Aaron Judge owns costly fifth-inning error in Yankees’ World Series loss: ‘I gotta make the play’

Gerrit Cole and the Yankees appeared to be cruising their way to a Game 5 World Series victory.

After jumping out to an early lead against Jack Flaherty and the Dodgers’ bullpen, the Bombers were carrying a 5-0 advantage into the top of the fifth with their ace on the mound in the midst of a no-hitter.

Cole was in complete control from the get-go — but then things quickly changed.

After Kike Hernandez singled to right for the Dodgers’ first hit of the game, Tommy Edman lined what appeared to be a routine flyout to Aaron Judge, but the star outfielder botched it for his first error of the season to put runners on first and second.

A few pitches later, New York committed another costly mistake as shortstop Anthony Volpe tried to throw out Hernandez at third on a grounder in the hole, but a throw in the dirt loaded the bases with nobody out.

Cole bounced back nicely to strike out the next two batters, but his own mental mistake proved costly next, as Mookie Betts drove in the Dodgers’ first run of the game when the right-hander forgot to cover the bag on a groundball to first.

And then World Series MVP Freddie Freeman and clean-up hitter Teoscar Hernandez were sure to make him pay, as they evened things up at five apiece with back-to-back run scoring hits.

“That comes back to me, I gotta make that play,” Judge said postgame. “You can’t give a team like the Dodgers extra outs, they’ll take advantage of it. That line drive coming in, I misplay that, then the other two happen. If that doesn’t happen it could be a completely different story.”

The Yanks ended up fighting back to jump in front just an inning later as Cole continued chucking, but after Los Angeles scratched across two more runs in the top of the eighth against the exhausted bullpen, those fifth-inning miscues ended up being the biggest what-ifs of the game.

“Falling short in the World Series will stick with me until I die,” Judge said. “Just like every other loss those things don’t go away, they’re battle scars along the way. Hopefully when my career is over we have a lot of battle scars but also a lot of victories along the way.”