Thoughts after Game 2 of the 2024 World Series

These two games have been closer than the 2-0 series deficit may lead you to believe, but it is indeed a 2-0 series deficit. The Yankees lost Game 2 by the score of 4-2 on Saturday night and now must beat the best team in baseball four times in the next five games to win the World Series. If it makes you feel better, the last two times the Yankees and Dodgers met in the World Series (1978 and 1981), the home team won Games 1 and 2, then the other team won the next four. The 1996 Yankees are the last team to erase a 2-0 series deficit in the World Series. Good omen? It better be.

1. The fake ninth inning comeback. I suppose it’s better the Yankees went down fighting rather than continuing to roll over – 16 of 17 Yankees made outs between Juan Soto’s third inning solo homer and Soto’s leadoff single in the ninth – but in the end, a loss is a loss. They stranded the bases loaded in the ninth. The Dodgers got a walk-off grand slam in that spot in Game 1. The Yankees got a routine fly ball to center.

“In a game where we really got shut down there in the middle innings, our compete to the very end was really good,” Aaron Boone said. "We gave ourselves a chance to get right back in it and even win that game off a very good reliever. I loved the at-bats there at the end, the compete, the fight.”

I want to touch on a few things in that ninth inning, so I’m going to annotate the play-by-play:

(1) The Yankees forced Blake Treinen to throw 22 pitches to get four outs across two innings in Game 1, and because Evan Phillips is not on the roster, the Dodgers had to go back to Treinen in Game 2. Treinen and Phillips are their trusted righties, and with Phillips unavailable, they had to go back to Treinen for the second straight day against the top of the lineup. He was not sharp, retiring only two of the six batters he faced. Keep working the bullpen and Treinen in particular. It’ll take its toll and pay dividends later (I hope).

(2) I just don’t see how the Yankees can afford to lose Juan Soto after the season. Scott Boras is going to have them over a barrel. The Mets are expected to make a serious run at Soto and Steve Cohen will keep raising the price. Whatever you think it’ll cost to re-sign Soto, double it. I’m not even sure I’m joking. His leverage is through the roof. He and Giancarlo Stanton could not possibly do any more for this team. Soto homered in the third – all four of his homers this postseason have either tied the game or given the Yankees the lead – and then singled off the wall to begin the ninth inning rally.

(3) I wrote a quick thing about Judge’s awful World Series at CBS, so I’m going to refer you to that. I will say that this ninth inning at-bat was Judge’s fifth with a runner(s) on base in the two games, and he is 0-for-5 with four strikeouts and an infield pop up. He doesn’t even need to hit a home run. Just hit a single man. Work a walk. Do something to keep the line moving. I’m going to say it again: The Yankees have no chance to beat the Dodgers without Judge contributing. It’s a 50/50 series if he contributes. Two games in, the odds are much lower.

"I definitely gotta step up. I gotta do my job,” Judge told Gary Phillips. “Guys around me are doing their job, getting out base. I'm failing backing them up. So we gotta turn around in Game 3."

(4) Even Stanton’s singles are scary. This was 97.9 mph rocket off the third base bag, and although that allowed Soto to scamper home, it was a bad thing overall. If the ball doesn’t hit the bag, it’s in the left field corner for a double (even with Stanton running). Instead, he had to hold at first base. The Yankees did eventually load the bases, so maybe it didn’t matter, but who knows how things play out if Stanton is at second rather than first.

Also, am I crazy or should the Yankees have pinch-run for Stanton? He was not the tying run, but still. Pinch-running gives you a better chance to avoid a double play, to advance on a wild pitch (Soto moved up on a wild pitch earlier in the inning), etc. Stanton’s run doesn’t matter but his out does. You’ve gotta give yourself the best chance to advance to the next base. With any other runner, this isn’t a big deal, but it’s Giancarlo. I love the guy, but he can’t run.

(5) What a great at-bat by Jazz Chisholm Jr., who’s looked really good these last two games. Jazz fell behind in the count 1-2, fouled away two pitches, worked it back to 3-2, then scooped a slider into right field for his third hit of the series. Chisholm’s had a base postseason overall (.186/.239/.279) but he’s had two nice games against the Dodgers. Two bad they’ve come in losses.

(6) Anthony Volpe, on the other hand, had an awful at-bat. It was a vintage Volpe at-bat and I don’t mean that in a good way. He went back to his hacktastic, chase everything out of the zone ways. There’s one pitch in the zone here, possibly two, yet Volpe swung at four of six pitches and chased a sweeper way out of the zone for strike three and the second out. 

Brutal. Noncompetitive. Volpe is 0-for-8 with a walk and four strikeouts in the World Series. As good as he was in the ALDS and ALCS, these two games have been enough to drag his postseason batting line down to .243/.391/.270. It’s hard to be a good hitter without any slug. That’s the difference in the series right now. The Dodgers are hitting the ball out of the park twice as often as the Yankees.

(7) Look at this pitch. Trevino got a middle-middle get-me-over 93.4 mph fastball on the first pitch, and he hit routine a fly ball to center that had a .140 expected batting average.

What an indictment of the roster construction that Trevino was the best option to pinch-hit for Austin Wells against a lefty with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a World Series game. Trevino doesn’t even hit lefties well. He slashed .189/.282/.344 (80 wRC+) against them during the regular season. The options at that point were:

• Trevino, who is now 5-for-44 (.114) since coming off the injured list in August.

• Jasson Domínguez on his weaker side of the plate (.185/.264/.246 vs. LHP in Triple-A).

• Trent Grisham, who hasn’t had an at-bat in a month and didn’t have his usual reverse split in 2024 (74 wRC+ vs. LHP and 96 wRC+ vs. RHP).

Oswaldo Cabrera, a switch-hitter who doesn’t know which side of the plate he’s going to hit against a lefty when he wakes up in the morning, was already in the game as a pinch-runner (for Rizzo). So that was it. The pinch-hitting options against lefty Alex Vesia with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning of a World Series game were Domínguez, Grisham, and Trevino. How awful. (A healthy Jon Berti isn't moving the needle either.)

I harped on this all summer. The Yankees had issues with lefties all year. I wrote how many times that they needed to bring in a righty bat at the deadline (Mark Canha was my pick), I wrote that they should have claimed guys on waivers in August. They never did. And this is the result. Trevino pinch-hitting in the highest leverage plate appearance of the season. A real thing the Yankees had to do.

The Yankees did half-a-job at the trade deadline. Chisholm has been good overall, but they whiffed on their two bullpen additions (Enyel De Los Santos and Mark Leiter Jr.), and they never did add a righty bat. They have five lefties in their regular lineup and no one to pinch-hit for the worn down rookie catcher or the useless Alex Verdugo. A failure by the front office, this is. Unreal that Game 2 came down to Trevino.

The ninth inning rally was Lucy holding the football. I got my hopes up but should have known better. Games 1 and 2 could have easily gone the other way, right? One mistake, one inch on the bat, it can change everything. Instead, the Dodgers got a walk-off grand slam from their Cooperstown bound first baseman in Game 1 while the Yankees got a lazy fly ball from their defense-first backup catcher.

2. Rapid fire thoughts. Weak outing from Carlos Rodón, who gave up three homers in the span of nine batters and almost completely unraveled in the third inning. After Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman hit the back-to-back homers, Tommy Edman doubled, and Rodón never bothered to check him back to the bag, so he stole third uncontested. He threw 38 fastballs, gave up three homers on the pitch, and got one swing and miss … Admit it, it’s at least a little funny Tim Hill got Freeman to pop up harmlessly after not facing him in Game 1. Hill could not come in for Freeman in Game 1 though because of the three-batter minimum. He would have had to come in to face Shohei Ohtani, which he should have. Anyway, great work by the bullpen Saturday (Jake Cousins, Hill, Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr.). They combined for 4.2 scoreless innings and give the offense a chance to get back into the game. I saw some folks wondering why the Yankees didn’t use Marcus Stroman, and the reason is down three runs is a close game. The Yankees can put three runs on the board in the blink of an eye. I know it doesn’t seem like they can right now, but they can. Use your good relievers to keep the game close, and the Yankees did. I have zero problems with the bullpen decisions in Game 2 … And finally, Ohtani exited Game 2 with a left shoulder subluxation suffered when he slid awkwardly on that seventh inning stolen base attempt. He went for an MRI and the Dodgers did not have an update immediately after the game. We might not know his status until they announce their lineup before Game 3. Shohei getting hurt would really, really suck. Him missing time would also be good for the Yankees as they try to make this series.