The East and West rivalry from the most iconic American cities has taken over the Major League Baseball postseason for the 12th time in the championship series, as the New York Yankees take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in a best-of-seven game for the title.
This is the Yankees’ first appearance in the World Series since 2009. After missing the postseason the previous year, the Yanks made a lot of moves during the offseason to acquire Juan Soto from San Diego, a player who holds a lot of potential to make the Hall-of-Fame. They later brought utility player Jazz Chisholm Jr. from Miami to fill the hole at third base.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles spent over $1 billion on players. The Dodgers signed highly sought-after Nippon Professional League pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and arguably the greatest player the game has ever seen—Shohei Ohtani.
These acquisitions made both teams No.1 in their respective leagues. They battled to the World Series, New York going through an American League Central gauntlet with Kansas City and Cleveland. Los Angeles fought their rival San Diego and the Grimmace-lead New York Mets, leading to a match-up that has not happened since 1981.
“I always look at sports betting, you look at the money line and the negative,” said Cullen Wallace, an economics professor. “That’s the one usually favored to win.”
Looking at the odds before game one, the Los Angeles Dodgers were slightly favored over the Yankees.
Game one began at Dodger Stadium, starting with a pitching duel between Gerrit Cole and Jack Flaherty. The Dodgers led off the scoring in the fifth with a Will Smith sacrifice fly, scoring Kike Hernandez, in which the Yankees responded in the following inning with a Giancarlo Stanton two-run home run.
The Dodgers tied it back up in the eighth with a second sac fly, pushing the game to extras. The Yankees scraped up a run in the top half. Still, the Dodgers could put together a rally to have runners on first and second with one out, forcing Yankee manager Aaron Boone’s hand, to which he gave the ball to Nestor Cortes Jr., who had not pitched in over a month.
After grabbing an out versus Ohtani on a play by left fielder Alex Verdugo, New York elected to walk Betts to load the bases for first baseman Freddie Freeman. 36 years and 10 days prior, Kirk Gibson hit a walk-off home run in game one of the 1988 World Series; Freeman duplicated that all-time moment and even stepped it up with the first-ever walk-off grand slam in World Series history. The final score was 6-3, Dodgers win.
In game two, starting pitcher Yamamoto shut down the Yankees’ offense, limiting them to one run in his six and a third innings of work. At the same time, Carlos Rodon struggled, pitching on three and third innings, giving up three home runs, one to NLCS MVP Tommy Edman, one to Teoscar Hernández, and one to Freddie Freeman. The final score was 4-2, with the Dodgers winning.
The series headed to the Bronx, and the Yankees looked to grab their first win of the series. However, Freddie Freeman had other plans, hitting a first-inning home run, silencing the New York crowd and hitting his third World Series home run in as many games.
The Yankees were again shut down by the Dodgers starting pitcher, this time Walker Buehler, who threw 5 scoreless innings against the Yankees. The final score was 4-2, Dodgers win.
With the 3-0 lead for the Dodgers and only in the pennant series, the Yankees had a lot of work to do. Luis Gil started the game for New York, with Los Angeles going for a bullpen game.
Once again, the game did not start on the right foot for the Yankees, with Freddie Freeman hitting his fourth home run of the series. However, things quickly turned around for the Yankees, with bases loaded and down one run in the third inning, the 23-year-old shortstop Anthony Volpe would go on to hit a grand slam to give New York their first lead since game one.
The game became much closer, with the Dodgers coming within one run of tying it in the fifth; however, the Yankees bats started to heat up against the Dodgers bullpen, marking the scoreboard with double digits in the eighth. The final score was 11-4, Yankees win
After New York’s performance in game four, a comeback was possible. The Dodgers sent out Jack Flaherty, and the Yankees went with Gerrit Cole.
The Bronx crowd was roaring as the Yankees scored five unanswered runs through the first four innings off of home runs from Jazz Chisholm Jr., Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. It all went downhill in the top of the fifth with the Yankees making error after error allowing for five unearned runs for Los Angeles.
Each team scored a run via a fly ball caught in the outfield, and then, Mookie Betts hit a sac fly with the game tied 6-6, scoring the go-ahead run. The final score was 7-6, and the Dodgers won the World Series.
Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman, who slashed an impressive .300/.364/1.000 with four home runs and 12 runs batted in
“I thought the Yankees were going to win,” said Gabe Weurth, a junior infielder for the GCSU Bobcats baseball team. “But I might be a little biased since I’m a Yankee fan.”
Weurth explained what key players he believed would influence the World Series outcome; however, he made sure to specify one player’s skill set he wished to add to his own.
“Soto’s approach of the plate is just great,” Weurth said. “He sees a lot of pitches, and he really only swings out pictures in the zone.”
Soto is arguably the best player in the sport in walking—getting on base without a hit—with a walk percentage over double the average hitter.
With Major League Baseball coming and going, the offseason has just begun meaning many new chances for other teams to make the next step toward the playoffs. The countdown has now officially begun, and it lasts until opening day, with the first series being held in Tokyo Japan Mar. 18-19, and for the rest of baseball on Mar. 27.
