series game that he began during the Braves’ 2021 championship run. The Yankees were unable to retaliate until left-fielder Alex Verdugo hit a two-out two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. Verdugo’s shot which would have tied the game if Los Angeles had not already added another two runs before the ninth. The Dodgers claimed game three in the Bronx to go up 3-0.
Freeman started Game 4 with yet another two-run homer in the top of the first for his tenth run batted in (RBI) of the series, etching his name into postseason history as the first player to hit a home run in six consecutive World Series games. After a single run in the second, the Yankees responded in the third inning as shortstop Anthony Volpe smashed a grand slam off of RHP Daniel Hudson in the third to give New York the lead at 5-2. This lead continued throughout the game off the bats of an RBI fielder’s choice by Verdugo, a three-run homer by second-baseman Gleyber Torres, and an RBI single by center fielder Aaron Judge. For the first time in the World Series, a team forced a Game 5 after being down 0-3 after the Yankees’ 11-4 win.
I have only mentioned Judge, the superstar center fielder for the New York Yankees, twice because that’s how many times he impacted the series. Standing at a staggering six-foot-seven and 280 pounds, surely the six-time all-star, three-time Silver Slugger and 2022 American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) at least kept his beloved Bronx Bombers competitive in the World Series?
May the record reflect Judge’s disappearance in the playoffs. The 0.288 career regular-season batter, who posted a career-high 0.322 batting average this season, dropped to a miniscule 0.205 career postseason average. In 2024 Judge hit for 0.184 in the playoffs. He struck out in seven of his 18 plate appearances in the World Series, but his most damning mistake came in Game 5.
Judge took the first pitch by RHP Jack Flaherty and sent it beyond the fences for a two-run homer in the bottom of the first, making his first real impact on the series. This was the only game the Yankees scored before the Dodgers and a solo home run by third-baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. came soon after. An RBI single in the second by Verdugo and a third-inning homer by Stanton, combined with a strong performance by Yankees ace RHP Gerrit Cole to leave Los Angeles hitless gave New York a comfortable lead into the fifth.
To say the Yankees and Judge looked lackadaisical in the fifth inning would be an understatement. Judge’s first error of the season was a dropped fly ball to allow a runner on first and second base. A Volpe throwing error loaded the bases but Cole struck two out in a row including Ohtani — subsequently, Cole seemingly forgot to cover first base and one run scored. The defense collapse opened the floodgates. Four unearned runs later, the Dodgers had tied the game 5-5. Los Angeles responded to a sixth-inning Stanton sacrifice fly with a pair of their own in the eighth which would be the last score of the series as the Dodgers claimed the series with a 7-6 win.
Such a disastrous end to an extremely talented New York roster should leave a bad taste in Yankees fans. The storied team has failed to meet the expectations of an 27-time champion clubhouse since bringing a title home in 2009 and their franchise players have vanished in the playoffs.
Judge had a single hit in the first three games of the World Series. His first RBI of the series came when the Yankees were already up 10-4 in the fourth game and his only two-hit game was the final game of the series. For the fourth-highest contract in the league, this type of production is difficult to excuse without injury. Comparing Judge to peers like Ohtani and Betts, Ohtani has some excuse for dropping from a 0.310 regular season average to a 0.105 World Series average due to a shoulder injury in the second game of the series and saw a production drop from a 0.310 regular season average to a 0.105 World Series average. Betts inked the third-highest contract of the league and remained steady in his production as his 0.289 regular season average only fell to 0.278 against the Yankees. Neither were perfect in their World Series run, but both acquitted themselves in a way that Judge did not. As the captain, it falls on his shoulders to be better. If Aaron Judge wants to have a legacy respected by the Bronx standard before retirement, his performance when it matters most must improve — regular season statistics don’t mean much to fans of such a renowned team. While Los Angeles will never forget Freddie Freeman for his World Series MVP performance, until New York adds to their collection of World Series titles, the verdict on Judge’s term as a Yankee will be tainted in disappointment and disrespect.
At this time, the court of public opinion is adjourned.
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