World Series Game Five: California Love

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, but, boy, did it look like the New York Yankees were set to prolong it.

The Yankees were on a big high after the Game Four win, which earned us one last home game this year. We became only the fourth team to force a Game Five after falling behind 3-0 in a World Series. No team ever forced a Game Six. It looked like we were on the verge of doing just that. The first inning saw Aaron Judge finally hit his first Fall Classic homer; a two run shot. Jazz Chisholm, Jr. also homered to make it 3-0. Later on, Alex Verdugo's RBI made it 4-0, and Giancarlo Stanton homered for the seventh time this postseason to make it 5-0.

Gerrit Cole was pitching a gem per usual. It definitely looked like we would be, in the immortal words of the late, great Notorious B.I.G., "Goin' back to Cali."

Then the fifth inning happened.

Kiké Hernandez singled. A Tommy Edman fly ball was dropped by Judge. A grounder hit to Anthony Volpe was tossed to Chisholm, and dropped. Bases loaded, no outs. Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani were outs. Mookie Betts was up. A grounder was hit to Anthony Rizzo, which would have ended the inning... except Cole didn't run to first to get the throw. Everyone's safe, shutout's gone. Freddie Freeman gets a hit to drive in two more, and Teoscar Hernandez drove in two more after that. Bases ended up reloaded, but the third out finally happens.

After all of that, it went from the Dodgers leading 5-0 to the game tied at 5. Worst of all, every single run was unearned, and they were all scored with two outs.

The Yankees got the lead back with a sac fly by Stanton, and it still looked like we would have a chance to extend this thing. However, the eighth inning saw back to back singles given up by Tommy Kahnle, and Will Smith walked. Bases loaded. Gavin Lux hits a sac fly to tie the game, Ohtani reaches on catcher's interference, and Betts hits a sac fly to give the Dodgers their first lead of the game. Even so, we had our best of the best up in the eighth. I figured that we'd get those runs back. Here's what happened, though. Juan Soto grounded out. Judge, after a long battle, doubled. Chisholm walked. This was it. All Stanton had to do was not do what I see a lot of batters do after walks: go after the first pitch. Sadly, he did just that. Popped up. Anthony Rizzo? Struck out. That was our best chance.

Nothing from the Dodgers in the ninth, but Walker Buehler entered in the bottom half of the ninth inning. Anthony Volpe grounded out, and Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo both struck out. That's all she wrote.

Unsurprisingly, Freddie Freeman was named World Series MVP, as he homered in every game in this Series except for Game Five. Freeman hit .300 in the Series and drove in 12 runs in the five games played, and with this win, he is now a two-time champion in his third season with the Dodgers, having been part of the 2021 Atlanta Braves championship run. Shohei Ohtani, the overall reason that the Dodgers got this far, did not have a spectacular World Series, but his first overall postseason was pretty good: .230 average, three homers, and 10 RBIs. Freeman finished with 13 total RBIs in this postseason, three behind Mookie Betts, who now has three championships in his career.

The Los Angeles Dodgers did it, folks. They won the World Series in five games over the New York Yankees. This team needed this. We, sadly, live in a society where if you win a championship in a shortened season, it doesn't count. If you win a championship in a season affected by COVID, it really doesn't count. The Dodgers last won the World Series in 2020, which (as a result of the pandemic's high height) was a 60-game season that featured a fully localized regular season schedule, and a four round postseason played in bubbles. The way I see it, a championship is a championship, but too many sports fans don't see it that way. They especially emphasized that when it came to the Dodgers, as they had blown some given opportunities entering that 2020 season. In fact, they were coming off losing the NLDS to, of all teams, the Washington Nationals.

While 2021 saw the Dodgers defeated in the NLCS, the bad NLDS losses in 2022 and 2023 resulted in jokes about 2020. People said all they wanted to say about 2020. "COVID Championship." "Mickey Mouse ring." "Didn't count; wouldn't have won in a full season." This championship shuts all of that down. It cost the Dodgers a lot of moolah, but in the end, it was worth the purchase. Dave Roberts has his second ring as Dodgers manager.

Now it's time to talk about my beloved Yankees.

I am not saddened by this. How could I be? This time last year, we were not in the World Series. Hell, we weren't even in the postseason. Yet one year after that, we came within three wins of #28. I am very, very happy with this season. I got to see the Yankees in the World Series for the first time in 15 years. I got to write about an ongoing Yankees World Series for the first time on Vocal. I got to see a Yankees/Dodgers World Series for the first time in my entire life. How can I not feel anything other than absolute happiness over this?

The outcome wasn't what I wanted, but even so, I got to drink this all in. Our postseason was amazing. Giancarlo Stanton proved those doubters wrong. Hell, Clay Holmes won three of our eight postseason games. Let that sink in. Juan Soto got us to this World Series with that big 10th inning home run. Aaron Judge's postseason wasn't that much fruitful, but he did give us some good moments. Overall, I am very, very grateful for this season.

Congratulations to the Dodgers for winning their 8th World Championship, and their 7th since moving to Los Angeles. Very well earned and very well deserved, indeed. As for the Yankees, we won our 41st pennant this year. #42 is coming next year, and we will turn that into #28. Count on it!

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