Absolutely temping fate there. Would have been the icing on the cake for Jazz to blow that run by getting thrown out.
Game 5: Defy. Believe. Rise. Repeat.
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And then we have Clay Holmes, whose up and down performances sort of epitomize this team. Very good or very bad. What will it be tonight?
Yeah, Cole sort of showed his teammates what they need to do to win this game. Dig deep inside of themselves.
It's now safe to talk about this - unless they thought he couldn't recover mentally from what happened, I think you have to leave him in. I trust Cole over anyone in the bullpen besides Weaver and maybe Kahnle. You save their arms and limit pitch counts so that you can go all out in Game 5 of the World Series, and his pitch count wasn't that high anyway.
That's really what it comes down to. It's a shame that they didn't collectively play their best in the World Series, but at the same time, it's the same team we saw all season. We've seen meltdown innings like that before.
It absolutely sucks to get this far and then lose a game like that, though. Just awful.
It was a great season anyway, though. I had fun with you all as always. Maybe next year Judge has his A-Rod 2009 Awakening and just wrecks the playoffs start to finish.
Nope, pretty lame. Again, if this had been out of character for how this team played, I'd be more upset. Really absurd stuff.
Sorry, @Brand Name. Tough one to sit through.
Also Rizzo has been doing that all year, preferring the toss to running to first himself if it is close, no idea what happened with Cole there.
I wonder if Judge had a concussion from running into the wall and that's why he dropped that ball.
Anyway, a game that was a perfect microcosm of the season, right down to the dreadful Verdugo ending it.
Shockingly when you give the Dodgers six outs in an inning, they'll put up some runs.
We deserve that loss. We beat ourselves this whole series. The first game should have been won and tonight was the worst inning of baseball I have ever seen in my life, literally. I don't mean worst yankees loss, I just mean worst played inning ever. Find me a parlay for 3 errors in an inning and 5 unearned runs and you would be rich.
As I see it…LA is a team I find very hard not to respect on field and operationally under Friedman and Kasten.
Getting to see the whole dance and celebration, for or against you, is objectively awesome for reasons of history. You don’t forget it. It also doesn’t stop you and make you quit. It makes you want to win that much more. Dodgers were just objectively the better team. Credit given where massively due.
I miss MLB already. This would be true even with a 4-1 series win tonight.
Getting to see the whole dance and celebration, for or against you, is objectively awesome for reasons of history. You don’t forget it. It also doesn’t stop you and make you quit. It makes you want to win that much more. Dodgers were just objectively the better team. Credit given where massively due.
I miss MLB already. This would be true even with a 4-1 series win tonight.
We saw that kind of Yankees defensive meltdown before. Final game before all-star break, in Baltimore. Volpe booted a potential game-ending DP grounder in ninth inning and then Verdugo broke in on a liner right at him, fell down, and the ball landed 10 feet behind him as the Orioles accepted a gift win from the Yankees.
That sequence, plus Gleyber’s season long error-laden performance at second base, made us gun shy. You could never take anything for granted with this team, including running the bases.
The 2024 Yankees featured the best power-hitting duo in pinstripes since Ruth and Gehrig, but were so fundamentally flawed, so unfocused, that we could never trust them. They won a pennant in a season where the American League lacked any true challengers.
As fans, we were never comfortable watching these guys, not since that Baltimore game.
That sequence, plus Gleyber’s season long error-laden performance at second base, made us gun shy. You could never take anything for granted with this team, including running the bases.
The 2024 Yankees featured the best power-hitting duo in pinstripes since Ruth and Gehrig, but were so fundamentally flawed, so unfocused, that we could never trust them. They won a pennant in a season where the American League lacked any true challengers.
As fans, we were never comfortable watching these guys, not since that Baltimore game.
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Yeah, hard to deny this, that was basically the exact same thing on a different day. Last night's inning was somehow 20% dumber than that Bal one, given I think the Cole/Rizzo play was more a complete mental lapse rather than a fast-paced execution mistake.
The thing about that play that I just can't fully excuse Rizzo for (beyond that he just gave up at the end, even if was hopeless) is that Cole DID take the completely wrong angle right from the start, thinking he might need to field the ball or something (which he said in his postgame comments). Rizzo was tunnel visioned trying to read the spin of the ball and did not notice this. The 1B man does need to make sure that the pitcher is not trying to field the ball himself before just committing to a toss. I would say its 95% Cole's fault given how just incredibly wrong his initial read was and his inability / unwillingness to fix it, and 5% Rizzo for not noticing that.
The Judge and Volpe plays will be remembered, but I think the Cole/Rizzo one is the enduring moment of the game.
I think the Cole/Rizzo play is more an indictment of aging players losing their athleticism. And maybe their energy during a long inning. Rizzo and Cole both described that routine grounder as some kind of spinning roller with backspin. I gotta look at it again after the horror of watching once in real time wears off. That one play cost them four runs.
Yanks have the internal fixes to improve defense at third, second and first base next year. Could they please focus on getting younger and better at defense? Abbey will spell this out better in his offseason thread (if he hasn’t already started one overnight!).
Yanks have the internal fixes to improve defense at third, second and first base next year. Could they please focus on getting younger and better at defense? Abbey will spell this out better in his offseason thread (if he hasn’t already started one overnight!).
5 runs, unfortunately. There was just a passivity to the play on both of their parts that wasn't present (at least on Rizzo's part) in Betts' first inning bases empty grounder to the exact same place.
Yes, it was five runs! Wow. I guess we won’t be seeing that inning on future Yankee Classics on YES.
I give Cole a lot of credit for competing last night. Rizzo, not so much.
Mookie’s grounder last night has overtones of 1986 when Mookie Wilson hit a ground ball to Bill Buckner.
I talked about it a few times earlier in the year, all season Rizzo was oddly reluctant to take grounders to the bag himself. Stroman even messed with him one time by not covering and forcing Rizzo to take it himself, so my point is Cole should have been very aware he needed to cover.
Pretty much captures it all, right here.
Fun season with a flawed team. Resigning Soto is the priority, but I wonder how and if they'll be able to address the defense and baserunning in the offseason.
Well, the coaching staff from top to bottom of the organization can start by devoting more time to baserunning and fielding drills in spring training and hopefully before that. They can show videos of the 2024 team getting thrown out at every base. .
Nobody was worse than the Yankees on the basepaths. That’s an organizational failure that should be stressed from the top down.
You guys are so mature. I am still absolutely pissed off. I cannot believe Judge dropped the fucking ball. I am not mad at the player just the entire meltdown.
I used to be that way … until I turned 70.
Could never get to sleep after a loss like that. Now I slug down a bottle of cannabis water and sleep like a child.
The last thing I would say is that I'm mature about sports, but last night was so absurd that all you can do is shake your head and laugh.
They are the least disciplined team I've ever seen. In all honesty, the reason Boone should not be brought back is because of how the team performed fundamental wise. He is a great players manager, but I wouldn't call his teams disciplined by any stretch.
The Dodgers did it all series, from the run-saving defense in the first game when they were losing to taking extra bases to getting big hits against tough pitchers.
To be perfectly honest, the fifth inning seems like they were already picturing themselves going to LA and possibly pulling off a miracle. Once the game was tied, you could feel the inevitable coming. Even when the Yankees went up 6-5, I had no faith in them to hold on.
I've watched them win seven titles, including still being the last team to go back to back. I'm not sure I could ever truly get upset about them not winning another. The Knicks on the other hand...
I said this last night, but I'm having a much easier time dealing with how ridiculous last night was simply because it's fully in character for this team. That's who they were and in the end they did not deserve to be champions as a result. If they had been a clean defensive team all season, last night would have been unbelievably difficult to take. Instead, it just sort of fits.