The Yankees dropped Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, which ended their 2024 season – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
BRONX, NY — The odds of overcoming an 0-3 deficit in the World Series were against the Yankees. The Dodgers were looking to wrap up their second World Series championship in five years and the Yankees were looking to extend this series to a sixth game in Los Angeles Friday evening.
Odds were against the Yankees in their quest to become the first team in World Series history that would overcome a 0-3 deficit and take the series into a Game 6. The Yankees got three home runs in the first five innings, good enough for a 5-0 lead.
But three errors, stranding 12 runners on base again became part of their albatross, a characteristic of this Yankees team in 2024. Despite an American League best record and winning their 41st pennant the season to the Yankees was a disappointment.
This team was built to win, the home run ball with presumed AL MVP Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and a trade with the Padres delivered Juan Soto in the walk year of a contract. Soto now will test free agency with agent Scott Boras, awaiting highest bidders in what is anticipated to be a lucrative contract in the range of $600 million or more.
The Yankees now for 15 consecutive years are not World Series champions, longest drought in franchise history after their 7-6 loss in front of 49,263 fans. This new version of Yankee Stadium saw a team in 2009 win their 27th World Series title.
They haven’t won another championship since then though they were making this series interesting. A fight kept them believing they would overcome and achieve history, though that last Yankees championship team was better with the fundamentals. The flaws in Game 5 continued as they were adamant about keeping up the fight.
The Dodgers erased that five-run deficit and World Series MVP Freddie Freeman delivered again with a two-run single in the fifth inning. The Yankees infield with three errors, ace Gerrit Cole on the mound and five runs unearned.
“They were the better team this series but it doesn’t take away my pride in what that group forged this year in what we did try to get here,” said manager Aaron Boone. “I’m heartbroken, we put so much into this. The ending is cruel it always is. I haven’t had that feeling of not celebrating and going home.”
Boone was also on the Yankees 2003 AL pennant winning team that lost to the Marlins in the World Series, a celebration again that took place on Yankees turf in the Bronx.
Boone congratulated the Dodgers, a team finishing with the best record in the National League, battling adversity with injuries to three-thirds of their starting pitching rotation.
“This will sting forever,” he said, referring to getting to this point. He was fighting off tears and showing emotion of the World Series loss, his first as a manager.
However, those flaws of this Yankees team were evident this season, despite their success in getting to Game 5. It seemed to haunt them in this pivotal elimination game.
Now, a Yankees offseason full of decisions, with various free agents, including Soto, who they, like many other organizations, plan to go for in a high-bidding war. The Dodgers celebrate their eighth championship and await a parade in downtown Los Angeles.
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and contributor at LatinoSports.com – X (Twitter) @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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