The fifth inning of Game 5 of the 2024 World Series is one that Yankees fans will want to completely erase from their memories but, at the same time, it will be tattooed onto the backs of their eyelids for the foreseeable future.
It’s still pretty unbelievable.
A Kiké Hernández leadoff single, followed by three successive errors (well, technically two, capped off with a truly embarrassing forgetfulness of fundamentals from Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rizzo that allowed the bases to stay loaded) led to a stunning Dodgers rally that eventually won them the whole thing.
Well, it might’ve been surprising for anyone who wasn’t plugged into the Yankees’ season, but according to Joel Sherman, it wasn’t at all surprising to the Dodgers.
In a new column for the New York Post, Sherman completely exposes the Yankees’ top-to-bottom failure not only during that inning, but throughout the season.
He wrote, “What the Dodgers told their players in scouting meetings was the Yankees were talent over fundamentals. That if you run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees will self-inflict harm.”
That’s how the Dodgers ran away with a World Series championship despite having a lower team batting average, fewer home runs, and fewer runs overall than the Yankees. They just had to wait for the Yankees to self-inflict harm.
https://t.co/C5Vk3pRJsk In the World Series, the Dodgers knew who the Yankees were — and capitalized on it.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) October 31, 2024
Joel Sherman’s World Series column reveals fundamental issues with the Yankees’ play and how the Dodgers capitalized
To add insult to injury, Sherman writes that the Dodgers were “thrilled” about what their scouting reports told them about how the Yankees played the game.
Thrilled! But these weren’t things they even had to dig for; rather, these were things that were on clear display through the entirety of the Yankees’ season. Short leads from first, laziness on relay throws, Jazz Chisholm misplaying his position.
The Dodgers wanted to see the Yankees in the World Series, because they knew exactly how they were going to screw it all up, and the rest of the lineup just had to come through when it happened.
All it took to stick Cole with five unearned runs was a single for Freddie Freeman and a double for Teoscar Hernández.
Two sac flies were all they needed to tie the game again and then win it.
Yankees fans are probably hopeful that this will be the wake up call their team needs to actually … get better at the basics of their jobs? For Dodgers fans, it’s just another punctuation mark for a tremendous season.
