Yankees Waste a Chance to Win Opener With Colossal Meltdown

It was right there for the Yankees to win, and then the same problems that have plagued this team all season killed them in every big moment and the result was a horrific walk-off loss in Game 1 of the World Series. And now, because my incredibly long day is already ruined because my flight to Seattle is delayed and I’ll be in airport chaos all day, on three hours sleep mind you, I was able to finish this at the usual time. Lets get to it.

Oct. 25: Dodgers 6, Yankees 3 (10)

Is it any wonder that when you’re playing against the best team in MLB, and you can’t hit, you play shitty defense, and your manager makes exactly the kind of moronic decisions you have always feared he would, that the Yankees found a way to lose Game 1 to the Dodgers?

Seriously, the only unbelievable thing about that travesty Friday night was that the Yankees were one god damn out away from winning the game! Playing the way they did, they were one out away from stealing the opener, but of course, the Yankees snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and suffered an epic gut punch, one that you really have to wonder whether they can recover from.

My God, what a shit show, topped only by the miserable industry that is airline travel, which is now at 6:30 a.m. creating the worst day possible for me as I sit here helpless in the Rochester airport with almost no chance of making my connection in Chicago to Seattle.

Granted, it was also an amazing way to kick off the World Series, a great game with tension throughout, two ace pitchers on top of their games, and at least a few of the many superstars not named Aaron Judge doing what they do and impacting the outcome in enormous ways.

And yes, anyone but us Yankees fans could appreciate the remarkable ending when Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam for Los Angeles, baseball theater at its ultimate.

There were so many things that I’ll get to down below in the observations, but in the end, this game came down to the last pitch, the pitch that should never have been thrown.

Aaron Boone’s decision to go with Nestor Cortes - who hadn’t pitched in a game in nearly five weeks - was his inexplicable choice to come into the cauldron that was the bottom of the 10th inning. Men on first and second, one out, and lefty Shohei Ohtani at the plate, the very last man you’d want to see batting in that situation.

Boone had lefty Tim Hill ready to go, and this is really the biggest reason why Hill is on the roster: To face the best lefties the other team has to offer, and against all odds, the castoff from the White Sox has been tremendous all year. This was his moment, the only choice Boone should have made. Instead, Boone made a decision he’ll have to live with the rest of his life if the Yankees end up losing this series.

“I just liked the matchup,” Boone said. “The reality is he has been throwing the ball really well the last few weeks as he’s gotten ready for this. I knew with one out there, it would be tough to double up Shohei if Tim Hill gets him on the ground, and then Mookie behind him is a tough matchup there. So I felt convicted with Nestor in that spot.”

Ohtani had to be salivating, but he got overanxious, swung at the first pitch and lifted a fly ball down the line in left where Alex Verdugo made a tremendous catch before tumbling over the wall. When he did not re-enter the playing field and instead threw the ball to third base, that’s against the rules and both runners were able to advance a base. I’m not gonna get on Verdugo for that because it was a great play and he was in the heat of the moment.

Now, the obvious choice was to intentionally walk righty Mookie Betts to face lefty Freeman, which Boone did. But then Cortes center cut a fastball and Freeman - who has been hindered by a sprained ankle since the end of the regular season - launched it deep into the night, a moment that was so eerily reminiscent of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series when hobbled Kirk Gibson hit his famous walk-off homer at Dodger Stadium against Dennis Eckersley of the heavily-favored A’s.

“That’s as good as it gets right there,” Freeman said. “I haven't really - it felt like nothing, just kind of floating. Those are the kind of things, when you’re 5 years old with your two older brothers and you’re playing wiffle ball in the backyard, those are the scenarios you dream about, two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game.”

Until Friday, Gibson’s was the only down to the last out walk-off homer in World Series history. And Gibson’s homer sent the Dodgers soaring and they swept the A’s in one of the most surprising World Series results ever. We can only hope that won’t be the case here, but unless Carlos Rodon can be excellent Saturday night, and the Yankees stop playing like bumbling fools, and the manager learns how to read a room, I fear this World Series might be heading the same way as 1988.

Here are my observations:

➤ Let’s start from the top here. Gerrit Cole was great, and Boone’s buffoonery began in the bottom of the seventh when he took him out at 88 pitches because Teoscar Hernandez led off with a single. In what universe was it a good idea to lift Cole - who to that point had allowed one run on four hits with no walks, and was leading in the game 2-1 - and replace him with Clay Holmes? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

➤ “I thought Gerrit was really good,” Boone said. “I thought he did a good job of establishing his fastball and then starting to mix as the game unfolded a little bit. I thought he got a little bit taxed there. The last probably 20, 30 pitches, I thought he kind of grinded a little bit.” It’s Game 1 of the World Series, he was at 88 pitches, he was fine, Cole I’m sure told Boone he was fine, and still, off he walked, probably pissed beyond belief.

➤ Holmes immediately hit Max Muncy with a pitch, then was given a gift when Kike Hernandez sacrificed the runners to second and third, a free out. And then he got another gift when Will Smith swung at the first pitch and popped out, so the runners couldn’t advance. Thankfully, his night was done before anything else could happen, and Tommy Kahnle came in and got Gavin Lux to ground out to end the threat.

➤ OK, so to backtrack, this is how we got to 2-1 Yankees at the start of the eighth. Cole worked around some worrisome hard contact in the first, and he survived the Yankees’ first big miscue when Verdugo turned Freeman’s double into a trouble when the ball got past him. But in the fifth, he wasn’t as fortunate. Kike Hernandez hit a liner to right and Juan Soto made a bad play thinking he could catch it. He had no chance and should have pulled up and kept the ball in front of him for probably a double. Instead, once it got past him, he couldn’t stop his momentum and by the time he tracked the ball down, Hernandez was on third. He then scored on Smith’s sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.

➤ In the sixth, Soto led off with a single and after watching Judge strike out for the third time, Giancarlo Stanton stepped in and delivered another Stantonian blast, a mammoth two-run homer off Jack Flaherty, pretty much the only mistake he made, and suddenly it was 2-1. It’s simply unbelievable what Stanton is doing in this postseason, and he came so close to producing the only damaging hit the Yankees should have needed.

➤ Here, it should have been more, but the Yankees’ never-ending failure with runners in scoring position killed them. Jazz Chisholm, who actually helped the Yankees in this game, singled and stole second off lefty Anthony Banda. Anthony Volpe was intentionally walked because useless Austin Wells was up, but Wells at least hit a grounder up the middle that would have scored Chisholm had it gotten through, but shortstop Tommy Edman made fantastic play to to keep it to an infield single. Alas, with the bases loaded, Verdugo whiffed, leaving three huge runs on the bases, a total that reached 11 as the Yankees finished 1-for-8 with RISP.

➤ Judge singled in the seventh. Sure didn’t make up for his first three at bats, or his last in the ninth when he failed with two men on base with an inning-ending meak pop fly. If he doesn’t start hitting, none of this matters because the Yankees can’t win the series with his version of helpless, clueless postseason Judge.

➤ More Yankees’ stupidity allowed the Dodgers to tie the game in the eighth. With one out, Ohtani crushed another Kahnle changeup - the only damn pitch he can throw. And then the follies began. Soto played it off the wall, couldn’t get the ball out of his glove, and when he did his throw wasn’t great. Still, any MLB second baseman would have handled the one-hopper and Ohtani would have stayed at second. Instead, Gleyber Torres picked that moment to be knucklehead Torres as the ball bounced off his glove and Ohtani sprinted to third. Just an inexcusable, killer mistake that was every bit as responsible for the loss as Cortes’ meatball to Freeman. “I feel like if I glove that ball, maybe nothing happens,” Torres said. “Difficult bounce. I’m just trying to cover the cutoff and realized the ball was back to Soto really quick, and just tried to get back to the base and make a tag.”

➤ Luke Weaver came in and naturally, Betts - who spent years torturing the Yankees when he played for the Red Sox - came through with a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

➤ After Judge failed in the ninth, Weaver was great as he went 1-2-3 so it was on to the 10th where the Yankees took the lead thanks to Chisholm. He singled, then stole two bases and eventually scored the go-ahead run when Edman couldn’t handle Volpe’s grounder up the middle. And, as Boone loves to say, now it was right in front of the Yankees. It was right there, and they blew it.

➤ Weaver had thrown only 19 pitches, so there was no reason to take him out, not when you had a chance to close it out. But Boone went to Jake Cousins who got the first out, but then walked No. 8 hitter Gavin Lux, and right there you knew it was trouble. Next, Edman hit a grounder to second - where Oswaldo Cabrera was now playing because Boone pinch ran for Torres after his double in the ninth. Cabrera couldn’t make the play, and that set the stage for the finish. In came Cortes, and there went the game

➤ “I think if I make my pitch there, obviously it’s a different result,” Cortes said in perhaps the dumbest no-shit moment of his meeting with reporters. “I didn’t stay on the field long enough to think about it or see him run the bases. I just walked in, kind of turned the page right there and then. If I wasn’t ready enough and I wasn’t healthy enough, I would not have done it. And they wouldn’t have allowed me. So I think we’re in a good spot. I’ll get another opportunity. We’ve got to win four games in this Series. It was right there on our fingertips, but we’re going to come back tomorrow strong.”

➤ The loss not only ruined Cole’s great performance, but sapped Stanton of his huge moment. “You never want that ending,” Stanton said. “We’ve taken blows this postseason, but not at this level of stakes. No one said it’s going to be easy.”

➤ Ominous for the Yankees, the winner of World Series Game 1 has gone on to win 75 of the prior 119 series (63%), including 23 of the last 29. Yeah, it’s already a huge moment to climb because they blew this game in so many ways.