This didn’t happen in Derek Jeter’s era.
In an inning that featured two errors on routine plays and another crushing gaffe, the Yankees blew a five-run lead to the Dodgers en route to a 7-6 defeat in an embarrassing close to their season.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever quite seen an inning like this, especially in a World Series or postseason game.” the Yankees legend said from Yankee Stadium on Fox’s postgame show.
“The Yankees made some mistakes, you can’t make mistakes against a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers. In that particular inning, you gave them six outs.”
The first was a Tommy Edman fly ball hit right to Aaron Judge in center field, who just flat-out dropped the ball to get Los Angeles started and put runners on first and second with no outs.
The next batter, Will Smith, hit a grounder to Anthony Volpe, who attempted to get the lead runner at third base instead of taking the out at second base or first base.
Volpe spiked his throw to Jazz Chisholm, who could not corral the ball, allowing all runners to be safe.
With the bases loaded and no one out, starting pitcher Gerrit Cole dug deep and struck out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani to flirt with getting out of the inning.
Mookie Betts then hit a grounder to first base that seemed like it should have ended the frame.
Anthony Rizzo stayed back on the ball, though, and Cole did not cover the bag after stopping his run toward the bag.
What would’ve been the final out became the first run scored for Los Angeles.
World Series MVP Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run single before Teoscar Hernandez lined a game-tying two-run double off the wall.
Jeter’s ex-Yankees teammate Alex Rodriguez, who was a part of the 2004 Yankees which blew a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox, added on the telecast that while Cole pitched great, he was not the story.
“This is one of the greatest meltdowns that I’ve ever seen in 40 years,” Rodriguez said as the Yankees failed to become the first team down 3-0 in the World Series to force a Game 6.
Judge told reporters that the fly ball might’ve been the difference in the game, but didn’t say why he dropped the ball.
“That doesn’t happen, I think we got a different story tonight,” Judge said. “I just didn’t make it.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone also said he was “heartbroken” over the defensive miscues that ended their season.
With the year over and the sourest of tastes in their mouth, the Yankees have tons of question marks to answer this winter.
The offseason begins as star outfielder Juan Soto heads to free agency and he said that the Yankees do not have the edge when it comes to re-signing him.
“I feel every team has the same opportunity,” Soto said. “I don’t want to say anybody has an advantage.”
