World Series Game Two: Disorder in the Court

An immense number of Yankees fans were left in anger, despair, and panic after the walk-off grand slam was hit by Freddie Freeman. Not this Yankees fan. It's only one game in a best-of-seven. In 2009, the Yankees lost Game One of that year's World Series. What happened? We won four of the next five games. It's not the end of the world, Yankees fans. Game Two is a perfect opportunity to even this thing up heading back to The Bronx.

After player intros, the anthem, and known Dodgers fan Ice Cube revving up the LA crowd with his greatest hits, Game Two was underway. It was Carlos Rodon on the mound for the Yankees against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yankees did have a good opportunity. Gleyber Torres walked, ended up on 2nd after a Juan Soto groundout, and then, Aaron Judge came up. This was his first chance to get something going. Strike out. Giancarlo Stanton grounded out, and that ended it. Rodon did shut down the Dodgers in the bottom half of the first, but the second inning wasn't as successful. Tommy Edman, the MVP of this year's NLCS, struck first with a solo shot and that made it 1-0 for the Blue Crew.

However, in the top of the third, Soto delivered his own shot to tie it up. I'm dead serious, Yankees. Pay that man! So there was momentum on our side. That went away quick. Rodon's inability to find the strike zone resulted in Mookie Betts singling, and after that, Teoscar Hernandez homered. Later on, Freddie Freeman liked homering in this Series so much, that he decided to do it again. It was 4-1 Dodgers after the third inning. That score lasted for a good bit, and we would see a bit of an injury scare late in the game, as Shohei Ohtani appeared to have injured his shoulder or his wrist after he was caught stealing.

The 4-1 score remained in the ninth inning, it was the chance for the Yankees. Soto led off with a single, and then Judge came up. Wild pitch sent Soto to 2nd. Judge was 0/3, he had struck out twice. I said, "Judge is about to cut it to one." As I said that with external confidence, on the inside, I was begging for something, anything for Judge. And then... he struck out swinging. More on Judge later. So Stanton comes up, he singles, and it's 4-2. Tying run at the plate in the form of Jazz Chisholm, Jr. Single. Anthony Rizzo comes up. Hit by pitch (second time in this game). Bases loaded. Volpe comes up. A hit can tie it. Struck out swinging at a terrible pitch. Dodgers changed pitchers, and we change batters. Jose Trevino's in for the struggling Austin Wells. One pitch, pop up. Game over.

You know what really hurts me as a Yankees fan right now? It's not the loss, there was potential there. It's not that we're down 2-0 in this thing. The one thing that really hurts me about this is that Aaron Judge, our leader, and my favorite player, has been very disappointing. I'm getting flashbacks to two years ago involving another sport and another Aaron currently playing in New York. The 2021 Divisional Playoff: Niners/Packers at Lambeau. Rodgers throw one killer TD pass, and did nothing else while the defense I had been begging for YEARS to do something, had been kicking major ass and made no mistakes. I'm getting that familiar feeling with Judge, who has one hit so far in this Series, and hasn't had a good postseason. Now, I took that as a positive for the rest of the team; we made it this far without Judge really contributing. Even so, our big man needs to do something, because he's getting A-Rod comparisons when it comes to postseason play.

The Dodgers are now two wins away from their eighth World Championship; a title they need to destroy the question marks about their current run. We've seen the side eyes given to that 2020 championship, and they have increased with each failure in the last three seasons. In World Series history, the team up 2-0 has gone on to win the Series 80% of the time--45 out of 56 occurrences. Here's the thing. One of the 11 times where the 2-0 leader lost? 1996. We all know what happened that year: Yankees lost the first two games, won the next four.

As an immensely iconic Yankee, who won ten of these things as a player, once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over.

Game Three is Monday in The Bronx.

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