Dodgers on the brink of World Series win after going up 3-0 on Yankees
Aaron Judges’ bat remained ice cold and the Dodgers took advantage as they now sit one win away from the franchises eighth World Series title.
Sports Pulse
NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers are nine innings away from a fourth and final champagne party – and the eighth World Series championship in franchise history.
They lead the New York Yankees 3-0 heading into Tuesday night’s Game 4, an edge that has proven insurmountable in the 120 years of the Fall Classic. In fact, 21 of 24 teams that have taken a 3-0 lead have closed it out with a sweep, most recently the 2012 San Francisco Giants.
The question is how much pride resides in the Yankees.
They’ve been punchless in the first three games, scoring just seven runs and getting shut out for the first 8 ⅔ innings of Game 3, before an Alex Verdugo two-run homer put some window dressing on a 4-2 loss. In Game 4, they’ll turn to reliable rookie Luis Gil against a bullpen game for the Dodgers.
That approach closed out the Dodgers’ last series, a six-game conquest of the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series. If Dodgers pitching is on point again, they’ll leave behind a champagne-soaked carpet in the Bronx and pack a shiny, flag-adorned trophy for the trip home.
– Gabe Lacques
Follow along for live updates from Tuesday’s Game 4:
Alex Verdugo and the New York Yankees cut the lead in half with a fielders choice in the bottom of the second of Game 4 of the World Series. And Los Angeles Dodgers rookie starter Ben Casparius did exactly what he was supposed, keep the game close and let the bullpen take over. Daniel Hudson takes the mound for the Dodgers in the third inning.
NEW YORK – No matter how expensive World Series tickets are, it does not afford fans the right to interfere with the field of play.
Nor pry the ball from Mookie Betts.
A pair of New York Yankees fans were escorted from their seats down the right field line after one was called for fan interference on a foul pop fly off the bat of New York Yankees leadoff batter Gleyber Torres in Game 4 of the World Series Tuesday night.
Right field umpire Mark Carlson immediately signaled fan interference. But that wasn’t the end of it.
A fan seated next to the one called for interference tried prying the ball out of Betts’ glove, a sheepish grin on his face. The other fan seemed to complain that the ball was within the seating area, and thus fair game.
Neither got a baseball nor won the argument. They were escorted from their seats quickly by stadium security.
NEW YORK – Freddie Freeman isn’t singlehandedly lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers to a World Series title. But this is about as close as one can get.
Freeman homered for the fourth consecutive game Tuesday, and for the second consecutive night, crushed a two-run, first inning home run to quiet the Yankee Stadium crowd before they could even settle.
This time, it was a 343-foot missile into the right field seats off right-hander Luis Gil’s slider, one at-bat after Mookie Betts doubled, and it gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.
It was also a record-setting sixth consecutive World Series game in which Freeman homered, dating to the 2021 World Series with Atlanta.
Now, the Dodgers are truly 27 outs away from a championship.
Five-time World Series champion Paul O’Neill threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 4. But the former All-Star outfielder airmailed former Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett behind the plate.
He asked for a re-do.
The second one bounced to Burnett.
Play Ball!
The Yankees are in a big hole, facing elimination down three-games-to-none to the Dodgers in the World Series.
Only one team has ever comeback from a three-games-to-none deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series − the 2004 Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series against the Yankees. And yes, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had a huge stolen base for the Red Sox in the ninth inning of Game 4 that changed the course of history.
But don’t ask him for any advice.
“Don’t talk about that,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 4-0 win in Game 3. “Wrong guy. Way too early.”
In World Series history, prior to this season, 24 teams went up three games to none, and 21 of them completed the sweep with a win in Game 4. The last team to force a Game 5 when down 3-0 in the World Series was the Cincinnati Reds in 1970 against the Baltimore Orioles.
What time is World Series game tonight?
First pitch is scheduled for 8:08 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday.
- Location: Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York
- Date: Tuesday, Oct. 29
- Time: 8:08 p.m. ET
World Series TV channel tonight
- Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
- Mookie Betts (R) RF
- Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
- Teoscar Hernández (R) LF
- Max Muncy (L) 3B
- Enrique Hernández (R) CF
- Gavin Lux (L) 2B
- Will Smith (R) C
- Tommy Edman (S) SS
- Gleyber Torres (R) 2B
- Juan Soto (L) RF
- Aaron Judge (R) CF
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L) 3B
- Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH
- Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B
- Anthony Volpe (R) SS
- Austin Wells (L) C
- Alex Verdugo (L) LF
NEW YORK – They are playing a baseball game between the lines but staging an assault on the senses between every pitch, every inning, every sustainable break in the action in this World Series.
Be it celebrity pleas for more noise from Ken Jeong in Los Angeles to Flavor Flav in the Bronx, or blaring sirens and pounding organs, Yankee Stadium and its Dodger counterpart crank the volume to 11, ostensibly to engage the masses and fill in the gaps in a game that can provide many of them.
But Monday night, in Game 3 of the World Series, the Yankees’ continued futility inspired another, far different aural sensation.Silence.
After a 15-year wait, World Series baseball returned to Yankee Stadium, and 49,368 fans jammed into the ballpark, eager for an electric moment, the kind that inspired an average price of nearly $2,000 on the resale market.
But the Yankees again proved incapable of providing juice organically, their high-priced lineup reduced to a series of flails and fails – and now this World Series is on the verge of ending almost as quickly as it began.
NEW YORK — Freddie Freeman, who needs nearly five hours of treatment each day for his badly sprained ankle, may not have the luxury of using ice when he arrives Tuesday night for Game 4 of the World Series. The Dodgers will need all of that ice to assure they keep those hundreds of bottles of champagne and beer cans cold for the raucous celebration they’re planning.
The Dodgers are on the brink of capturing the World Series title after beating the New York Yankees once again Monday, 4-2, in front of a subdued crowd at Yankee Stadium. A sweep provides them more time to get ready for their first World Series parade since 1988.“We want that parade,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We never got a chance to celebrate with the city of Los Angeles. That’s something of incentive.
“But outside of that, you have an opportunity to be a world champion. So, we’re right there. That’s more than enough incentive and motivation.”
Freeman doesn’t need the motivation. What he’s doing now, night after night, homer after homer on baseball’s biggest stage, is cementing a legacy that may never be forgotten in Dodgers history.
NEW YORK – Aaron Boone has tinkered with his lineup a bit, but probably not how Yankees Universe envisioned.
Going into a potential-elimination World Series Game 4 against the Dodgers on Tuesday night, the Yankees’ manager has slid Giancarlo Stanton out of the cleanup spot.
Stanton is batting fifth, with lefty-hitting Jazz Chisholm Jr. moved up to No. 4, after the slumping Aaron Judge – just 1-for-12 in the Series, with a single and seven strikeouts. Lefty-hitting Austin Wells is back in the lineup at catcher, instead of Jose Trevino, with the Dodgers planning a bullpen game to clinch a world championship at Yankee Stadium.
“I was going to do it (in Game 3),” Boone said of sliding Stanton down one spot. “But with (Game 4) being a bullpen day, I just wanted to create as much balance as I could. And this is more in line with, kind of, the lineup I’ve had all year,” said Boone. “We’re rolling with what got us here.”
As for considering any other lineup changes, Boone said he thought about moving Judge up to the leadoff spot, “but then I’m moving Gleyber (Torres) out of there (and he’s) been our catalyst this whole postseason.
“At the end of the day, it’s Aaron Judge, and his greatness I trust is going to show up” in the No. 3 spot, said Boone.
– Pete Caldera, NorthJersey.com
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