NEW YORK -- For the eighth time is franchise history, the Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions. The Dodgers came back to defeat the New York Yankees in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night (LA 7, NY 6) to clinch the title. It is their second championship in five years and their seventh since leaving Brooklyn in 1958.
Los Angeles erased a 5-0 deficit thanks to some incredibly sloppy play by the Yankees in the fifth inning, then rallied against New York's bullpen in the eighth inning to take the lead. Game 3 starter Walker Buehler came out of the bullpen to get the save in Game 5. Here is the final out of the 2024 season:
Here now are some takeaways from the Game 5 win.
1. The Yankees struck early
You could see it coming. Aaron Judge drew a walk and squared up a ball in Game 3. He walked, singled, and reached base three times in Game 4. The at-bats were starting to get better and more competitive. On Jack Flaherty's tenth pitch in Game 5, Judge sent a loud two-run home run into the right-field seats, giving the Yankees an early 2-0 lead.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a solo homer, giving Yankees back-to-back homers in the World Series for the first time since Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson in Game 5 in 1977, coincidentally enough also against the Dodgers. Alex Verdugo plated a run with a single in the second inning, and Giancarlo Stanton homered in the third to give New York a seemingly comfortable 5-0 lead.
That was Stanton's second home run of the World Series and his seventh of the postseason. He has 18 career postseason home runs, third most in Yankees' history behind Bernie Williams (22) and Derek Jeter (20). Williams and Jeter both had more than three times as many plate appearances as Stanton. Stanton is, truly, one of the greatest postseason power hitters ever.
2. New York's defense unraveled
It has been a theme throughout the World Series and the postseason, and really the entire season. The Yankees are a talented team, for sure, but they're also very sloppy, undisciplined, and fundamentally unsound. They run the bases poorly and to call them error-prone would be an understatement. The Yankees are simply terrible at the so-called little things.
In the top of the fifth inning, New York's sketchy defense forced Gerrit Cole, who cruised through four innings, to get six outs, and when you give a team as good as the Dodgers three -- three! -- extra outs, you're going to pay. Judge dropped a routine fly ball in center, Anthony Volpe's throw to third base was poor, and Cole didn't bother to cover first base. Three outs not made.
The Dodgers of course capitalized. A run scored when Cole didn't cover first. World Series MVP Freddie Freeman singled in two runs. Then Teoscar Hernández deposited a poorly located two-out, two-strike cutter into center field for a game-tying two-run double. The sloppy Yankees showed up and the Dodgers did what champions do. New York's 5-0 lead was gone.
There is plenty of blame to go around there. Judge, Volpe, Cole, even Anthony Rizzo for not charging the Mookie Betts ground ball more aggressively. It was a complete and total breakdown. Bad outfield defense, bad infield defense, and some bad pitches too. The Yankees kept trying to pound Freeman inside with fastballs and he keeps turning around. They've refused to adjust.
All five runs that inning were unearned, leaving Cole with a very unusual pitching line: 6 ⅔ IP, 4 H, 5 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K on a season-high 108 pitches. Cole took a no-hitter into the fifth inning! He pitched very well in every inning except the fifth, but that one counts, so five (unearned) runs are on his ledger. Mostly though, blame the defense. The Yankees constantly make life hard on themselves. In Game 5, that meant giving the Dodgers a six-out inning.
3. The Dodgers completed the comeback
Los Angeles rallied twice in Game 5. They erased a 5-0 deficit in the fifth inning thanks to a comedy of errors. Then, after the Yankees regained the lead on a Stanton sac fly in the seventh, the Dodgers went to work on the bullpen. They opened the eighth inning with two singles and a walk against Tommy Kahnle, loading the bases with zero outs. The Dodgers were in business.
At that point, Yankees manager Aaron Boone had no choice but to go to closer Luke Weaver. The season was on the line and he needed his best on the mound. Weaver threw 21 pitches in Game 4 and was pitching for the third straight day for the first time in 2024. Honestly, he did well to limit the damage to two runs. Gavin Lux and Betts brought the two runs home on sac flies.
New York's sloppy defense reared its ugly head during that eighth inning. Catcher Austin Wells was charged with catcher interference against Shohei Ohtani -- Ohtani's swing hit his glove -- which sent an injured Ohtani to first and brought Betts to the plate with the bases loaded. Mookie then lifted what proved to be the World Series-winning sac fly to center field.
Ohtani had a rough World Series and grimaced every time he took a swing. He hurt his left shoulder in Game 2 and clearly isn't 100%. The catcher interference took the bat out of injured Ohtani's hands, brought Mookie the plate, and the Dodgers took it from there. The Yankees made every mistake in the book and the Dodgers took advantage every single time.
4. Treinen got the 'save'
Officially, Buehler got the save. The Game 3 starter came out of the bullpen in Game 5 to slam the door on the Yankees. Blake Treinen got the game's most important outs though. He got seven outs spanning the sixth to eighth innings, his longest outing since 2016. Treinen struck out Anthony Rizzo to end the eighth inning with two runners on base.
If the Yankees were going to get back into Game 5, that was the inning. They had the top of the order up against Treinen in his third inning of work. The Yankees did put traffic on the bases, but Treinen struck out Rizzo, and the Yankees never had another baserunner on the season. Flaherty went 1 ⅓ innings in Game 5. The bullpen then kept the Yankees at bay and gave the offense a chance to get back in the game (and the Yankees to shoot themselves in the foot).
5. Up next
The World Series parade for the Dodgers and the offseason for everyone. Trades resume Thursday and free agency opens Monday. The next four months will be chock full of trades and free-agent signings (and hot stove rumors) that reshape the league's competitive landscape heading into spring training. For now, the Dodgers are champs, and soon the other 29 teams will get to work trying to dethrone them.
